Hansa Teutonica Review - The Best Eurogame Ever?

well then if the fun quotient equals x oh hi there i got up early uh yesterday   to try and work out if this is the greatest eurogame ever made or not this is hansa teutonica a   game for three to five players that uses cubes  to model the mercantile hanseatic league in   13th century germany the board is the colour of a  soiled bandage and the rules explanation will take   at least 20 minutes now i know this stuff makes  you want to run away but what you oh you're   actually running away okay you know that this is  not my first board game rodeo i have the keys that   door is double locked so just shut up sit down  and let me and the cubes and the many many rules   show you a good time you're feeling better  look chill out i've made you a nice tea   and look you have a peanut and i'm going to teach  you the foundation of hansa which is really pretty   simple when it's your turn in hansa you simply  place your cubes wherever you like and socketing   these little wooden cubes is a marvelously tactile  and satisfying act that you get to do a hundred   times every game when you complete a route you can  then exchange your traders for a trading post at   either end if you now have the most trading posts  there or in the case of a tie the rightmost post   congratulations you now run the trade in that  city and you're well on your way to getting sweeeeeeeet   points from now on you get one point every time  that route is completed again and at the end of   the game you get two points for every city you  control and points for every trading post in   your biggest uninterrupted group extra points  are also available if your trading posts happen   to trace a line from west to east and for putting  your discs representing merchants in these barrels   representing uh barrels which seems inhuman  but nobody ever topped the hanseatic league   tables by asking questions so that's the game in  a nutshell unfortunately i recovered that nutshell   by sticking my arm down the throat of a mean man  called mr rules who has a lot more to teach you   he has a lot more to teach all of us oh no he's  looking at me again how many more board game   reviews do i have to do mr rules it's been 10  years what i'm saying is that just because the   basics of hansa are simple and doesn't have many  components does not mean this is a simple game to   teach or play so let's get into the thick of it  can i have one of those nuts actually this talkin' nutshells has made me peckish oh my goodness  you're a savage this is worse than the root review   please imagine the following you're spending  your turns making a route you're making a   route you're making oh *** **** no if you thought  it felt great just placing a cube in a slot   and it very much does just wait until you have  reached across the board with all your friends   watching to place a cube no no no no exactly where  they don't want you to it is a feeling as sweet   as flinging an unasked-for-sugar-cube across the  room to land in your friend's coffee because you   see in hansa anyone can dislodge anyone from  a route onto an adjacent route but it costs   them one extra cube and in a feat of inexplicable  dark age german asexual reproduction the dislodged   trader becomes two traders just getting in the  way is such an important and fun part of hansa   that players will often spend their turn placing  cubes on important groups that they themselves   have no interest in and no one else has shown  any interest in just as an annoyance investment   that might one day pay grouchy dividends but this  mechanic is a double-edged sword sowing valuable   routes with your traders might see you reaping  double the crop of cubes as they're dislodged   but if you misjudge how much your opponents  want those roots or if they're just feeling   similarly spiteful they might just put one cube  down so that you can't complete the route either   so now you've achieved nothing no actually it's  worse than that because you in fact wasted those   previous turns oh no no it's even worse than that  because you wasted those previous turns and now   you have less cubes to play with so now if you  think of players blocking one another as like   the cold tap that pours nuance and complexity  into the lovely bath that is hansa teutonica now i'm going to tell you about the hot tap  i'm going to tell you about upgrading   five wildly important cities around the board  have these yellow banners and if you complete   routes attached to those cities you have the  option of placing a trading post as normal   or you can permanently make yourself stronger your  player board in hansa is a little desk which is   quaint and i love it but if you're young what is a  desk well basically desks are what people used to   feel really anxious before the invention of the  internet and it's exactly the same in hansa as   you upgrade each power you add to your reserve of  playing pieces and reveal a new number this is how   many actions you get a turn and you'll notice  that the first time you upgrade it you go from   two actions to three actions so until your friends  catch up you are playing fifty percent more hansa teutonica than them it's ridiculous and we're  just getting started this is how many of your   pieces you can move from anywhere on the board  to anywhere else on the board if you take a swish   move action this is the score multiplier for your  biggest contiguous region at the end of the game   so that's huge and this is the privilegium  only by upgrading the privilegium do you   even have the option of placing your traders in  the different colored trading posts on the board   making this the first board game that  i'm aware of to model white privilege now when i say that this desk is a source of  anxiety um there's a couple of reasons why   that is the first is it is so unpleasant watching  your friends unlock incredibly powerful abilities   if you haven't done it first the other  reason it's a source of anxiety is   this system you can look at it and clearly see  that you will get twice as powerful three times   as powerful four times as powerful by the end of a  game of hansa and that makes you feel like the   game expects great things from you which  in turn makes every turn feel important   the placement of every cube feel important it  just shows you that the game will accelerate   and new players will get really excited by this  upgrade system after all who wouldn't want to   turn their accountant into some kind of cool super  accountant but actually this is really dangerous   this is a system so sharp you can cut yourself on  it because hansa is not a long game in fact you   can bash out a three-player game of it in under  an hour which is awesome in and of itself but   what it means is that all of these actions you're  taking to upgrade yourself quickly become tinged   with dread it's 20 minutes into the game should  you really still be upgrading yourself while your   friends are taking all the good trading posts  in central germany should you really still be   upgrading yourself when your opponent has taken  control of the trading post attached to that   upgrade city meaning they get a point every time  you upgrade yourself and you'll probably still   be wrestling with these questions when the game  ends which occurs with the breathtaking finality   of a guillotine the way that hansa teutonica  ends is truly shocking and yet it may be one of   my favorite ways that any board game ends so the  moment someone reaches 20 points purely from the   luscious drip economy of their trading posts the  whole ride just boom oh stops and everyone is left   nursing their whiplash and commiserating with  one another about what they didn't achieve   let me make this clear there is no everybody gets  one more turn the person who triggered the end of   the game doesn't even get to finish their turn  with the rest of their actions the game is over   and you're just gonna say oh i was just about to  upgrade my keys oh yeah i was just about to reach   east to west there's nothing for it but to feel  that eugh you're not you haven't had enough of this   game and you're already thinking about what you'll  do better sooner next time so those are the basics   of hansa teutonica now spoilers i am going to  spend the rest of this video talking about why   this game is a masterpiece so let's just get  a couple of criticisms out of the way first   now this theme is not great the best thing i can  say about it is that once you're actually playing   the game you're just someone with a desk and a map  and you don't have to think about being a german   mercantile trader at all but the other problem  i have with it is well the game it reminds me of   most is tigris and euphrates which is to say both  are games that i've played over