Pyramid Pick: Vinci

Pyramid Pick

Vinci

Published by Jeux Descartes

Designed by Philippe Keyaerts

$29.95

If you've heard anything about Vinci, you've probably heard it compared to Avalon Hill's Civilization, or Britannia, or History of the World. It does in fact have some things in common with these games: as in Britannia and History of the World, empires appear, expand, and then wane and disappear; as in Civilization, these empires are not predefined, but rather have characteristics that are different each game. However, Vinci is rather simpler and shorter than all of these games, which for some people may be a negative point, but for me is a positive one -- I like some of the aforementioned games, but given my limited gaming time I prefer something I can play in two hours. Vinci is a game with much of the flavor of longer, more involved games, but that can indeed be played in two hours.

When you open up Vinci you see a board depicting Europe (and a smidge of Asia), divided into color-coded regions, some of which have symbols in them. The colors and symbols indicate different types of areas -- for example, gray areas are mountains, and cost more to attack (and less to attack from). You also see a bunch of wooden disks in 7 colors -- one color is used for the indigenous population (one per region, except for mountains, which have none), which is living there peacefully until the rampaging hordes come through. Said hordes are represented by the players, who each take another color and invade . . .

This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.



Article publication date: December 31, 1999

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