Following my obsessive (compulsive?) need to play the legendary games, I recently purchased a copy of ‘Die Macher’—the beast, the long game that everyone tells me you’ll enjoy playing once and never want to play again. My intention? Just that. Play the game once, and then sell/trade it.

So I set aside 7 hours one Saturday afternoon, and recruited the bravest of my gaming friends. For the most part, they declined, not wanting to commit to the monster. So I ended up with 4 friends (who enjoy games, but don’t really play them that often) — this had disaster written all over it. An hour before people began to arrive, I broke open my copy and watched the video tutorial on ‘board games with Scott’ (which consequently I STRONGLY recommend as a first step—it will tell you most of what you need to know before you open the rules and it will all seem much less intimidating)

What began as skepticism quickly gave way to intrigue as I began to learn about the various mechanics of the game. By the time my friends arrived, I was quite anxious to dive in. Because the video was not comprehensive, we decided to read the rules—the book that looks like 24 pages of intimidating rules turned out to be only about 6 pages of actual game play. There are a lot of appendixes, charts and explanations, but for the most part only 6 pages are actually needed to learn the game. Which again seemed quite small for such a ‘complex, overwhelming’ game as ‘Die Macher’ had always been characterized.

After about only about 30 minutes between the rule book and my regurgitation of what I’d seen in the video, we began. The first round took us about an hour and 15 minutes, which is to be expected—there are a lot of steps to each round! But we cleared out the remaining 4 rounds of the short version in about another hour and a half! I couldn’t believe it! The time flew, and even my friends who don’t consider themselves ‘real gamers’ all wanted to try it again, this time the full version.

A week later we tried it again. With 4 players the full 7 rounds took us just under 4 hours, and that included a lunch break! And the best part is we all want to play it again—the time really flew. In fact, if anything the game felt short!

In all honesty I could care less to dissect why I enjoyed this, why I think it’s brilliant, why I’m holding on to it and why I already can’t wait to play it again. All I can say is, why is everyone so afraid of this game? I can see the potential for it to drag on if you play with analysis paralysis players—however ANY game is pretty bad in my opinion with those players. I don’t enjoy the really really heavy games, yet ‘Die Macher’ turned out to be surprisingly simple and complex at the same time—a very beautiful combination! Since that initial play, I’ve been repeatedly surprised how many people haven’t even tried this wonderful game because of the fear its mere mention can render.

‘Die Macher’ is in a category of its own. Yes it’s a Euro, but it plays unlike any other Euro I’ve ever tried—I can’t even think of anything to compare it to. For theme, it’s like a 5 player ‘1960: Making of a president’. For pure mechanics, maybe a little bit like ‘Reef Encounter’? Though that seems like a bit of a stretch. Playing ‘Die Macher’, it’s not hard to see how ahead of its time it really was, as only now are some Euros beginning to catch back up to its level of ingenuity, layered-simplicity and elegance. This is a great game and deserves it’s ‘Legendary’ status probably more than any other I’ve been privileged to play.

I'd tell your "brave" friends that you've found a new group to play with. If they want back in the club, they have to sit down and play a game of Die Macher to make up for their poor judgement.

Agreed...This is a gem that most players should play. Very easy game flow with a handful of options you can do.


I think with all of the multiplayer solitaire games out... this one will keep them frightened for a long time.

INTERACTION?!?

CONFLICT?!?

HEAVEN'S NO!!!

I am a veteran of just one struggle for German political power (although it was the full version), and in general, I have to agree with your thoughts. The thing that keeps me from jumping back in, however, is that I don't like having to constantly consult the instructions to 1) see what step comes next and 2) review the guidelines that outline the processes of each step. That being said, I did enjoy getting rolled over by my opponent who toted pink vote counters.

I printed out some reference cards that are color coded and when you cut them out are about the size of index cards. I got this in the files section.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/1346
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/1347
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/1348
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/1349
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/1350
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/file/info/1351

These worked great to keep us on track. They are great references on what to do in each phase as we went through each turn of the game. The other players (who were new) thought these reference cards really helped the game run smoother!

My first game was freakishly short, about 2 1/2 hours. I'd be up for it again, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and the game flow was perfect and fit the theme well. it might now be something I go out of my way to play again, but I would play it.

The graphics are pretty hostile. There's so much other stuff out there clamouring for attention that messing this up in a reprint is plain stupid.
Played it, understood it, found it too much work to check card status. Goodbye Die Macher.

I hear people throw around five hours as a time span for a game of Die Macher, most notably Scott on Boardgames with Scott. In actuality, DM is one of only two games I can remember that actually took less time than I was planning on the first play. We prepared for five hours for the long version, and it ended up taking only about four and a half with five newbies. Our next game was even speedier at about three and a half, and we're a slow group.

I agree, this game seems to get this undeserved reputation for being a lengthy monster. This is easily playable in an evening.

I love this game, too. A string of great mechanics that all work together to achieve the goal of gaining votes (but not too many, you don't want to go over the max).

This article has made me want to break it out again!

--James

We knock it out in some time between 3 and 4 hours, depending on how heated some of the elections can be.

I love this game. And play it almost any time I can get the people together.

i absolutely agree. the artwork is some of the worst out there. but i still adore it. the game play gets me so immersed that i don't even notice. but i must say, i'd LOVE to see a reprint with updated art. it's too much fun and too great a game to fall flat with the graphics. i've even contemplated making my own cards! there's some cool artwork out there for this!

Thanks! I wonder why something like this wasn't included in the actual game . . .

There is certainly not much "downtime" in Die Macher, so no matter how long the game is it will likely not "drag".

And as I often say, would you rather spend 3 or 4 hours having fun or endure 90 minutes of misery?