Urland

Distributor:	Doris & Frank
Category:	Strategy game
Players:	3-5
Play time:	1:00-1:30
Ages:	12+
Content:	1 Game board (3 continents divided into 12 land zones and 5 ocean) 5 x 28 Primitive creatures, known as "Ichtos", plus some spares. 10 Extra move chips 7 Volcano tiles. 13 Environment chips (area chips plus a panic chip). 2 Set of cards with 11 Gene cards plus short version (English and German sets) 1 Rules cards (German and English upon request)
Game target:	The player whose Marker is furthest along the Scoring Track at the end of the game wins.
Rules:	Rules in English
Strategy:	-
Comments:	My edition is from 2001. The designer is Doris Matthäus and Frank Nestel. Course of a turn: 1. Environment player hides a chip, the rest are given to the dummy. 2. Each Ichto player takes 2 actions (with 3 players, 3 actions each) - Move onto land (1 Ichto) - Propagation: 3 gives +1 Ichto and 6 gives +2 Ichtos. - Water actions: As many Ichtos as you choose, may move from one water space to an adjacent. - Retreat: Ichtos return to your hand + Possible acquisition of abilities 3. Scoring - Competition: weakest players are removed, strongest players get 3 points, others 2 points. - Coexistence: all get 2 points. - Monopoly: 3 points. - Mutation, if a marker has been reached on the scoring track - Volcano, if there are only 2 environment chips left. 4. The dummy player becomes the new environment player. - Panic, if a panic chip has been revealed. Final scoring: 1. The most creatures in total: 3 points 2. The most land creatures: 2 points. Normally I'm not fond of autographs, but I'm especially proud of the fact that I've got one from Doris Matthäus with a small drawing of her "famous" hedgehog. You can see it in the upper right corner on the front of the game box.
Extract from Essen game report 2001.	It had been really crowded in the room when we finally took the time to try Frank & Doris’ game "Urland". Nice-looking game with funny drawn cards, although a bit abstract. Some people call it Ursuppe light, but I can’t make the comparison. You had to plan so you get point during the rounds you’re passive. The starting player chooses which region should be scored during the round and the player to the left of him his doing nothing, meanwhile the other can move ichtos (the name of the small creeps in the games) or breed new ones. Three times during the game, when the first person has reached certain points on the scoring tracks, everyone are bidding for new genes, which appeared to be important for the rest of the game. Beware that you must have ichtos in your store in front of you with which you make you make your blind bidding, but you pay the bid through removing the same number of ichtos from the board! It’s an interesting mechanism. You have to plan ahead and it’s sometimes a brain-killer. The pretty high abstraction level probably requires several plays to get around with good playing (CGS=7, SL=4+, TB=7, Fredrik=7, Magnus didn’t want to give a rate before more plays).

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