Orleans

Number of players: 2 - 4 players Game time: 60 - 180 minutes Age: From 12 years Publisher: DLP Games Language: English, German Orléans Stories is based on the bag-building mechanic of Orléans, where this mechanism has been further developed into a story in which players go through different eras and face different challenges. Instead of focusing on the city of Orléans and trading with the surrounding villages, the player now settles in the Loire Valley. Players must produce resources, establish villages and build forts and churches. They will experience times of prosperity and success, but also times of hardship; they must brave famine and plague, fight for their country, and perhaps conquer foreign lands to secure the lives of their colonists. But in the end there is peace and joint governance of territories and villages. The game contains two stories: "The First Kingdom" and "The King's Favor". “The First Kingdom” is an epic story that spans eight so-called eras, and each era has different terms and emphases. Sometimes knights settle, with whose help you can conquer foreign territories, sometimes the plague threatens to decimate the population of settlers, unless they all worked together to develop medicine. "The King's Favor" is shorter, simpler, and more suitable as an introduction to the game. In five eras, certain tasks must be completed and those who do not will be mercilessly dropped. The threat of having to end the game prematurely provides a constant thrill, but all tasks are achievable, so (usually) all players make it to the end. But you certainly shouldn't just focus on these tasks... it takes more to win! The different eras influence both the game parameters and the rules of the game, creating new strategic possibilities. This challenges players to constantly adapt to current circumstances, giving you the impression of experiencing a story. The legacy game is replayable and you can play it as many times as you want. The changes from era to era require a new way of seeing things from a distance, but this is made easier by a storybook where players will find not only all the relevant information and quirks of rules, but also hints on how to prepare.

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In Joan of Arc: Orléans Draw & Write, 1-5 players will establish followers who will help them travel through France, collect goods, build buildings, establish trading posts, earn money and contribute to useful deeds . The player who can best use his chosen followers scores the most points and is the winner. Each round a number of follower tiles are drawn from a bag. Players take turns drafting the followers and taking actions corresponding to the follower they chose. After all followers have been set up, the bag will reset until you have used up one bag per player.

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The residents of Orléans have been hit hard; the plague has overtaken them and brings suffering and misery to the population. Many have died, and even the plague doctor can only bring limited relief and hope to the long-suffering residents. The church also has little to offer when it comes to lighting. And so in the end everyone is on their own and everyone must try to protect their followers as best as possible... Right at the start of the game, conditions are made more difficult by the "rat cards". Sometimes there are fewer monks in the game, sometimes no cogs can be placed on place cards or the construction of trading stations must be paid for with an extra coin. New events are now also linked to the "corpse tokens", a certain number of which players must place in their pocket at the end of each round. These are then randomly drawn from the bag at the start of the round and take up valuable space on the marketplace as they cannot be used for actions. To get rid of it for good, a player can fulfill indulgence cards through pilgrimage, donations, or other conditions, which also grant victory points at the end of the game. Fortunately, each player has a "plague doctor", a new figure that is available (almost) every round and can be used universally.

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