and over that just   seem to get better because a) they have simple rule  sets that reveal more beauty and complexity with   every play as if i'm exploring a legal labyrinth  and b) they're both fantastically interactive   so that every game feels fresh because what my  opponents do is always different and yet tigris and euphrates and hansa teutonica two absolutely  horrible names that sound more horrible together   are both games that i can't recommend for  that same reason a simple rule set that belies   incredible complexity because in contrast with a  lot of modern board games especially games that   shut up and sit down recommends which are designed  to be easy going and welcoming from the first play   where players will naturally collapse into great  piles of points no matter what they do getting   points in tigers and euphrates is hard getting  points in hansa is hard and because they're both   such interactive games you can expect your friends  to make it as hard as possible for you on top of   that and arguably this is how board games should  be designed if you want to create something truly   legendary think about how difficult it is to  figure out what a good strategy looks like in   chess or go and yet this thinking is anathema to  most modern board game designs and most modern   board game nights where people just want to learn the  rules which is tedious and then start having fun   with hansa and tigris and euphrates you learn  the rules then you look at the game and think   wait this still seems difficult what's going  on and yet there are so many reasons why   this is one of the vanishingly few games even  in my board game collection where if someone   at any point says do you want to  play a game of hansa i will say   hell yes there are so many reasons why that is  well let's start with the fact that everything   you can do in this game whether that's filling  roots blocking roots or upgrading your abilities   is a moorish addictive action that you want  to do again and again and again and you can   because never mind the pastoral trudging box art  this is a game with the acceleration of a ferrari   you can set it up in 60 seconds you can take your  turn in six seconds from your very first turn all   of your actions feel so important and it stays  that way for the entire game because hansa does such an expert job of hiding which player is  actually winning until you've crossed the finish   line hansa teutonica is like the child's birthday  party of strategy games it's so exciting there are   distractions everywhere there are sugary little  rewards for you to gorge yourself on and yet   the whole thing has this pawl of dread over it  because you know that all too soon it will come   to an end i'll tell you what else but let's slow  things down a bit if board games at their heart   are simply an excuse to sit down with people you  care about and just share something for a moment   hansa teutonica is a timely reminder that games  with huge boards and a million components are just   creating space and barriers between you and  your friends and sometimes it can be really nice   to have a small board that players slip closely  around and not many components so that everybody   is looking at the same thing and touching the  same thing eurogames as a genre after all really   strive to allow players to interact and compete  without fighting directly and hansa teutonica is   also a master class in how to enable players to  interact without fighting because what it creates   is an endless series of meet cutes between  different players in different circumstances   there's the little spark of frustration when you  get in your friend's way frequently followed by   them tacitly acknowledging that yours was a smart  play by them informing you that they're dislodging   you there are stubborn standoffs where two players  become equally invested in the same route willing   one another to blink there's the farcical dance  of players trying to take control of the same town   and the shared agony when a popular route sees  one player getting a point over and over with   everybody encouraging everybody else to do  something about it and take control when nobody   does i don't know if hansa teutonica is for  everybody it's really pretty tricky and really   pretty brown but i will say that if you feel  inclined to take a chance on it if you think   it might be for you and your friends it is easier  than ever to do so because of this new edition   now there are a couple of problems with it first  off they've called it the big box when it's not a   big box at all it is in fact a normal sized box also  i'm very sad that they redid the cover art because   the original box art features this marvelously  expressionless man and also an easter egg of the   game board on his wall we made fun of old school  box art back in the day but now i find all of it   really charming and i want it back i didn't know  what i had when i had it anyway what's important   about this new big box edition is that not only  did the publishers keep the price exceedingly low   and my goodness i could kiss them for that but it  includes the two expansion boards for hansa which right so if you thought going to germany was  boring what if i said you could go to eastern   germany as well as being different in all kinds  of fiddly little secret ways that you'll come   to notice in time it introduces the new mechanic  of sea routes which have a permanent unique bonus   each time you complete them but of course i  said the big box edition included two new boards   be still my beating nationalist heart you can now  go to england much like in real life england is   difficult it features a fascinating and horrible  system where you can't build in wales or scotland   unless you currently have the right most trading  post in cardiff or carlisle please come to england   nobody seems to want to anymore and on  top of that and fair warning i haven't   played with these two modules because we  did all of our testing of hansa teutonica for this review online but there are mission  cards which give you extra points if you   have trading posts in particular cities that  could maybe even be good for new players   because it would give them some direction they  wouldn't otherwise have and a selection of new   king's favour tiles which offer ludicrously  powerful upgrades if you sacrifice a turn to   get them i am so proud of pegasus spiele for  putting this together um the new maps are great   they're really great they're lots of fun they're  more complicated than the original map um but what   they really add that's nice is variety um hansa  was already a game where i'd play with three and   then i'd be excited to play it with four because  it's a bit different than excited about the five   because it's a bit different now i can do that  and i can be cycling what map i'm playing on   just superb and then you've got the extra  cards and favorite styles absolutely fantastic   as part of this review i went into my office and  to look at my collection see what board games not   card games but board games i could find that  were as cheap as this that i also love i found   flamme rouge isle of skye and that was it this is  a truly truly terrific proposition assuming that   you enjoy it and your friends enjoy it and  that won't necessarily be for everyone but   if you think it could be you why not take a punt  board games have a truly robust resale market   after all finally to close out this review we've  got a bit of a special treat for you so many of   you left comments on our my city review saying  you really enjoyed the segment at the end where   you just watched me play a game so i'm going to do  exactly the same thing for hansa teutonica obviously   it's not a game you could solo that would be  ridiculous um so to achieve the same effect i'll   just be sort of playing three players um kind  of triple fisting it and uh and so that should   be a similarly soothing and relaxing experience  for you thanks so much for watching everybody that's kind of an obvious move isn't it kind of a   obvious annoying move to start the game with but  that's cool oh yeah you would do that **** bag what did you just call me i didn't say anything yeah i'll  dislodge you okay there you go not happy about it oh let's put a merchant there actually   you're such an **** excuse me nothing i didn't say  anything let's go up there oh you're not going   to dislodge me no i don't i don't think so maybe  you're wasting my time i've got better things to do   what no you said something just just  play the game just play the game   why would you do that why why wouldn't i do  that well i don't know because you're an idiot   i'm not playing games with you anymore  why would i even want to play games with you i don't want to **@*$%$#-

