Afrikan tähti

The Star of Africa (Finnish: Afrikan Tähti, Swedish: Africa Stjärna ) is a Finnish board game by Kari Mannerla ( 1930-2006 ). The game was released for the first time in Finland in 1951 and 1982 in Germany. It is the most famous board game in Finland.

History

Mannerla was professionally active in the advertising industry, incidentally, he designed several games.

Influenced by many novels about Africa and Humphrey Bogart movie Casablanca was built in the late 1940s the idea of ​​the game The Star of Africa, which he named after the diamond. He began in 1949 with the design of a map- like game board. The first version of the game was released in 1951. It was the first game that were used in the reversible counters. The game has been translated into 16 languages ​​, more than four million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, about half of them in Finland.

Reception and criticism

The simple game rules allow players of all ages can participate in the Star of Africa. The game is more of a happiness as a tactical game. Some critics are of the opinion that The Star of Africa was a colonialist game because of the fact European players the natural resources of Africa are raped.

Content of the traditional game pack

In the Finnish edition of the game are available:

• Map of Africa with marked cities and routes
• 5 game characters
• Tokens: The " Star of Africa "
• 2 rubies, each worth £ 1,000
• 3 emeralds, each worth 600 pounds
• 4 topazes, each worth 300 pounds
• 5 horseshoes that are worthless before finding the Star of Africa. After that one of the other players still win the competition if he brings first a horseshoe to Cairo or Tangier.
• 3 robbers loot the player the money
• 12 empty tokens

Regulate

The object of the game is to find the diamond "Star of Africa " and to bring to Cairo or Tangier. In order to find the diamonds, you have to visit different places of Africa on the game board. The small round tokens are Pre Game shuffled and, with the back up, put on the red circles on the game board. Each player selects a playing piece and places his character in one of two possible starting cities, Tangier or Cairo. Each player also receives three bills, each worth £ 100 as seed money for the trip.

After the preparations, the search for the Star of Africa. The player turns rolling the dice and moving their pawns according to the number rolled eyes. The country roads are white with black dots. Your use is free. The sea routes are light blue with dark blue dots. To use a sea route, you have to pay 100 pounds. If one has no more money, you can always take only two steps to the sea with each round. The routes are red lines. To use a flight path, you have to pay 300 pounds.

When you reach a red circle on the board you have to pay 100 pounds to turn a token. If you can not pay or will the token may contact you even if exposing in the same field and a 4, 5 or 6 dices in the next round. You can decide not to apply the token also. On inverting one must follow the image Note the token.

The winner is the player who has the Star of Africa found and then brought to Tangier or Cairo. If another player takes a horseshoe - after the star has been found - and this creates to Tangier or Cairo before the star arrives there, he wins.

Special events

When you visit different places or districts following events occur:

• Cape Town: The player who arrives first in Cape Town, gains 500 pounds.
• Gold Coast: When a player finds a gem on the Gold Coast, he gets twice the sum of its value.
• Slave Coast: If you turn an empty token on the Slave Coast, you have to wait three rounds before you may roll again.
• St. Helena: You have to stay in St. Helena until you roll a one or a two.
• Sahara: One must stay in the Sahara until you roll a one or a two.

Variants

• In addition to the traditional board game, there are also different versions: a magnetic travel game, a card game and a memory game. On the occasion of the anniversary year 2011, a retro game and the 60-year anniversary edition appeared.
• The game Inkan aarre ( German for "The Treasure of the Incas " ) by Kari Mannerla was published in 2005 and is very similar to the game The Star of Africa. However, the game board is a map of South America.
• Since 2005, every two years, the Star of Africa World Cup. In 2011, won Maxemilian Grönblom from Finland.