Series and films about the English nobility have long since become part of pop culture. Whether Pride and Prejudice, Downtown Abbey, The Crown or most recently Bridgerton and its Queen Charlotte spin-off - they all know how to inspire and have won a number of awards. Kayenta Games built on this enthusiasm at the end of 2017. With the help of a crowdfunding campaign, the young American publisher raised money to realize its work about pride, intrigue and prejudice. The game was a huge hit with an 8.2 on BoardGameGeek - around 5 years later, thanks to Strohmann Games, the game has finally been released in Germany. Find out how good Obsession really is in this review.
The English county of Derbyshire is in a state of upheaval. In a time of optimism, several families are entangled in romance and intrigue. The struggling Asquith, Cavendish, Ponsonby and York families have new sources of income and are striving to modernize their aging estate and restore their reputation. There is a real spirit of optimism. People are particularly jealous of Alderley Hall, where Margaret - the widow of Earl Fairchild - and her sister-in-law Ethel reside with an income of well over £20.000. Since the death of Margaret's brother-in-law, her dashing nephew Charles and her charming niece Elizabeth have been living with the two widowed, childless ladies. The Fairchild ladies know exactly what the best medicine is for the twins' grieving hearts: a romance!
A simple basic principle
In Obsession, we take over the leadership of one of four aspiring noble families. We want to bring our neglected lands into shape, hold grand celebrations, increase our reputation and, ideally, introduce our son or daughter to the two Fairchilds. To do this, however, we have to satisfy their interests, because only then will they come to visit our modest estate.
A game lasts 16 rounds (20 in the extended game), in which we constantly plan new activities, invite guests, employ servants and receive rewards. The process is designed to be very simple. First of all, we get all the servants that we have employed in previous rounds ready - they basically rest from work. We do this by moving them one space on our family board. Then we deal with current round events and effects of monuments or the servants' hall in our estate. The latter, if they are present.
Then we move on to the core part of the game. We choose an activity that we want to carry out in this round. To do this, we select one of the expansion tiles on our property and place it on our family board. Of course, every activity also includes guests who attend it. The number and type of guests vary depending on the activity that is carried out. In addition, different servants are assigned depending on the activity and the guests. After our lovely activity, the guests thank us with various bonuses such as money, fame or other, more or less popular, acquaintances.
Finally, we can use the craft market to add new expansion tiles to our property. These offer us the opportunity to carry out more and better activities, give us important victory points at the end of the game, and attract the interest of the Fairchild twins.
A noble interplay
The interaction between expansion tiles, servants and the various guests is the central element of Obsession. expansion tiles are the source of activities that we have. If we use the activity of an expansion tile for the first time, it is turned from the unused side to the used side. This usually gives us more victory points at the end of the game, but has weaker bonuses when completing the activity. Therefore, it is all the more important to take a look at the craft market at the end of a round and, if necessary, upgrade your property with new expansion tiles.
employees are important in order to be able to carry out activities at all. Every guest (except family members) and every expansion tile requires the attention of a certain type of servant. If this type is not available, the expansion tile cannot be carried out or this guest cannot be invited. Therefore, there should always be enough servants available.
Guests also give us important bonuses after completing an activity. They are divided into casual and prestige guests. Prestige guests are more prestigious and give us better bonuses when we invite them to an activity. However, we usually need more reputation to be able to invite them.
Reputation is also an important point in Obsession. The more reputation we have, the greater activities we can perform and the more noble guests we can invite to them. Greater activities and more noble guests come with higher bonuses. We also gain reputation through activities that we perform with guests. So in Obsession we start with little and slowly work our way to the top of society.
The Courtship of the Fairchilds
At the beginning of a period (4 rounds in the standard game), the current interest of the Fairchild twins is revealed. We now have until the fourth round, the advertising round, to convert this interest into attention for our family. To get their attention, we need as many victory points as possible in a category of expansion tiles. If we have the most victory points in the category, one of the twin children visits us and we can use them as a guest for the next period. They are like prestige guests, but do not require any reputation to be used and give strong bonuses. In addition, we receive a victory point bonus card. We can use this either to use its effect or to get additional points at the end.
The final advertising round is about collecting the most victory points in all categories revealed during the game. The person who has collected the most points in the categories has successfully managed to get one of the Fairchild twins to marry into their family, which gives us another 8 extra points.
At the end of the game, all factors are added together to calculate our final score. Our expansion tiles, guests (including the Fairchild who married into the game), reputation, servants, money, victory point tiles and goal cards achieved all contribute to whether we ultimately win the game or not.
Information about Obsession
Number of players: 1 – 4 Age: from 12 years Playing time: 30 - 90 minutes Difficulty: expert game Long-term motivation: high Classification: Hand Management, Action Selection, Worker Placement Author: Dan Hallagan Illustrations: Dan Hallagan Publisher: Strohmann Games, Kayenta Games Official Website: Link Year of publication: 2023 Language: German Cost: 69,90 Euro |
Conclusion
Obsession isn't particularly pretty at first glance. The entire artwork doesn't look particularly appealing and is very old-fashioned. The rule book and glossary are also just awful to read and feel like they have hardly any structure. This is a very disappointing experience at first. But when you start playing, your enthusiasm increases again. Obsession is a great game in terms of both theme and gameplay!
Even if you are a little overwhelmed at first by the unnecessarily complicated instructions and all the detailed rules, Obsession is ultimately quite easy and fun to play. You plan an activity, invite guests, employ servants, collect the rewards and, if necessary, buy new rooms for your estate. That's all it is. You quickly fall into a satisfying gameplay loop in which you can organize ever better activities and invite more popular guests. Each guest card is also equipped with individual photos and little stories that breathe a lot of life into the game thematically. Ultimately, you feel like a lord who looks after his estate and his contacts - and maybe even starts making small digs at his opponents.
In terms of quality, Obsession has high-quality game material. The cards have a non-slip linen finish and the game boards and tiles are a pleasant thickness. The game also comes with small, sturdy boxes as a kind of insert in which you can store the material. This is great and saves a lot of time when setting it up. It doesn't always have to be plastic inserts.
Ultimately, Obsession is a great action-selection/worker placement game that frequent players - even those who have no interest in the topic - should take a look at at least once, because in the end, even the biggest critics have a little lord inside them. And even if the game isn't really visually convincing, it is convincing in terms of gameplay and theme.
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