Grachtenpand

• Designer: Zach Hoekstra
• Publisher: Wulfhorn
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 8+
• Time: 20 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Build the most beautiful Amsterdam canal houses, full of shops, cats, seagulls and tulips in this fun card game! Grachtenpand is a light hand drafting game for 2-4 players where you build an idyllic set of canal houses. You build the houses using ‘bases’, ‘floors’ and ‘roofs’ Each turn, each player simultaneously chooses one card from their hand and builds it.

The three decks (Shops, Windows, Roofs) are shuffled separately and placed on the table. Each player gets a random Shop to start in their player area, and each player also draws a starting hand – one of each of the three types of cards.

All turns are played simultaneously.  To start a turn, each player chooses one of the types of cards and draws it into his hand from the decks on the table.  Then, from the four cards they have, they choose one to build.

Shop cards go on the ground level, and must be built to the left or right of the current shops. Windows are built on top of shops. As you would expect, roofs are the top-most card you can build in a building – once a roof is placed, no further cards can be built higher on this building.  There is a final, and rarely used, option – if you do not want to build any card from your hand, you choose a card and build it face down underneath your buildings – as a canal.

After building their cards, each player passes the remaining three cards to the player on their left. After receiving a new hand of three cards from the player to their right, each player chooses a type of card (base,window, or roof) and draws one card of that type from the corresponding deck into their hand to refresh it to four cards and repeats the process.

Each of the cards has a number of different elements on it – birds, Amsterdam flags, the color of the building itself, etc.

A completed house consists of a base at the bottom, any number of window cards, and one roof at the top. When building a house, you must build from the bottom-up (starting with a base and ending with a roof)  The game ends when a player has completed their fourth building (i.e. placed their fourth roof card)

Each player scores points for flowers, colors, bases, and roofs

• Flowers: Score 1 point for each window with flowers you have in your tableau
• Bases and Roofs: Each base and roof card in your tableau has a condition and a point value. If the building a base or roof is part of meets the condition on it, you score the points on the card. Scoring conditions may refer to the number of seagulls, flags, or cats visible on the building. They may also refer to their own height, or the height of the buildings to their left or right. A building’s height is the number of cards in the building (base, fronts, and roof).
• Planning Bonus – the player with the largest group of cards in one color scores 4 points

 The player with the most points wins. There is no tiebreaker listed.

My thoughts on the game

Grachtenpand is a part of Amsterdam that I have definitely enjoyed walking through during my many visits to that wonderful city.  Here, each player builds a set of buildings meant to imitate the beauty of that real life district of the city.

The game itself is quite simple, and just a few example hands should be enough to show people how to play the games.  It actually feels a lot like Star Wars Bounty Hunters that we reviewed earlier this year – in the sense that you draft a card of your deck choice into your hand, and then you play one of those cards to your area.  It also looks and feels a lot like Walking in Burano.

Timing is important/frustrating here. You need to get your shops, windows and roofs to all work together, but the hands rotate around the table with every turn, so the game ends up being more tactical instead of strategic.  Successful players are often those who luck into drawing the roof that they need when they’re at the right stage of the game to need it.  Also, being directly to the left of a player who isn’t paying attention to what you want helps too…

What we have found is that the game plays quick, and after a few games, super quick in our group. Part of that is due to some group think; it definitely feels like players want to end the game early.  By building shorter buildings (which do not score much each), but ending the game early, this does not allow other players to get the large 4 story buildings needed for the big payoffs.  And, even though the small buildings do not score a lot, it’s better than not being able to finish a big 4-story building that someone was planning.  I have even seen people hate draft and place a roof with a bonus needed by another player – scoring zero for themselves, but preventing a 5 point payoff for the next player in order.

For a casual game, this works great.  I like the way it reminds me of good times I have had in Amsterdam.  The game certainly looks beautiful, and for those wanting to transport themselves to ADAM for fifteen to twenty minutes – this game will give you that chance.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers

Ben B (2 plays): This is a light filler but it has no real staying power. There’s very little planning that you can count on and so the randomness starts to kill it for me. The building choices/decision making is quick but also based on mostly luck. We noticed there is a discrepancy in the rules where you score negatively for not meeting goals. There is a mention of this on BGG but no mention in the English rules. 

Jonathan F: I have yet to play it yet, but note that BGG has some variant rules in the file section that add a bit more to the game if you feel the version being reviewed sounds too light – https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3392735/official-3-4-player-variant-grachtenpand-kapteyn-e along with another one for 2 players – https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/3392732/official-2-player-variant-grachtenpand-duel

Alan H: I’ve enjoyed my two plays so far as it is a very light game but creates the look and feel of Amsterdam buildings. I was happy to support this new venture as it felt closer to the spirit of Kickstarter than many larger companies who now use this as their crowdfunding solution.

Joe Huber (6 plays): Of the Essen games I hadn’t played previously as prototypes, this is my favorite so far.  I found reasonable opportunities for planning – since the cards you pass can be taken on their way around, it’s not perfect, but you can reasonably see what is and what is not likely to be snatched by another player.  I could be wrong, but I think this is a game that will stick around for me, and one which with more play I might raise to an “I love it!” rating.  

Dan B. (4 plays):It’s definitely light but also short and fun enough that it works for me.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Alan H, Joe H, Dan B. Dale
• Neutral. 
• Not for me… Ben B.