Maria: opening the box...
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Maria comes in a bookcase-style 12" x 12" x 2.5" box with original art for the cover. All the box text is bi-lingual (German and English), as are all the game components. The back of the box shows pictures of some of the cards that come with the game and a section of the game board. Also included on the box are the game’s credits: Richard Sivél as the designer (under more than one name and wearing multiple hats), and Andreas Töpfer as the artist responsible for the portraits and the cover art. The publisher of Maria is Histogame, which has a partnership with Simmons Games, through which both companies stock and sell each other’s games.
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On opening the box, the game board is revealed. Maria comes with a six-panel, 22" x 33" hard-mounted game board. The board is manufactured in the European style (no folds break the smooth playing surface, as is the case with almost all American-manufactured boards). The game board shows two maps: one of the area around Bohemia and the other the area around Flanders. The game uses a point-to-point movement system where pieces move from city to city by a network of connecting roads. Maria's graphic design is clean and very attractive. For a detailed view and explation of the game board, click here.
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Next, the rules for Maria are revealed. The rule booklet is 24 pages long, bound with staples, and printed in black and white on 8.25" x 11.75" (A4 size) paper. This includes both the English and the German rules (10 pages of rules per language) plus the Designer’s Notes for the game. The rules describe both the introductory and expert versions of the game. While Maria is primarily a game for 3 players, it can also be played in a 2-player version. Both the introductory and expert games can be played in both a 2-player and 3-player form. The rules themselves are available for download in PDF format in English, German, French, and Spanish.
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Finally, beneath the board and rules are the cards, game pieces, and play-aids, of which Maria has a considerable variety. These include four full decks of cards which contain both Tactical Cards and Political Cards (in English and German). A re-sealable bag containing the wooden general and supply train pieces; a sheet of stickers is provided for the leader pieces so that individual generals can be identified. Also included is a die-cut sheet of conquest markers (these are used to mark objective cities when a player conquers them), a political display to track political play in the expert game, and a set of army sheets for secretly recording army strengths.
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