Medina (board game)
Encyclopedia
Medina is a board game
designed by Stefan Dorra and published by Hans im Glück
and Rio Grande Games
in 2001. In the game, three or four players compete to be the most influential developer of Medina, a desert city near the Atlas Mountains
in 1822. Variations of the game allow 2 or 5 players. The game was nominated for the 2001 Deutscher Spiele Preis
and the 2003 Jeu de l'année
, but won neither prize.
Building places may be placed on any open space on the board. However, if a building already exists on the board, other pieces of that color must be attached, unless a player has claimed that building as their own by topping it with their dome. Distinct buildings cannot be built such that they touch each other in any way. Each player scores one point for each building piece in each of their buildings and a bonus of one to four points for having the largest building in any given color. Players can have only one building in each color.
Stables may be added to any building on the board including a building already topped by dome. Stables count for scoring as if they were a building section in all ways, including determining the largest building in a color.
The first inhabitant may be placed anywhere on the board. Thereafter, inhabitants must be built in a continuous line with no branches or loops. A player scores one point for each inhabitant bordering a building they have claimed.
The wall sections may be placed in wall spaces in a straight, uninterrupted line originating from any corner. Each wall section touching a building earns the owner of that building one point. Furthermore, the last player to touch a sequence of wall pieces with one of their buildings earns a number of points equal to the value of the corner that the wall originates.
Players may only pass if they have no legal moves, meaning that moves benefiting other players must be made if no other legal moves exist. The score is tallied at the end, meaning that intermediate ownership of wall bonuses or building size bonuses have no bearing on the final score.
Board game
A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...
designed by Stefan Dorra and published by Hans im Glück
Hans im Glück
Hans im Glück Verlags-GmbH is a German board and card game publisher. Though many of their own games are language-independent they themselves publish only printings for the domestic market which include only German-language rules; English-language printings of their games have been published...
and Rio Grande Games
Rio Grande Games
Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games.-History:...
in 2001. In the game, three or four players compete to be the most influential developer of Medina, a desert city near the Atlas Mountains
Atlas Mountains
The Atlas Mountains is a mountain range across a northern stretch of Africa extending about through Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. The highest peak is Toubkal, with an elevation of in southwestern Morocco. The Atlas ranges separate the Mediterranean and Atlantic coastlines from the Sahara Desert...
in 1822. Variations of the game allow 2 or 5 players. The game was nominated for the 2001 Deutscher Spiele Preis
Deutscher Spiele Preis
The Deutscher Spiele Preis is an important award for boardgames. It was started in 1990 by the German magazine "Die Pöppel-Revue", which collects votes from the industry's stores, magazines, professionals and game clubs. The results are announced every October at the Spiel game fair in Essen,...
and the 2003 Jeu de l'année
Jeu de l'année
The Jeu de l'année was a French games award, given by the Association de Promotion et d'Evaluation des Jeux in October to outstanding parlour games* published during the previous year* published in the French language...
, but won neither prize.
Game play
The gameboard is a 16 by 11 grid of squares representing the city. Each edge is lined by rectangles where the wall of the city is to be built and each corner is labelled with one of the numbers one through four. In a four-player game, each player receives 5 building pieces in each of four colors, 3 stable pieces, 6 inhabitant pieces, 8 wall pieces, and 4 dome pieces. Only the dome pieces correspond to the proprietary color of the player. At each turn, players place two pieces on the board; the game ends when no player can make a legal play, at which time the player with the most points is declared the winner.Building places may be placed on any open space on the board. However, if a building already exists on the board, other pieces of that color must be attached, unless a player has claimed that building as their own by topping it with their dome. Distinct buildings cannot be built such that they touch each other in any way. Each player scores one point for each building piece in each of their buildings and a bonus of one to four points for having the largest building in any given color. Players can have only one building in each color.
Stables may be added to any building on the board including a building already topped by dome. Stables count for scoring as if they were a building section in all ways, including determining the largest building in a color.
The first inhabitant may be placed anywhere on the board. Thereafter, inhabitants must be built in a continuous line with no branches or loops. A player scores one point for each inhabitant bordering a building they have claimed.
The wall sections may be placed in wall spaces in a straight, uninterrupted line originating from any corner. Each wall section touching a building earns the owner of that building one point. Furthermore, the last player to touch a sequence of wall pieces with one of their buildings earns a number of points equal to the value of the corner that the wall originates.
Players may only pass if they have no legal moves, meaning that moves benefiting other players must be made if no other legal moves exist. The score is tallied at the end, meaning that intermediate ownership of wall bonuses or building size bonuses have no bearing on the final score.
External links
- play Medina online at Boardspace.netBoardSpace.netBoardspace.net is the online home of a wide array of strategy games. Some are well known in the gaming community others are obscure by almost anyone's standards. The primary goal of the site is to promote real time games between two humans. Most games have robots you can play and use for learning...
against human or robot opponents