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Australia Game Breakdown:
Our Rating:
User Rating:
(based on 2 votes)
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 | Strategy |  |
 | Luck |  |
 | Knowledge |  |
 | Creativity | |
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 | Complexity |  |
Details:
Number of Players: 2 to 5
Ages: 10+
Avg. Time to Play: 90 minutes
Time to Learn: 45 minutes
Released: 2005
Publisher: Rio Grande Games
Designer(s): Wolfgang Kramer & Michael Kiesling
Awards:
In the Box:
- 1 game board
- 75 rangers
- 5 pilots
- 5 scoring markers
- 5 players' boards
- 42 cards
- 24 industrialization tiles
- 24 conservation tiles
- 44 Australian dollars
- 1 windmill
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Australia |
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Availability:
In stock
List
Price:
$39.95
Our Price:
$31.95
You Save:
$8.00 (20%)
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Description:
The adventure can begin. Ahead of you: Australia, in all its impressive beauty. Now you're a ranger, flying your biplane across the fifth continent and performing tasks all over the country. Industrialization in Queensland? Nature conservation in Victoria? A good plan, surprising tactics and flexibility are needed to stay one step ahead of the others "Down Under."
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 | | Australia Images: | | | | | | | | |  | | Our Rating:
Our Review:
Australia, winner of the Games Magazine Game of the Year for 2005, is essentially a standard area control game with a twist. The game board shows a map of Australia, divided into land and water segments. The object of the game is to gain the greatest number of points, and points are collected by being the first to properly occupy a region of Australia with your rangers. Players don't know what number of rangers are needed to score a region until they uncover the number marker by flying their plane over the region. On each turn, a player may either move his/her plane, place rangers in a region (for which an adequate card is played), or remove rangers from the board. Regions are scored in one of two ways--either by having just the right number of rangers camped in the area or by having at least one ranger at each campsite in the region. Australia is different than most other area control games because the campsites are located on the borders of the regions, rather than simply within the region. In that way, the placement of rangers has multiple effects on adjacent regions of the gameboard.
Australia appeals to those who enjoy area control games, and the twist of having border placements that affect more than one region at a time adds to the complexity and makes up the game's strongest strategic challenge. Although Australia is fairly easy to pick up, it probably won't appeal to the average player who doesn't dig into strategy games with zeal. Because each turn usually feels just one move too short, players are usually anxious for that next turn. The box, board, and components are nice quality. The more players, the lower the level of strategy (as the situation on the board can change dramatically from one turn to another). Australia plays best with two or three players.
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User Reviews:
|  Australia - ?
I still want to keep this game after 3 plays. I like the theme & some of the idea's, especially the biplane and ranger placement,. BUT some of the rules leave some questions open (windmil placement and wheel # for scoring) and in the end it doesn't seem to hang togther enough to be maintain interest ( The dyanamics of placement and scoring seem very snakes and ladderish I in the long run.) A disapointing German game. Maybe one day I'll get a good game out of it or see it in a new light.
by Alister (Oct 30 2005)
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Rate Australia by Rio Grande Games:
All reviews become the sole property of Wasatch Game Company. |
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