Bank robbery - (K) a breeze?

The Million Dollar Giveaway
We players are indeed a quite violent folk. We conquer lands or equal to all the worlds, destroy cities and eat with relish for their residents and massacre us through hordes of undead / aliens / monsters. But we also have limits. A genuine and fully realistic simulated bank robbery? No, somewhere the fun stops. The same must probably have thought Ravensburger and ensures everyone's peace of mind by when The Million Dollar Giveaway (Matthias Cramer) rather than cleared a bank, but their safeguards are checked.

Two to four players and a tiptoi pen crack for locks, paralyze alarm and bypass the guard at the end to crack the vault and the gold therein to sniff briefly. The bank manager will certainly pay us a decent premium for the reveal of its lax safety precautions.

tiptoi
The Million Dollar Giveaway is a tiptoi game and as such requires the (not supplied) pin. This assumes in the present case on the one hand some organizational tasks, but also declares the rules. But as the predominant objective of the pen measures the time required for various actions. It can on the one hand the movement of the guard, but on the other hand, also be our actions. We move about in a new space, we show this to the pen by clicking on the active character, the symbol for running and the target room. Have we reached the goal, makes us the pin attention and we can start a new action. Thus, all players move in real time by the Bank and able to operate simultaneously at different points.

Phase 1: Learning and spying
Before the collapse Ravensburger has however asked the Learning and Spähphase in this case. In this, the characters learn skills that they deem appropriate for the slump in handy. Climbing and stealth are represented as well as cracking the vault or the elimination of car alarms. In addition to learning the players gather important information about the alarm system of the Bank. These range from the positions of the castles on the route of the Guardian to the switch consoles of alarm systems. As learning costs and the spying of the bank time. And time is scarce and strictly regulated at our intrusion. Every minute that we consume in preparing missing us later for the actual coup. This we can as soon as we feel prepared us sufficiently, begin at any time.

Phase 2: Sneak and cracking
Now the real game begins. All players start (mostly) against the Bank and now turn their newly acquired skills on. While players 1 about the castle crack runs 2 players on the ladies' room to the alarm system positioned there (yes, seriously) to disable. At the same time player sneaks 3 on patrolling guard over, is preceded by a gathering of reference wait until player 2 has the alarm disabled. Player 4 has meanwhile started the game (due to random in each Schedule Card) on the roof and climbing now through the window to a notice regarding the safe codes pursue. All this happens in real time and under time pressure, breakdown, panic and paranoia are inevitable. All the more gratifying, however, when all the players reach the safe within the time limit. Only then the game is won.

Conclusion
So far tiptoi was for me quite clearly in the area of ​​children's games and books. According to United's reservations were to have it really dealing with an adult game. The orange pen, the short game rules and the constant declarations of the speaker have done little in the first moment to reconsider this basic setting. Until the first game. And this began very captivating: In phase 1, the bank was analyzed and planned joint action, running in phase 2 directly to the guard's arms. Hmmm that's got to be better. So ran the same again and this time with success. In The Million Dollar Giveaway one must first try to understand something, the processes need to be clear. But then makes a bank robbery (even a simulated) a lot of fun. Nearly the whole mission on the adrenaline level high, even those who just wait for the other players has a fever or complains about their lame proceed. No trace of breeze. Rather, a very successful, cooperative play with fast entry and unused ideas.

Unfortunately, however, also comes the Million Dollar Giveaway not without minor points. Thus, the 3 levels of difficulty differ in the time available, to adapt to the players there are not. According to the game is second much more difficult, four very easily. Furthermore, degenerated into a routine phase 1 after a while, in principle, to learn (with minor variations) but always the same skills. Here a kind of quick-start function would have been useful.

Nevertheless, I am already looking forward to the next games of the adults tiptoi family. The Million Dollar Giveaway has already impressively demonstrated what is possible with technology.

@ Spielfreude.blogspot