Game Preview: Hab & Gut

By W. Eric Martin
October 8, 2008

Publisher: Winning Moves Germany
Designer: Carlo A. Rossi
Players: 3-5
Ages: 10+
Playing Time: 45 minutes
Release Date: Spiel 08
Price: €25

Stock market manipulation games have been around for years, but with Hab & Gut, a new title that Winning Moves Germany will debut at Spiel 08, designer Carlo A. Rossi puts a new spin on the genre by incorporating the notion of shared information – an essential element of real stock markets – into the game play.

Players are stock brokers during the second Industrial Revolution, trying to make as much money as possible while also coming across as good citizens by donating money to charity. Whoever donates the least to charity by the end of the game is fed to the crocodiles not allowed to win, no matter how wealthy she’s made herself.

Six stock values are tracked on a chart, with all stocks starting at the same level; a deck of cards representating changes in stock values – from +6 to -6 for each of the six companies – is shuffled and eight cards are placed on each cardholder that sits between each pair of players. Thus, you can see 16 cards at once, with each of your neighbors having half the information that you do along with hidden knowledge of their own.

The game lasts two rounds, with each round lasting four turns. On a turn, you either buy 1-3 stocks, sell 1-3 stocks or place one of your stocks on a personal gameboard; this board represents your donation to charity and stocks on it are sold at the end of each round. (The selloff at the end of round one gives players some idea of where they stand in terms of their generosity.) Following this first action, you use the info available to you to manipulate the market. Says Rossi, “The player must pick and play two cards, one from each cardholder, with one card being played for the full amount depicted on the card (whether positive or negative) and the other card being played at half value.”

The round ends once all the cards have been played. Players sell their stocks for charity, then they deal out another set of eight cards to each cardholder for the second round. At the end of this round, players sell all of their stock and the richest player – assuming that he hasn’t been too stingy – wins the game.

Rossi says that the game came to being in 2004 as a horse-racing game, but mutated over time through an Olympian setting to the current stock broker theme. “My title was 1871, the year that started the second Industrial Revolution, but then it was mistaken for a train game,” he says. “From that first project to the current version, everything has changed but the mechanism of the shared cardholders.”

While individuals have more control with fewer players, given that they see a larger percentage of the information available, Rossi says, “for my taste, I’d rather play with five then with three. The more players in the game, the more fun it is.”

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Comments:

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Wow.  This mechanic looks really, really interesting.  I would love to try this. Posted by James Ridgway on Oct 8, 2008 at 02:37 PM | #

Same here, it feels unique and refreshing… Looking forward to Essen :) Posted by Dimitri Giako on Oct 8, 2008 at 03:11 PM | #

I playetested this when it was a horse-racing. And when Carlo was not yet known as a good author! I reccommend this game ! Good luck Carlo! Emanuele Posted by Emanuele Ornella on Oct 8, 2008 at 04:43 PM | #

Any word on a domestic US release? Posted by Jonathan Franklin on Oct 8, 2008 at 05:05 PM | #

Definitely sounds intriguing.  I rather like that shared knowledge in Garden Competition, so I’m confident that it will provide some interesting stock market action.... Posted by Nathan Morse on Oct 8, 2008 at 08:59 PM | #

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