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Shannon Appelcline
January 2006
USA
As with many Out of the Box games, 10 Days in Europe
contains a number of components in a very densely packed
box. They include:
- 1 map
- 66 tiles
- 4 sets of tile holders
- 1 rulebook
Map: The map is a simple geopolitical map
of Europe, with the countries each labeled and painted
in one of five colors (orange, yellow, red, blue, or
green).This isn't actually a game board, but rather
a reference map for playing the game, needed to show
the relationships of the various countries.
In addition to the countries, three water masses are
shown on the map: the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic
Ocean, and the Baltic Sea. The color differentiation
between the waters is a little less distinct than I'd
like, but was never actually a problem in the game.
There are also several ferry routes marked on the map,
connecting countries
The map is 4-panel and printed on solid cardboard,
with the slightly glossy, full-color map on the front
and a nice texture on the back.
Tiles: These tiles are thick cardboard, printed full-color
front and back. 47 of them show countries, each featuring
the country's name and a colored depiction of the country's
shape (matching the shape & color on the map).
There's also a variety of information on each, including
the country capitol, population, and size. A few of
the countries are duplicated.
The other 19 tiles show transportation: 9 ships (split
unevenly among the three water masses), and 10 planes
(two per base color).
There are some minor production issues with the tiles.
Some of the tiles were stuck together when I unwrapped
them, and there's some differentiation in colors on
the tile backs. I saw both of these issues repeated
on the Internet, so it wasn't a singleton problem on
my part. However, I don't think any problem is large
enough to really affect gameplay.
Tile Holders: There are eight tile holders in all,
two per player, one labeled days 1-5, the other 6-10.
Each one is painted blue and has silver lettering inlaid
into the wood. They're sturdy and high quality.
Rulebook: A 4-page book, printed on high-gloss cardstock.
The rules include ample illustrations and examples
and are easy to follow.
Overall, the components in 10 Days in Europe are all
very high quality. However, they're also quite plain
as well. On sum I've decided to give the game a high "3" out
of "5" for Style: slightly above average.
The Gameplay
The object of 10 Days in Europe is to arrange a group
of 10 tiles depicting countries and modes of transportation
in order, from day 1-10 on your rack.
Forming a Trip: In order to win 10 Days in Europe,
you have to create a 10-day trip, which is to say you
have to put together a coherent set of 10 tiles. Here's
the general rules for a legal trip:
- It must start with a country and end with a country.
- If
a country is next to a country on your rack, they
must be adjacent to each other on the map or else
connected by a ferry line.
- A ship may be placed between
two countries both adjacent to the water mass listed
on the ship tile (Atlantic, Mediterranean, or Baltic).
- An
airplane may be placed in between two countries,
if they and the plane are all the same color (e.g.,
Spain is Yellow and Romania is Yellow, so you could
play Spain-yellow plane-Romania).
They give an example
of a 10-day trip in the rules, which goes like this:
Spain, France, Atlantic Ocean ship, (green) Norway,
green plane, (green) Albania, Greece, Mediterranean
Sea ship, Turkey, Ukraine. If you take a look at your
favorite Atlas, you'll see that all the adjacent countries
are indeed adjacent.
Special Rules for Europe: This game is part of a series
of "10 Day" games, and thus far each of the
games has had a few variant rules. This edition introduced
the ferry lines and the ships (the latter substituting
for cars), neither of which were seen in previous games.
As already noted, there's a little bit of duplication
too, with two tiles each for Denmark, France, Germany,
Norway, Russia, and Spain. This was presumably to keep
the board balanced.
Setup: A draw pile of tiles is initially placed to
the side of the map. Each player grabs a pair of racks,
then fills it with tiles, in any order, one at a time.
Each new tile must be placed in an empty slot; there's
no moving things around afterward. Once each player
has placed their first 10 tiles, the top three cards
from the draw pile are then placed face up to create
three discard piles. Play then begins.
Order of Play: Each turn a player takes two actions
during their turn:
- Draw a Tile
- Place the Tile
Draw a Tile: The player draws a tile either from
the draw pile or from one of the three discard piles.
Place a Tile: The player then either discards the
tile he drew or else places it on his rack. In order
to place it on his rack he must replace a tile already
there, discarding the previous tile.
A discard may be played to any of the three discard
piles.
Note that there is no opportunity to rearrange tiles
once you've put them on the rack (except for discarding,
and then picking up in a future round, a very dangerous
activity). You only get to replace old tiles with new
ones, and thus you need to have made a good set of
initial placements, then slowly improve them.
Winning the Game: When a player completes a full 10-day
trip, he then pushes over his racks, proudly displaying
his trip to his competitors, and wins the game.
Relationships to Other Games
Rack-O (1956) is the oldest game that I'm aware of
in this particular genre. There, you try and organize
10 cards in an ascending order in your rack, with very
similar gameplay. I'm not aware of other games that
use racks, until Moon & Weissblum's games.
You could probably also call these games close relatives
to Rummy games, since 10 Days' trips aren't too distant
from Rummy sequences.
Moon & Weissblum originally published this game
as Europa Tour, which was based on a European map,
and only published in Germany; they quickly followed
up with 10 Days in the USA and 10 Days in Africa, both
published in the US by Out of the Box. 10 Days in Europe
is the newest game and returns to Europa Tour's original
map, though the gameplay isn't quite the same as the
original.
The Game Design
10 Days in Europe is a very simple game.
On the good side of the game design, I find the play
fast, simple, and enjoyable. There's some real opportunity
for strategy, particularly in the setup round where
adroit placement can give you a good lead, and later
on, when careful selection of good countries with lots
of adjacencies can help you out a lot. The strategy
level is actually quite good for a game of this length
and weight.
On the bad side there's a high random factor in the
game, and the discard piles just aren't as useful as
they appear (since there's little chance that you'll
ever get back a discarded tile if you're playing against
serious players).
I actually like the new rules for Europe quite a bit,
even though they're minor. The ships offer a new puzzle
to wrap your head around, since they offer quite a
few different possibilities that you have to juggle.
I also find them much more interesting than the cars
in previous games, which acted as wild cards and were
no-brainers to use.
On the whole, I've enjoyed all the 10 Day
games I've played. I think Europe is my favorite
of the series because I find it more evocative than the USA or Africa
and ever so slightly more strategic. As with
all the games in this series, the balance of randomness,
strategy, and length is top-notch, so I've given it an above
average "4" out of "5" for Style,
with this one edging slightly upward.
Conclusion
10 Days in Europe in another entry in Moon & Weissblum's
10 Day series. It's a filler game that balances a good
amount of strategy with a light, fast-paced gameplay.
The ships here provide an interesting new mechanism,
and overall I find the background evocative. As with
all the games, it's quite recommended if you enjoy
light fare for your fillers & I think it'll be
phenomenal for geography teachers. Whether you get
this game or one of its brethren instead, however,
will probably mainly depend on your personal interests.
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