Thurn and Taxis is a board game

Board game

A board game is a game which involves counters or pieces being moved on a pre-marked surface or "board", according to a set of rules. Games may be based on pure strategy, chance or a mixture of the two, and usually have a goal which a player aims to achieve...

 designed by Karen and Andreas Seyfarth

Andreas Seyfarth

Andreas Seyfarth is a German-style board game designer, who is most famous for creating Puerto Rico, which is rated #2 on BoardGameGeek. In 2002, the game was awarded first place for the prestigious Deutscher Spiele Preis...

 and published in 2006 by Hans im Glück

Hans im Glück

Hans im Glück Verlags-GmbH is a German board and card game publisher. Though many of their own games are language-independent they themselves publish only printings for the domestic market which include only German-language rules; English-language printings of their games have been published...

 in German (as Thurn und Taxis) and by Rio Grande Games

Rio Grande Games

Rio Grande Games is a board game publisher based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. The company primarily imports and localizes foreign language German-style board games.-History:...

 in English. In the game, players seek to build postal networks and post offices in Bavaria

Bavaria

Bavaria, formally the Free State of Bavaria is a state of Germany, located in the southeast of Germany. With an area of , it is the largest state by area, forming almost 20% of the total land area of Germany...

 and surrounding areas, as did the house of Thurn und Taxis

Thurn und Taxis

The Princely House of Thurn and Taxis is a German family that was a key player in the postal services in Europe in the 16th century and is well known as owners of breweries and builders of many castles.- History :...

 in the 16th century. The game won the prestigious 2006 Spiel des Jahres

Spiel des Jahres

The Spiel des Jahres is an award for board and card games, created in 1978 with the stated purpose of rewarding excellence in game design, and promoting top-quality games in the German market. It is thought that the existence and popularity of the award is one of the major drivers of the quality...

 award.

Gameplay

Each turn players draw one or more cards representing regions of Europe. They then play one or more cards comprising a route. After reaching a certain length, a route may be scored. Players choose to put markers in some of the regions through which the scored route passes. One may either choose a particular province and assign markers to each city within that province represented in the route, or assign a marker to one city per province represented in the route.

Points are awarded for the length of the route and domination of the different regions. The player who triggers the game-end condition also receives a bonus point.

Expansions and Spinoffs

Three expansions have been released for Thurn and Taxis. The first, Der Kurier der Fürstin, was a small expansion released in the October 2005 issue of Spielbox magazine which adds letter tokens and a messenger to the game.

The second "expansion", Thurn and Taxis: Power and Glory (German, in an apparent allusion to Gloria

Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis

Gloria, Princess of Thurn and Taxis is a princess, by marriage, of the German Thurn und Taxis House.-Biography:Gloria was born on 23 February 1960, the daughter of Joachim, Count...

, princess of Thurn and Taxis, Glanz und Gloria, lit. Splendour and Glory), is really more of a distinct game, using new region and carriage cards, a new map, and significantly changed route-building rules.

The third expansion Alle Wege führen nach Rom (English: All Roads Lead to Rome) can only be played with the base game, and consists of two small expansions, "The Audience" and "Offices of Honor". While the first two boards show somewhat realistic representations of Southern and Northern Germany, the Rome expansion makes no reference to Italian geography.

External links

• Rio Grande Games' official Thurn and Taxis homepage