The magic of words in a board game
The Granna game comes in a standard square box. Its interior is filled with numerous components, such as a double-sided main board, printing house and initiative boards, curtains, cards, gear and character tiles, player markers, paint and guilder tokens, and what inspires the greatest excitement of people who sit down to Gutenberg to the first time – carefully made wooden fonts. All components can be sorted easily and efficiently. A material bag and cardboard boxes, stylized as wooden caskets, will help us in this. It is worth mentioning that the box does not contain a single gram of plastic, for which the Polish publishing house definitely deserves applause.
The atmospheric graphic design and elegant workmanship of Gutenberg ‘s components made a very good impression on me. I like the fact that not only functional, but also ingenious elements of the game were put on, such as embossed boards for auction, gears placed on the board, and well-presented fonts. The advantage of this title is also a coherent iconography and a well-thought-out, clear layout of the board. A great help in remembering the rules are also curtains for players, the inside of which has been printed with a lot of useful information.
Expand your printing house
Preparation for the game includes several steps, quite well described in the manual. Before the race for the title of the most talented printer begins, randomly selected printing, refinement, specialization, patronage cards, paint tokens and gears should be placed on the main board. The rest of the components should be placed adjacent to it.
Each player starts with their printing house board, on which they mark the lowest level of specialization and place the token on the leftmost space of the reward track. Next to it, place the initiative board, markers for e.g. for bidding, 10 guilders, and optionally one character tile.
To the machines!
Our main task will be to fulfill orders for printing. From the very beginning, we will be able to undertake the selected order, and over time we will receive even more of them. By using our machines, paints and skills, we will be able to slowly climb up in the hierarchy of printers. With each subsequent completed project, we gain funds for the expansion of the printing house and victory points if the work we create meets additional conditions. In the course of the game, we will also have the opportunity to acquire new gears, fonts, paints, skills, and even become sponsored. What action will be performed by us in the next round will depend on the result of the auction. We will face other adepts of the art of printing. Our struggle will last exactly 6 rounds. The person who obtains the highest score after them,
Impressions
Gutenberg was one of the most anticipated releases of 2021. Its circulation sold out in pre-sale at such a pace that the Granna publishing house decided to reprint it before the official premiere of this title. A board game created by Polish designers was also one of the most popular items at the Essen fair (the title is linguistically independent, and the box contains the English version of the manual). All this meant that when I sat down to play, I had high expectations. Were they fulfilled? Before we get into that, it’s worth telling a bit more about what I like and don’t like about this title.
Gutenberg is a very nicely spent euro, aimed at lovers of intermediate board games. It has a bidding mechanism that determines the order of players for each of the individual actions. I admit that although I do not like it, in the case of this title, it works quite well, especially when playing games with 3 or 4 people.
Everyone scrapes a book
As the operation of printing machines requires a lot of precision, when executing orders, craftsmen are mainly focused on their work. In Gutenberg , apart from bidding, there is little interactions between players, and they only consist in picking up other bounty cards and the necessary tools to carry them out.
The game is characterized by high replayability, associated with a random draw of components, but also the ability to play the game as one of several characters with different skills. The gears, which we select each time in a different order and in a different arrangement, also do an excellent job. We can use a maximum of 3 machines in our printing house. They are extremely useful – they allow us to perform additional actions, e.g. by providing us with fonts or paints. Of course, like all gears, also those placed on the player’s board rotate, moving the other elements of the mechanism, so it is worth considering in what position you will place them.
The dilemmas of a young printer
During the game, we will have many more reasons to strain gray cells. Although Gutenberg has simple rules, accessible even to less experienced players, he forces printers to think hard about their next moves. Which direction to develop in? Is it better to invest in skills or buy additional machines? Is it worth taking an order for which we do not have tools yet, and finally – how to distribute the tags during the auction? A lot of such questions arise during the 1-2 hours of gameplay.
Not every beautiful book is a bestseller
The board game from Granna has many advantages. It is undoubtedly a great title that was designed very well. In the course of production, both the mechanics and the appearance were refined. The huge interest of players, both Polish and foreign, seems to confirm that this approach is a recipe for success … But, despite the printing precision accompanying the creation of this title, the game did not delight me as much as I hoped.
The gameplay did not arouse the expected emotions in me and it became quite schematic for me. I missed a certain thrill that I feel when I sit down to other popular board games. I will not refuse the game if someone proposes it to me, because it is a mechanically and visually good title, but I will not do it myself. This is a strange situation that has happened to me before. I can see the game is good, but there is no chemistry between us. However, I think that Gutenberg will be perfect for people who want to try a slightly heavier, but not very complicated board game.
Summary
Gutenberg is a solid, medium difficulty strategy game that will keep your gray cells warm as you complete your next orders. The title is perfect as a bridge between the worlds of family board games and those that are used by advanced players. The excellent setting of the mechanics in the atmosphere and carefully refined components are additional advantages that make this board game definitely a must for everyone who likes Euro games, especially those that please the eye.
