I bought this game for a number of reasons;
- I like, “point salad” games. That is, games that have multiple paths to acquiring victory points. Games like Pulsar 2849 or Rajas of the Ganges.
- Randomness of the workers. That’s to say, you randomly unveil workers that you then have to distribute in the best way possible. Games like Alien Frontiers.
- “bag building”. Much like deck builders, you acquire new pieces and then place them in a bag which you’ll draw randomly from. Games like Roll for the Galaxy.
- Action selection. Everyone has the same player boards in front of them and (unlike a-symmetrical games like Scythe) it’s about trying to acquire workers for your unique strategy. Though you all have the same options, what road you go down is your own.
This game is quite simply, amazing. It’s very easy to learn but can become quite the brain twister as you try to determine what “townsfolk” you want to put into your bag for the next round. You’ll have 28 rounds to pull it all off. Those 18 rounds are determined by (3X)6 tiles that are randomly shuffled before the game. Maybe in the second round you’ll have to pay 1 coin for the goods you just acquired? Maybe everybody else will get one coin for every trade house they built on the map while you failed to do it because...THATS JUST NOT YOUR STRATEGY!.
Magnificent. The game also offers some pretty nice expansions.
This does bring me to a couple of gripes;
- The Trade and Intrigue expansion offers a new Beneficial Deeds board that quite frankly, should have been THE board all along. The one in the base game offers up money and is pretty stale. It’s not useless, but unless you have some townsfolk to dump...you probably won’t look to it as a viable strategy.
- why did they not label the different tracks on the board? Just the titles of each (again, on the board) would have been great.
The game isn’t necessarily a, “real time” game but drawing from your bag and assigning townsfolk can be done simultaneously to speed up play.
The quality of the components is top notch with probably the thickest card board pieces I have ever seen in a game. The art is quaint but very enjoyable.
I highly recommend this game if you’re looking for a little bit of randomness, a lot of strategy and an easy teach. I’d say it’s “mid level” in complexity but maybe even a little lower then that? The number of actions to choose from might have some over thinking it but ultimately, it’s pretty easy to learn. Just one of those, “hard to master” games.
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From the manufacturer
Grow your economic reach and gather followers in this bag-building game
During the medieval goings-on around Orléans, you must assemble a following of farmers, merchants, knights, monks, etc. to gain supremacy through trade, construction and science in medieval France. In the city of Orléans and the area of the Loire, you can take trade trips to other cities to acquire coveted goods and build trading posts. You need followers and their abilities to expand your dominance by putting them to work as traders, builders, and scientists. Knights expand your scope of action and secure your mercantile expeditions
Craftsmen build trading stations and tools to facilitate work. Scholars make progress in science, and last but not least it cannot hurt to get active in monasteries since with monks on your side you are much less likely to fall prey to fate.In Orléans, you will always want to take more actions than possible, and there are many paths to victory. The challenge is to combine all elements as best as possible with regard to your strategy.
- A game for 2 to 4 players
- 90-120 minutes play time
- Theme: medieval, trading, bag-building
- Deep strategic play
Reviews with images
Magnificent game.
I bought this game for a number of reasons;- I like, “point salad” games. That is, games that have multiple paths to acquiring victory points. Games like Pulsar 2849 or Rajas of the Ganges.- Randomness of the workers. That’s to say, you randomly unveil workers that you then have to distribute in the best way possible. Games like Alien Frontiers.- “bag building”. Much like deck builders, you acquire new pieces and then place them in a bag which you’ll draw randomly from. Games like Roll for the Galaxy.- Action selection. Everyone has the same player boards in front of them and (unlike a-symmetrical games like Scythe) it’s about trying to acquire workers for your unique strategy. Though you all have the same options, what road you go down is your own.This game is quite simply, amazing. It’s very easy to learn but can become quite the brain twister as you try to determine what “townsfolk” you want to put into your bag for the next round. You’ll have 28 rounds to pull it all off. Those 18 rounds are determined by (3X)6 tiles that are randomly shuffled before the game. Maybe in the second round you’ll have to pay 1 coin for the goods you just acquired? Maybe everybody else will get one coin for every trade house they built on the map while you failed to do it because...THATS JUST NOT YOUR STRATEGY!.Magnificent. The game also offers some pretty nice expansions.This does bring me to a couple of gripes;- The Trade and Intrigue expansion offers a new Beneficial Deeds board that quite frankly, should have been THE board all along. The one in the base game offers up money and is pretty stale. It’s not useless, but unless you have some townsfolk to dump...you probably won’t look to it as a viable strategy.- why did they not label the different tracks on the board? Just the titles of each (again, on the board) would have been great.The game isn’t necessarily a, “real time” game but drawing from your bag and assigning townsfolk can be done simultaneously to speed up play.The quality of the components is top notch with probably the thickest card board pieces I have ever seen in a game. The art is quaint but very enjoyable.I highly recommend this game if you’re looking for a little bit of randomness, a lot of strategy and an easy teach. I’d say it’s “mid level” in complexity but maybe even a little lower then that? The number of actions to choose from might have some over thinking it but ultimately, it’s pretty easy to learn. Just one of those, “hard to master” games.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on April 2, 2021
I bought this game for a number of reasons;
- I like, “point salad” games. That is, games that have multiple paths to acquiring victory points. Games like Pulsar 2849 or Rajas of the Ganges.