Channel: Shut Up & Sit Down

Views: 203,135

Rating: 4.9382715 out of 5

Keywords: Shut Up and Sit Down, SUSD, SU&SD, Board Game Review, Review, Board Games, Board Gaming, Boardgame, Board Game, Gaming, Tabletop, Fun Games, Quintin Smith, Hansa Teutonica, Hansa Big Box, Strategy Games

Id: khluadSO_Ic

Length: 17min 37sec (1057 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/laxar2]

Hansa teutonica is my favourite type of game, a high interaction euro that plays in under an hour. I really hope people don’t avoid the game based off of the theme/ presentation because it’s really great.

[u/UNO_LegacyTM]

Is this the one that got stolen off of Tom? (context: mentioned near the end of the Knizia podcast that Quinns pulled a game from Tom because he wanted to do the review more)

[u/Varanae]

Quedlinburg is a real place!?

[u/ChromakeyDreamcoat]

A bit off topic, but what board game reviewers are as entertaining/HQ as SU&SD? I feel like I can literally watch their reviews any time as entertainment and not even care about the actual content of the review. Are there any others that are similar?

[u/fantseepants]

Fantastic game! And contrary to how he opens the video, it really isn't terribly complicated (though he says later that it is pretty simple/elegant).

[u/milkyjoe241]

I'm really excited to see the Big Box is not a big box.

Space it tight, and I have to carry board games to the places I play them. A big box for a medium game doesn't work. Why would I take a large box when I can have two smaller ones in its spot and those two can cover for different situations.

[u/Pwnage291]

Not a game for me, but I was curious how fast this would sell out. BGB had 7 in stock when the video was 15mins old, and sold out within the hour. Amazon raised its price from 49.99 CAD to 79.99 CAD.

[u/PM_ME_A_COLOR]

After watching this video together, my wife expressed that she's very interested in the game.

"Ehhh," I reply, "I don't know if I'm totally sold on it though, 'simple with a complexity that develops over several plays' sounds like a Twilight Struggle kind of thing and we still didn't like that after several plays."

"Listen to me, husband. I like board games where you BEAT the other person. I do not care about points. I get no joy when a game ends and everybody gets to count up all their points. I want to kick butts."

Sometimes I am just in awe of how acutely defined her taste in board games is. And sometimes I am scared.

[u/flip154]

Is there a credible 2 player variant now?