cover
author Dan Glimne
Grzegorz Rejchtman
publisher Jumbo Spiele
released 2002
players 3-5
playing time 45 minutes
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Moderne Zeiten

reviewed by Aaron Haag

Reading the name and looking at the game's cover does not really provide you with any clue about the theme of "Moderne Zeiten" (Modern Times). Many gamers will think it is about transportation, a notion that is seemingly confirmed when looking at the game's most prominent components: small Zeppelins that act as players' pawns. But this is far out as "Moderne Zeiten" actually is a stock trading game.

Players try to achieve a majority in the kinds of stock they openly display in front of them, a concept already known from classic games like Sid Sackson's "Acquire" or Alan R. Moon's "Airlines". If a player holds the majority in any type of stock at the end of his turn he moves his Zeppelin to the next vacant city space on the board displaying that stock, with the ability of choosing between several spaces if he holds several majorities. This space is then permanently marked occupied with the player's token. Additionally, a small player chit is placed on a city/stock matrix at the location of that stock and city combination. The players' ultimate goal is to reach majorities in both the stock column and the city rows on that matrix as these provide victory points at the end of the game.

Acquiring stock is performed by drawing cards from a face down stock pile and by bidding for a set of stock cards drawn from that stack and auctioned off by the active player. The highest bidder receives the set of cards and distributes his money bid evenly amongst the other players. This concept creates a permanent shift of "wealth" between the players and is asking for proper timing of one's acquisitions.

No stock trading game without a stock market crash, so that concept has been added as well. A crash occurs whenever a certain maximum number of stock cards are openly displayed in front of all players. Once that number is reached the stock with the most cards on display is removed from all players and put on the discard pile.

Let's look at the challenges the players are facing when playing "Moderne Zeiten":

"Moderne Zeiten" requires players to watch several areas at the same time while leaving you with the problem of not being able to tackle all of them. Like any good strategy game "Moderne Zeiten" requires careful planning and execution. Compared to the aforementioned "Acquire" and "Airlines" I view "Moderne Zeiten" as an "Airlines light" game, which can be played in less time, is a little less demanding but no less fun to play. Strongly recommended.

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