Image Courtesy of ny2007
This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
If you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type – Euro Game
Play Time: 40–60 minutes
Number of Players: 2–4
Mechanics v Action Points, Area Control/Influence, Pick-up & Deliver, Point to point movement, Set Collection
Difficulty – Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in 20 minutes)
Components – Good
Release – 2004
Designer – <PERSON> – (Africana, Architekton, Aquaretto, Boss Kito, California, Call to Glory, China, Coloretto, Coney Island, Don, Draco & Co., Dschunke, Felinia, Fist of Dragonstones, Gold!, The Golden City, Han, Industria, Industry, London Markets, Magna Grecia, Mogul, Mondo, Paris Paris, Rat Hot, Sushi Express, Valdora, Web of Power, All things Zooloretto)
Overview and Theme
Welcome to Europe in the 14th century and more accurately the Hanseatic city-states that occupy the coastline of the Baltic Sea! It is a time of naval trade, a time when fortunes can be made by the savvy merchant and navigator. All you need is the wind at your back and an eye for the goods that are in demand. Set up your trade networks to take advantage of the supply and demands of the day and the world's power and prestige can be yours!
Hansa is one of those 'under the radar' games by <PERSON> many a new gamer to find the hobby would be quite unaware of. This was released back in the day when Uberplaywould release quite reasonably priced games and months later they would be bargain bin'd on Tanga (which was all the rage back then).
Grab those trade papers there and help me get these goods on board...we are setting sail for a city a yonder!
The Components
The components to Hansa are fairly indicative of Euros in that 2004 time period. That is not to say that they are bad in any way, but by today's standards I could only call them functional.
Board – The board is a something of a mixture of minimalist meets downright ugly. The map itself is dominated by 9 key cities, the Baltic Sea and arrows that represent trade winds or movement patterns of the trading vessels. 470
The land is largely marked with trees to represent the forests of the age and smaller circles adorn the board to allow for the placement of Goods Tokens.
Then there is the colour palette. Really this is something bordering on hideous. It's a mouldy green/yellow colour and it really does look like someone has gorged themselves on cheese whiz or something similar, chased that down with a slab of beer and then visited the little boy’s room to relieve themselves of the contents of their stomach.
I'm not sure if this was meant to simulate an old map of the region or not, but the end result is anything but appealing.
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Market Booth Tokens – These are represented by the classic wooden discs that were so common in games from 1995 through to about 2007 ( from 2000 springs to mind pretty quickly). These tokens are used to represent the Market Booths that the players have established in the cities of the region.
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Money Tokens (Talers) – The money tokens or Talers are gold in colour and feature traders in a boat and some sort of commerce based motive in the background. They also have some form of Latin or Celtish-styled writing around the outer edge. This could all be based on some form of coin used in that period or be total creation, I am not sure.
These tokens are slightly smaller in diameter than the tokens used for the goods.
Image Courtesy of EndersGame
Goods Tokens – These are perhaps the most important component to the playing of the game itself. These tokens display both the type of good on offer (denoted by a coloured background of which there are 6 types) and the quantity - one to three barrels.
These are cardboard tokens and the thickness is pretty good. The rear side features the same image used on the board for the Warehouses and this allows these tokens to be placed face-down on the supply circles so the players do not know what is coming next.
They do the job well.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Moneybag Tiles – This component is a large round cardboard token that represents the Talers that a player has in their possession. 84