Review of Thieves

Blurb from the publisher: 'The most exciting game of strategy and chance!

The rules only take a few minutes to learn. Games typically last 30 minutes, although fortune with the dice, the skill of the players, and the pace of play can result on shorter or longer times.'

What you get: Your EUR 40 or equivalent will buy you Thieves, an abstract game for two people with a playing time of upwards of 15 minutes. Thieves has already won the UK Games EXPO 2018 Best Abstract Game as well as the UK Games EXPO People's Choice 2018 Best Abstract Game awards.

In addition to the 6-page small-format English rulebook which can be downloaded from the publisher's website free of charge, the game also contains the following: one Game Board, one golden cast metal Coin, a pair of custom Dice, 8 hardwood Pieces, and a black velvet bag for the components.

Gameplay: Thieves is played on a 15 x 15 square board. From all the squares however, only the 64 white ones are visitable by the players' tokens. Each white square is surrounded vertically by four differently coloured squares, namely a green, a yellow, a red and a purple, while diagonally it is surrounded by black squares. Black squares cannot be interacted with. Each player begins with his four tokens from diagonally opposed corners on the board. The objective is to obtain the coin lying in the middle, carry it to one of the vacant corners of the board, and take it out of the board. The coin is initially stolen from the board, yet players can steal it from one another by using a move die when one of their tokens is next to the coin-carrying piece and carry it towards their escape corner.

Movement is dictated by the roll of the dice at the beginning of the player's turn. Each of the two six siders depicts the four aforementioned colours, a white square and a black square. Each of the initial four colours allows a player's tokens to cross a wall of the same colour at his effort to move from one white square to the other. The white square on the dice is a master key; any movement is allowed. The black square is used in two cases only: to steal the coin from its initial place in the center of the board, and to take it out of the board when the token carrying it is at the correct corner, accompanied by another of the player's tokens next to it.

The game is regulated by a few movement restrictions. Both dice have to be used, and the player may not choose to forfeit a move because it doesn't suit him. Each die move should be executed by a different token; a token cannot play twice and monopolize the full roll. A player cannot camp on an opponent's exit corner, nor can he block the exit's surrounding squares by more than one tokens. Passing and returning a coin in the same turn is not allowed, nor is it allowed to hand the coin to the opponent. Broadly speaking, that is pretty much it.

The strong points: Thieves is the proof that games can be built around extremely simple ideas. The thinking behind the board and the movement of the pieces is as easy as game designs get: roll two dice, move mandatorily two pawns if you can, only one if you cannot, none if you really can't move any whatsoever. Luck is important. If you keep on stumbling on the one-out-of-thirty-six wall which is rolling two blacks, the development of your pieces will be lacking. Just like backgammon or poker, it is not a single game that will determine a good player, but series upon series of games. Have you ever been on a Mediterranean island, watching old men mercilessly playing backgammon? That's what Thieves invites you to do; to play and play and play again, to master it until luck is nothing but the final hurdle between you and victory.

There are some obvious strategies to the game. The first is to give your pieces breathing space, so that they have moves that allow them to progress towards your goals, as opposed to performing forced and pointless moves on the board. Going gung ho with one or only two of them towards the objective at hand (steal the coin, move the coin, or dispose of the coin) is not a good idea. You should use your pieces to restrict the moves of your opponent, making it harder to claim the coin if you have it already, or making it easier for you to steal it back, if he has it. Keep focused on the board and on the options that your current placement gives you. Avoid having pieces on the edges unless absolutely necessary; their movement is restricted. Be mindful of the laws of probabilities. A token right next to a coin-carrying piece has a 33% chance to steal that coin with either of his dice, using the other to escape. That is a very, very high chance, and one which novice players tend to forget.

It is extremely easy to learn Thieves in a matter of mere minutes. Its main mechanic is roll and move after all, while the exceptions are few and intuitive. The hard thing is mastering the game, not learning it.

The game is a premium product and a beauty to behold. All the squares on the gorgeous board are either fimbriated or engraved. There is felt on the underside of the game board. The coin is heavy and luxurious, while the wooden tokens exude an air of timelessness an authenticity. My copy also included a luxurious die holder, thick felt inside and the sigil of Ægishjálmur on the outer side. This is the game played by pipe-smoking gentlemen at an exclusive club, in-between conducting business that reshape the world.

The weak points: It must be abundantly clear that Thieves is an abstract game. It is definitely more abstract than chess or Kumo Hogosha, were I to mention both a classic game as well as a more modern one. If that is not your cup of tea, you might want to pass.

As much as tactical positioning matters, randomness in Thieves is more heavy handed than that of backgammon. At many points during the game a move will be forced on a player. That is not because the game plays you, but because one constantly will find his opponent, his own pieces, or even the board's design algorithm blocking him. There is not much control over this. As stated earlier, one has to have the best possible distribution of his pieces on the board, understand rolling probabilities and roll the right thing at the right time.

My main issue with Thieves is the non-linearity of the design. The vast majority of games, ancient or newer ones, slowly progress towards an end. Chess, backgammon, and Settlers of Catan are standard examples were there is no backtracking, and where the game is on a path towards resolution irrespective of who performs better. Thieves does not work that way. You might be on your exit frantically trying to get the coin out, and in a moment's notice see the coin stolen, with the opposing player needing to transport it all the way across the board to try the same thing... with strong chances that the coin might be stolen once again, for the process to be repeated. This makes Thieves completely unpredictable when it comes to game length, and ultimately unsuitable when one has a short, fixed amount of time at his disposal.

A game like this shouldn't induce analysis-paralysis issues, yet it somehow does at times, as the designer himself confessed with some bewilderment and mirth. Playing with a timer might be too heavy-handed. Choose your opponent in the same way you would have picked him for backgammon. If the other guy is not fast enough to play, he is not good enough to play.

Be considerate of the exquisite board, if you wish it to last for many years to come. The game is about constantly sliding tokens on a luxuriously engraved board. Do it gracefully without pushing them downwards. It might not show after a few dozen games, at some point however signs of your thievery will be all over the board.

Conclusion: Thieves comes from a design school where backgammon is the ultimate game of luck management and chess is the game of strategizing without randomness. It might feel out of place when compared to modern designs, its simple and addictive gameplay however can easily obsess dedicated gamers as well as those who are looking for a challenge without needing to learn more than a handful of rules. Its premium materials and looks make it look like a classic. I won't be surprised if it becomes one; the awards it has won attest to it..

For more info on Thieves visit Merlin Games at http://www.merlingames.co.uk.

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