RETTE SICH WER KANN

title

Publisher: Walter Müllers Spielewerkstatt

Author: Ronald Wettering

Tester: Aaron Haag

Game Tested: 1993 edition (OOP)

Scenario: Having fought for hours with heavy seas the crew of the Santa Timea finally gives up and abandons ship. The last words of the captain still ring in their ears as the crew boards the lifeboats: "Rette sich wer kann" (trans. "Every man for himself"). While they watch the Santa Timea sink officers and crew suddenly realize that the years of negligence pay their toll as the first leak springs: the boats are not at all suitable for a long journey! Luckily enough, three tiny islands are visible in the distance and fighting with the heavy waves seven boats try to reach the safety of their shores.

The Game: The game begins with the crew boarding the life boats. Three to six players in turn place one of their officers and sailors into a boat that still has seats available. Once boarding is completed players are faced with a random selection of sailors in these seven boats. Each of the boats only has to move three spaces to reach the safety of an island but movement as well as all other decisions are strictly based on democratic majority votes. All votes are open so there is ample possibility for diplomacy, back stabbing and revenge. An important role is given to the turn leader, the man "with the stick", as he will break any ties. So timing is an issue when planning a coup.

Voting is performed by selecting the desired color (boat or crew) secretly on a little wheel and revealing the vote simultaneously with all other players. Each player has three times the possibility to solely decide the outcome of a vote, overruling all of the other votes, by selecting the "captain's hat" instead of a color on the little wheel. There is a nasty catch to this though: if more than one player decides to use this "wild card" they cancel each other out.

Each round begins with deciding which boat is to spring a leak. If the boat decided upon by the majority still has vacant seats one of these vacancies is filled with a blue "water" token. Every now end then players select a boat with no vacancies in which case one of the men aboard has to leave the boat immediately and is replaced by the leak. This again is resolved by a majority vote but this time only those players having men in the boat in question are allowed to vote. Each sailor has one vote, each officer two, so its good advice to avoid having minority in a boat. Its also a good idea to "support" your valuable officers with at least one sailor in case you have to select one of your men to leave a boat.

After the leak has been placed the boat is checked for safety: it will immediately sink if there are more leaks than remaining men aboard who will provide ample food for the waiting sharks.

The next decision the players face is which boat should move? Again all players secretly select a color (or the hat) and the vote is resolved as explained above. After only three moves a boat reaches the shores of one of the islands and all men aboard jump to their safety, yielding victory points for their players.

Now comes the final phase of each round, which adds spice (and chaos) to the game. Starting with the turn leader each player has to take one of his men off one of the boats if possible, since it is not allowed to take more than one man out of each boat. Then, beginning with the player who last made one of his men jump out this player decides into which boat his man should climb back into. It is not allowed to climb into the same boat the man had just left. This again may lead to a situation where a crew member is unable to re-board leaving him to instantly drown. If this happens all boats are checked for their safety again, i.e. whether there are at least as many men aboard as there are leaks. Even unattractive boats with many leaks suddenly become the only option to prevent one's man from sure death - a bird in the hand ...

After about an hour's play all boats have either sunk or reached an island and the game ends.

Playing Time: The rules are explained in less than 10 minutes, the game plays in about 60 to 90 minutes depending on the "negociation skills" of the group.

Similar Games: Flusspiraten (Klaus Zoch, Walter Müller), Intrige (Stefan Dorra), Adel verpflichet (Klaus Teuber)

Westpark Gamers' Opinion: The game is real fun if you don't take things too serious. Negotiations can be swift and players who like double crossing and revenge will have the time of their life. Sometimes it may be hard to stop those two players who decided to gang up on the others and who constantly help each other. Due to the clever mechanism of changing boats in the last phase of every turn there is however sufficient opportunity for the other players to break the alliance by having these men end up in boats with mainly "hostile" crew.

More often than not your are faced with the proposal to sacrifice one of your "hat" votes just to prevent the leader(s) to move a particular boat. As hard as it may sound but this very often is the only chance to prevent early victory of a player. The problem is: will the group reward this sacrifice later on or will they kick your men overboard at the next opportunity? ("Oh, sorry about that - yes, you're right, you did us a favor earlier. We shouldn't really have done this!" ... followed by an evil grin). Alliances shift constantly and back stabbing and revenge are a predominant element of the game.

As you can imagine this game needs the right set of players to enjoy. No hurt feelings here or the game will not be enjoyed. Some tactical whining comes in handy though ("Why me again, I'm last anyway..." as Moritz likes to say) just to be able to prepare for the winning coup later on. Saving those valuable "hat" tokens for later can be a tremendous advantage, too - so take all your negotiation skills and convince the other players that someone else should vote with the "hat". All in all it is better to not expose oneself as the early leader giving all other players a clear choice of whom to kick out of a boat next round.

Like all games from Walter Müller's Spielewerkstatt the game components are of excellent quality. Ships, men, "leaks", hat tokens and turn leader log are of high quality colored wood; only the voting "wheel" is a bit cumbersome to assemble due to the double sided selotape used (I'd recommend taking a very close look at how this is intended to be assembled as it is hard to correct any mistakes).

Aaron's Rating: 6 (out of 10)

Westpark Gamers' Rating: 6.5

Links to further information:

Luding Link for Rette sich wer kann

 

Funagain link for Rette sich wer kann