Date: 22nd June 2007
Game played: Dieb von Bagdad, Der ( Queen ) BGG Id: 22278

We then turned to the remaining Spiel-des-Jahres contender that we had not yet played. Thief of Bagdad by Thorsten Gimmler and published by Queen is about trying to manoeuvre your thieves around the six palaces in Bagdad to steal the treasure chests located there from under the noses of the guards. On your turn, you play cards to add thieves to a palace, move your own or neutral guards and move your thieves. When you have assembled enough of your thieves in a palace you get to take a chest. The first player to secure 4 chests (in a 4-player game) wins the game.

We found this to be an ok game but nothing special - it's pretty simple and not brainless so it sort of fits the SdJ requirements but I find all the other contenders to be better games. The endgame appears to be geared towards stopping your opponents from having a chance to get their last chest, while trying to get the cards you need to do the same and I'm not sure to what degree the result is determined by who gets lucky drawing the right cards rather than particularly skillful play. We'll see if I change my mind on future playings. Anyway, the end of our game looked to be a three horse race between Nige, Mark K and myself. I just couldn't get the right cards and with the neutral guards moving away with amazing regularity, I knew I wasn't going to finish before one of the others. Mark K seemed to be suffering the same problem as me so Nige was able to waltz into his final palace unchecked and steal his fourth chest to declare himself the greatest thief in Baghdad.

 
Player
Rating
Score
Position
Winner
Nige
5
1
Mark K
6
2
Mark G
5
2
Garry
6
2

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