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1986 German Game of the Year spys race around a darkened town grabbing secrets and trying to hide their identity |
last update: November 20, 2004 | |||
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Variants Undercover (called Heimlich & Co. in Germany and re-released last year in the U.S. as Top Secret Spies) is probably the most under-rated Spiel des Jahres winner I know of... it's decried as "simplistic" and "luck-driven." Even Greg Schloesser, that paragon of gaming open-mindedness (we're disregarding your bias against Pit & Twitch here, Greg) finds Undercover lacking, complaining that the game moves too fast for you to have any affect on the outcome. But around here, we love this game. It's fast, furious, and especially sneaky when you play by the advanced rules. But I can see some of you still aren't convinced. The following variants tweak the luck factor and/or add a twist or two to this classic spy thriller. The Spys Took A Streetcar Try using the movement rule from Streetcar instead of rolling the die. This rule states that the player may move up to one more space than the person prior to him/her. Keeping Pace At the beginning of each round of turns, the start player rolls the die. Each player gets that many moves for this round. At the end of a round, the start player passes to the left, like the common Entdecker variant. Free Choice & Double Agents Instead of drawing an agent card, each player secretly notes a color on a slip of paper. Since this leads to possible "double agents", there can also be more than one winner of the game. Partners As usual, each player draws an agent card, then notes that color on a slip of paper. The cards are returned and mixed. Each player then draws and notes a second color. At the end of play, the winner is determined by the average value of each player's two agents. If 2 players with the same pair of agents should win, then there are two winners. Keep It Under Wraps This variant is used when playing the advanced game. For every blown cover, the guesser gets five points *and* (this is the new part) the unmasked player gets deducted five points. Ouch. Action Cards Top Secret Spies adds action cards - which I c an't comment on. (I haven't played that version.) Session reports seem to say that the game is much longer with the action cards. Give it a play and see what you think. Departures Here's a review of Undercover/Heimlich & Co... BoardgameGeek entry for Undercover/Top Secret Spies Houston Gamers by Ray Mulford | ||
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