Altiplano

Altiplano is another so-called bag-building game from Reiner Stockhausen. As in Orléans, actions are triggered by tiles drawn from a cloth bag. In spite of some similarities, there are obvious differences between the two games.

The game is set in the South America highlands of the Andes, the Altiplano, it presents players with new challenges time and again, thus permanently keeping them under its spell. There are various ways to reach the goal. To begin with, players have access only to certain resources and goods due to the different role tiles that each player gets before the beginning of the game and that provide everybody with different starting materials. At the market, however, a player can acquire additional production sites that give him new options. The competion for the individual types of goods is considerable – as is the fun in snatching a coveted extension card from under another player's nose! The numerous goods – such as fish, alpaca, cacao, silver or corn – all have their own characteristics and places where they can be used. Whereas silver makes you rich, fish can be exchanged for other goods and the alpaca gives you wool that can be made into cloth. Besides this, it is also important to deliver the right goods at the right time, to develop the road in good time and, finally, to store your goods cleverly enough to fill the most valuable rows with them.

Altiplano by Reiner Stockhausen, with the atmospheric and sometimes tongue-in-cheek illustrations by Klemens Franz.