- Randomness of the workers. That’s to say, you randomly unveil workers that you then have to distribute in the best way possible. Games like Alien Frontiers.
- “bag building”. Much like deck builders, you acquire new pieces and then place them in a bag which you’ll draw randomly from. Games like Roll for the Galaxy.
- Action selection. Everyone has the same player boards in front of them and (unlike a-symmetrical games like Scythe) it’s about trying to acquire workers for your unique strategy. Though you all have the same options, what road you go down is your own.
This game is quite simply, amazing. It’s very easy to learn but can become quite the brain twister as you try to determine what “townsfolk” you want to put into your bag for the next round. You’ll have 28 rounds to pull it all off. Those 18 rounds are determined by (3X)6 tiles that are randomly shuffled before the game. Maybe in the second round you’ll have to pay 1 coin for the goods you just acquired? Maybe everybody else will get one coin for every trade house they built on the map while you failed to do it because...THATS JUST NOT YOUR STRATEGY!.
Magnificent. The game also offers some pretty nice expansions.
This does bring me to a couple of gripes;
- The Trade and Intrigue expansion offers a new Beneficial Deeds board that quite frankly, should have been THE board all along. The one in the base game offers up money and is pretty stale. It’s not useless, but unless you have some townsfolk to dump...you probably won’t look to it as a viable strategy.
- why did they not label the different tracks on the board? Just the titles of each (again, on the board) would have been great.
The game isn’t necessarily a, “real time” game but drawing from your bag and assigning townsfolk can be done simultaneously to speed up play.
The quality of the components is top notch with probably the thickest card board pieces I have ever seen in a game. The art is quaint but very enjoyable.
I highly recommend this game if you’re looking for a little bit of randomness, a lot of strategy and an easy teach. I’d say it’s “mid level” in complexity but maybe even a little lower then that? The number of actions to choose from might have some over thinking it but ultimately, it’s pretty easy to learn. Just one of those, “hard to master” games.
- I like, “point salad” games. That is, games that have multiple paths to acquiring victory points. Games like Pulsar 2849 or Rajas of the Ganges.
- Randomness of the workers. That’s to say, you randomly unveil workers that you then have to distribute in the best way possible. Games like Alien Frontiers.
- “bag building”. Much like deck builders, you acquire new pieces and then place them in a bag which you’ll draw randomly from. Games like Roll for the Galaxy.
- Action selection. Everyone has the same player boards in front of them and (unlike a-symmetrical games like Scythe) it’s about trying to acquire workers for your unique strategy. Though you all have the same options, what road you go down is your own.
This game is quite simply, amazing. It’s very easy to learn but can become quite the brain twister as you try to determine what “townsfolk” you want to put into your bag for the next round. You’ll have 28 rounds to pull it all off. Those 18 rounds are determined by (3X)6 tiles that are randomly shuffled before the game. Maybe in the second round you’ll have to pay 1 coin for the goods you just acquired? Maybe everybody else will get one coin for every trade house they built on the map while you failed to do it because...THATS JUST NOT YOUR STRATEGY!.
Magnificent. The game also offers some pretty nice expansions.
This does bring me to a couple of gripes;
- The Trade and Intrigue expansion offers a new Beneficial Deeds board that quite frankly, should have been THE board all along. The one in the base game offers up money and is pretty stale. It’s not useless, but unless you have some townsfolk to dump...you probably won’t look to it as a viable strategy.
- why did they not label the different tracks on the board? Just the titles of each (again, on the board) would have been great.
The game isn’t necessarily a, “real time” game but drawing from your bag and assigning townsfolk can be done simultaneously to speed up play.
The quality of the components is top notch with probably the thickest card board pieces I have ever seen in a game. The art is quaint but very enjoyable.
I highly recommend this game if you’re looking for a little bit of randomness, a lot of strategy and an easy teach. I’d say it’s “mid level” in complexity but maybe even a little lower then that? The number of actions to choose from might have some over thinking it but ultimately, it’s pretty easy to learn. Just one of those, “hard to master” games.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on December 27, 2016
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2020
Reviewed in the United States on July 4, 2016
I really enjoy Orleans' version of worker placement: (a) each action requires 2 or 3 workers (round discs) of varied colors, (b) Most actions I take give me another worker in a specific color, (c) at the start of each of the 16 rounds I randomly draw a cwrtain # of workers out of my bag. So it's like a deck building game, but with round discs which are my workers. That's not the only thing I like, but that's its unique-amongst-my-sizeable-Euro-game-collection contribution.
Scores a very high 8/10 on BoardGameGeek for good reason! Great medium-weight Euro-game. Nice, thick pieces; good theme; nice graphics; nice addition to my collection. How-to-play video tutorials available from gamer nerds in the usual internet locations (BGG, YT, etc): do look up and watch if you're considering purchase.
Scores a very high 8/10 on BoardGameGeek for good reason! Great medium-weight Euro-game. Nice, thick pieces; good theme; nice graphics; nice addition to my collection. How-to-play video tutorials available from gamer nerds in the usual internet locations (BGG, YT, etc): do look up and watch if you're considering purchase.
Images in this review
Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2016
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2016
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2016
Reviewed in the United States on January 29, 2020
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