I know, I know ; so many posts for any game like "I want to buy the game, how is it, is it worth it, please tell me what to do with my money because I don't know how to spend it" and all and all...

BUT !

I usually read games reviews before buying, instead of asking to anybody on forums. Thing is, I was about to read the online available rules, before buying it, to make myself an opinion, you know, and I discovered... that it was a game from my own country ! ****, was I surprised... not a game from FFG, hmmm, what should I do, I don't own any game from other company than FFG, I'm not usually into boardgames, that's why, but I love FFG products, and I **** fear french boardgames, because they usually are not as good as german or american ones, plus rules are talkactive like crazy but games are boring, terms and words are very very badly chosen, it is not smooth... my last experience was with Knights of Camelot, I borrowed it from a french friend because I heard it was a bit like Battlestar, daaaamn was I disappointed ! It sucks ! Rules are so wordy and try to be so immersive, and when you play, ****, sorry but it sucks !

Anyway ! I then thought that buying Tannhauser in its original version, french that is, (I only like original version when obviously I can understand the language of the product), I was scared. Would it be bad ? I read the reviews, from french players, it's 60/40, but the 40% (bad reviews) seem to make good points : very bad material, empty box, rules extremely messy, not really original but for the theme, and so on...

I then thought of asking here : could I have the reviews of FFG-english-version owners ? Did FFG make a really good work, did they actually even improve it ? I could make an exception for once and buy this translated product. Any french player around here who saw the two versions and could tell me the differences ? Thanks to everybody for the most-objective reviews !

Hi!

I don't own french version, but i hope i can help you

First of all : "rules are talkactive like crazy but games are boring" ....

explaining rules to my friends (they've never see this game before) took about 5 minutes. It's approximately half of the time we needed to make second turn

I don't know french version, only english one, but it's great To be honest, there are few points, where are the rules not expressly determined, but it's corrected on the internet.

The game itself governs you a lot of strategic options, but not too much, so you couldn't play without rulebook

If you have friends to play, I think it's must have

Yo sa3xxx, and thanks for this first reply.

Ok, so you're telling me the game is easy to teach, good point. I began yesterday to read the rules, but in english, that is, not the Take On You ones, but FFG ones : they are SO different from any other FFG game I know ! And I'm pretty sure it's because of this translation from a french game. The rules are like "playing" the game theme, you know, taking a tone and all, which is always absent from an other big-thematical game, like Arkham or Twilight. In these games, rules are really serious and talk only about procedures. In tannhauser so far, I read stuff like "put away your paper and pen, because you won't need any in this game, because it is all brand new and it rocks !". You know. Kind of childish tone. Which is typical from french games. I was disappointed to find that back in the FFG rules.

I'll still wait for other Tannhauser gamers to tell me it is still worth it in english as you said, sa3xxx. Thanks again !

Wow, it's been a while, now, I've posted here to ask for a review, and so far only one guy answered to me (thanks again sa3exxx by the way). It doesn't reassure me about the quality of that game ! I can't help, even if it isn't sensible, to compare that forum and Arkham's one : there's always one or two new players a day, that's amazing... Here... Hmmm, very bad omen, that might actually prevent me from buying the game, in the end.

My experience with tannhäuser is, that it takes a While to teach it. Even though the ground mechanics are quite Simple, you have to tell the Players about the Equipment. If you don't know your Equipment you have already lost.

This also means, that game Preperation can take a While when you're still new to the game, till you have chosen your equipent. Also during game, the first games you tend to grab the Manual to find out what excately did a special Item.

A problem with the board os, that there are not lines between the adjecent circles, so you have to guess sometimes. Another minor Flaw is the tracking of Victory points: There only tokens with numbers on both sides, wich go to 9. I reccomend a D20 or a Numberboard for that.

But when you now how the game Works, its fun and easy to play. you don't have much downtime, since theres much interaction. (most of the tme fighting ) and you move you figurres alteranting.

Due to scenarios and the Charchter packs and the Equient, no game will be the same as the one before, if you want. and the Major Flaws can be nihilated due to Player additions.

Hi

1. yes, VP trackers have numbers only on one side. So what? You only need to see one number at the moment (actual number of VP)

2. yes, lines between circles are missing in the game (i think due to aesthetics), but map with lines could be found on internet, so don't worry

To be fair I have to say, you should know your equipment as well as opponents, so you wouldn't get surprised by that

to 1: Well i Tend to end up with 10+ VP, and the highest number is 9, so this is a little bit annoying but easy to solve (D20)

to 2: Yeah there are on the internet, found them like 20 minutes ago. but from my stand it could have been already on the game board.

to 3: Thats true, and tahts the main point slowing you down in the beginning: all the equip to know. but after afew games you now the very most of it, nd there are good Comparison sheets on the Internet to print out.

Urd said:

1. heh funny, most of the game i'm on 1-3 VP But that's because we play deathmatch and the team which survived wins the game. So we use VP as soon as possible (not literaly)

2. yup, but still, there are 3-4 confusing points, so after one check, you wouldn't need it anymore

cya

Why not download and read the rules in French ? I mean the english ones from FFG are a jus a translation. Also why not ask on the french forums ?

Hey Plageman,

I'd say because from what I saw, the french editor does not provide the full rules ; plus, I read some part of it, and, well, as many french games, it sucked, it was wordy, amatorish, childish, it did really suck. So I read the full FFG ones, and yes, I definitely saw it was a translation from the french rules because wow, jokes were so lame, and tone was unusual from FFG (like "kaboom", "ouch", all that craps).

But hey, I stayed patient, and it looks like it will be worth it : I just read in an other thread that FFG bought the whole rights for this game and might remake it ? great. I'll buy that one. A real FFG product. Cool ! Problem solved ! I hope.

Hem said:

Ouch... from what i see here, i can guess anti-french feeling seems to be still vivacious on the other side of the Atlantic...

**troll off**

Italians say "traddutore tradditore". I dunno the exact quote but it means translating is betraying (the original sense of words). If the translation is poor, any text would look crappy to you (and that's somehow normal). A real good quality traduction requires a lot of work and a good knowledge of both languages because word-to-word translation is way far from being enough. I guess french games published in the US just have their rules translated by some tool or website... and the result is often lame.

Nasher said:

No worries : I couldn't be anti-me, could I ? Not with the old hat and the bread under the arm, but still in Paris. And I meant I usually find french games lame in their actually original version, so in french ! That is why I said that when I read the Tannhauser rules from FFG, I saw a tone unusual from them and I guessed it was because of the translation from french. Amatorish, wordy, bad jokes and all. Current french style Now : Looking for the REAL FFG TANNHAUSER !!!