Devir went the extra mile to develop a game with a unique theme that engages the actions in a creative and interesting way. If I’m rating Lacrimosa on ambition and production, it’s an easy 10. Unfortunately, the choices, actions and replay ability don’t quite meet those initial lofty expectations. That’s not to say it’s a poor game, just one that didn’t quite live up to the expectations it built for itself. I’ll briefly dissect some of my issues and point out where the game succeeds and falls short. They could choose Sussmayer instead (upper tile, represented by single eighth note), but it costs 8 ducats instead of 4. Maintenance Over five rounds and set in different eras of Mozart’s life, you play as a patron to the composer, charged by his widow Constanze to tell stories of your travels together, as well as sponsor the completion of his final composition. Much of this activity happens on a central board that features a map for travel, a card market, as well as a scoresheet that represents the Requiem that must be completed. After eight of the nine cards are utilized the round ends and players gain their income. Income boosts player’s Story Points for the next round (these are the currency for specific areas of the board), their coin, as well as provide one-time use story tokens to boost available resources. The main board is reset, the market row adjusted for the next era, and a new round begins. Upon ending the final round, players score their obtained Royal Court tiles, their contribution to the Requiem, and receive points for any leftover resources. A large vertical board with a hefty amount of beige and plenty of color highlights that pop into focus. Game Experience:

There are so many different ways to play Lacrimosa that we haven’t yet settled on any primary strategy. Players may seem to be surging ahead with their tactful acquisition, performance, and sale of music, or they could be charging around Germany, visiting city after city. Players could be building progressively more powerful memory cards and leaning on period bonuses or Royal Tiles, or they could be banking on contributing the most to the Requiem, and scoring huge end-game points. In the end, I never found myself getting too excited about the turns. There are opportunities to build mini-combos, but I never found myself getting too high or feeling tension. The gameplay is fine and I would probably be up for a game of Lacrimosa in the future, but it’s not something I would play regularly. There are some interesting decisions, just not enough to get me excited. While there is some variable setup with different composers and different cards, I don’t think there is enough variety to justify too many repeat plays. Players continue taking turns playing 2 cards from their hand into their player board and taking actions until all players have played 8 of their 9 cards, completing 4 turns. The 9th card is held over as part of your starting hand for the next round. Then there’s a Maintenance phase for income and cleanup to prepare for the next round. In the last section, single note has the majority again. Blue and Purple each earn 3 points, and Yellow earns just 1 point for their double note. Impressions A player can Perform an Opus to take a small amount of ducats (listed on the card). If their needs are greater, players may elect to sell a piece of music. This yields a higher amount of money, but they must then discard the Opus. Players start with the Nannerl minuet. It’s not worth much when performed or sold. Operas (such as Don Giovanni) are more expensive to commission (cost at top), but raise more money when they are performed or sold.Opus and Memory cards become more powerful (and more expensive!) for the next period, and the Travel area is refilled. For each section of the Requiem, count the composer markers. Whichever composer has more markers in that section scores the higher victory point value for each marker with their symbol. Note: those symbols are for a composer, not a player.

A Nearly Verbatim Transcription of the Author’s Most Recent Teach of Lacrimosa , Which It Is Not Necessary to Read in Its Entirety (Feel Free to Skim) but Does Offer Illuminations Regarding the Author’s Issues with The Game Pt. I: Tutto è dispostoRegrettably, this is not a game our kids were terribly interested in playing. This isn’t really a surprise to us, as the theme is a bit more adult, and it is on the complex side. I do think a game savvy 12-year-old can play this game mechanically without issue. But it takes a special kid to be interested in composers from the Classic period. Solo Now let’s look at buying Music. These have their cost printed on the top of the card itself, and there’s a little additional cost printed on the board. You pay the cost, you get whatever number of victory points are printed in the upper right corner, and then you add that piece of music to your collection. There are four different kinds of music in this, they are represented by different pictures. Those will matter from time to time. Double-note composer has the majority here. Yellow and Purple each have one double-note marker: they each earn 4 points. Blue has a single-note marker and earns just 2 points.

Sorry for this, there are no bags in the box and there are, as you can see, a lot of parts. I meant to organize everything after my last game, but I didn’t get a chance. A game of Lacrimosa is played over five rounds, each of them corresponding to a different creative stage in Mozart’s life. Each round begins with a Main phase where you take actions, followed by a Maintenance phase where you clean up and prepare for the next round. At the end of the fifth round and endgame scoring, whoever has the most victory points is the winner of the game.Once all players have taken their four turns, everyone cleans up. Players get new Story points, money, and other perks according to what they’ve put on their player boards, then remove all the Memory cards and shuffle for the next round. Requiem: Fund one of two composer contemporaries who are finishing the Requiem. Players choose between the five movements and their available instruments. Final Score: 3.5 stars – A medley of mechanisms and quality production are almost enough to supplant the fact that Lacrimosa is missing a few notes. Before I explain this, we should get it all on the table, that’ll make the teach easier. I’ve got jobs for everyone, if you don’t mind. Mary and Susan, can you help me separate these cards by, I think the game calls them Eras, by the little roman numeral on that red shield in the middle of each card? Look out for the player crests, too. We’ll each get a set of those as our starting cards. In the first section, single note has the majority. Blue has two single notes and gets 6 points. Purple has a double note and gets 1 point.