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Funkenschlag
(Click to view full size)
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| Manufacturer: |
2f-Spiele Visit their site
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| Designer: |
Friedemann Friese
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| Players: |
3 to 5 |
| Time: |
120 to 180 Minutes |
| Game Type: |
Board |
| Categories: |
Economic
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| Mechanics: |
Crayon Rail System
Modular Board
Auction/Bidding
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| Ages: |
12 and up |
Important
Notes: |
- This game is imported from Europe. It may contain components and/or instructions in a different language. If you are not able to find English translations, we will do our best to help find them.
- We place our European orders about every 2 weeks. It is highly recommended that you pre-order this item now as it will reserve the next available copy we get.
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Our Comments...
Here's a Mini-Review by Russ Price
Funkenschlag is an excellent mix between an auction, resource/market and
a railroad system game. Unlike a lot of games that determine the winner
through a point system or most money achieved, its unique determination
is based on who can power the most cities at the end of the game. That
does not mean whoever has connected the most cities wins. You still need
the power plants and its resources. There's also a very good balancing
mechanism so no one pulls way ahead or gets left behind. Everyone is in
this game until the end! Well, its possible one could do very poorly,
and to do that, you would have to be trying really hard to get that
effect.
There are several types of power plants--Coal, Oil, Garbage, Nuclear
Power, Ecological and Fusion. Each power plant is unique as it can only
produce electricity for its given amount of cities at the expense of its
given amount of resources needed. Every game played will be different
because the power plants are shuffled so no one will know when or what
power plants are coming into the game. The power plants are auction in a
continuous round of bidding until there's only one bidder remaining.
Now comes the next interesting part of this game, buying the resources
to power your plants. The buying order sequence is in reverse order of
the auction, giving those with smaller power plants the ability to buy
resources first. This is where you can put it to the leaders by buying
as many resources as your power plants can hold and drive up the market
prices, yet not so fast, there's a trade-off here. There are still power
lines that need to be laid in order to extend your reach into other
cities. The order sequence for building power lines is in the same order
as purchasing the resources. So being the first to build in an area
could be more cost effective, because building through a mountain or
over water will cost more than building through the flat land areas.
What makes this game fun for me is it starts out as an auction game then
moves into a resource, planning and strategy game. Then it moves into
your typical building and income game. As you move through these
different phases, you have to be conscious about the order sequence.
This is very important, as you are always deciding what's best for your
situation at this particular time. The rules are relatively simple and
short, yet there is a lot to think about in each of the phases, which to
me makes this an excellent game! It's also a favorite with my son and
his college friends.
Game component notes: This is a German game, so you will need to get the
rules in English, which is no big deal, so don't sweat this one. The
playing board is small, so to remedy that you can go to your nearest
print shop and have the board enlarged and laminated. Get dry erase
markers too, throw away the crayons! The enlarged playing board will
enhance the game's visual effect and playability. The rest of the game
components are nice wooden pieces and playing cards.
Remember, never give up in this game, for it's the one who is able to
power the most cities in the end, will be der Sieger (du hast gewonnen)!
 Read
more information at the Board Game Geek website
Customer Raves - Write your own Rave about this game!
(Click on a person's name or game group to see other raves by the same person or group.
AmericanEagle
| Funkenschlag is my favorite game by Friedemann Friese and its also one of the best games overall on my shelf. The playing board is small, yet you can take care of it by going to your nearest printing shop, have the board enlarged and laminated. Get dry erase markers too, throw away the crayons! The rest of the game components are nice wooden pieces and playing cards. This is a great auction and resource market game. There are two markets for purchasing factories, current and future. So when the auction begins on the current market you decide what’s your top price or wait for a possible future market factory to become available. There are several types of factories too Coal, Oil, Garbage, Nuclear Power, Ecological and Fusion. Each factory can produce electricity for an X amount of cities at the cost of X amount of resources. After the factory auction phase, you need to get the resources to power your factories. This is always interesting as the price of resources goes up when that particular resource is purchased. Next you need to build power lines to the available cities on the playing board. There are water and mountain areas that cost more to build through and money is always tight, so build quickly before your opponent makes you pay for it. Of course then comes the Bureaucracy phase where you get money for every city you can power, those resources are used up and returned to the resource market. The rules are relatively simple and short, yet there is lots to think about on each turn. This game is a favorite with my son’s college friends. |
| The theme of this game (building a power supply network) really works for some - but not for me. What I do like, however, is the demand driven changes of market prices and the catch-up mechanism that makes the game a little more forgiving. |
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