Date: 10th August 2001
Game played: Traumfabrik ( Hasbro ) BGG Id: 904

Unfortunately I'd missed the previous week's session, as it was my daughter's birthday outing to the cinema. ( Saw Cats and Dogs, which was excellent). However, I'd promised to bring along Traumfabrik because Nige is a big Reiner Knizia fan and he'd not played this release, about movie-making, from last year's Essen show.

The basics of the game revolve around a series of auctions held during the 4 rounds of the game (each round representing a year of film production in Hollywood). Each auction allows the player to acquire a number of elements needed to complete the films they are working on, such as actors, directors, music scores and so on. Cleverly the money paid by the auction winner is distributed among the other players, putting them at an advantage over the auction winner in the next auction. Each element has a Star Value and once the film is completed (all the required elements have been bought), the stars are totalled to give the film a value and Victory Points. There are bonus VPs awarded during the game for first film of each type and film of the year, then extra points at the end for best directors, worst film and best film of each type.

The game was pretty tight with Nige concentrating on completing as many films as possible from his Cheap & Nasty Studio, a strategy that nearly worked. I wanted to make sure I secured best film of one type, which I did but was fortunate to complete it right at the end of the third year, to also gain the Oscar for film of the year. That proved to be critical as I managed to just squeeze past Nige by 2 VPs to win. Everyone enjoyed it, especially matching unlikely actors to certain film titles (anyone seen Bambi starring James Stewart).

 
Player
Rating
Score
Position
Winner
Garry
7
1
Nige
7
2
Mark K
7
3
Russ
4
Ben K
5

(c) 2001-2024 Garry Lloyd | | admin