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- Bargain Items are non-returnable and non-refundable.
In the 3 Ring Circus Game, you can experience the challenge of planning circus tours through the northeast United States. The way to success is to become famous by being the best 3 Ring Circus to arrive in town.
There are two main actions to take in this game. One is hiring performers for your circus and the other is traveling to towns, medium cities, and large cities to perform.
Working with a personal gameboard, each player has card spaces for 15 potential circus performers arranged in 3 five-card rows, plus 3 end-game goal cards. Deciding which performers to play and in which locations is the key part of strategy. Some cards have end-game point values based on placement of other performers relative to their location. Other cards provide additional resources to help with circus performances and end-game points. There are 3 spaces for end-game goal cards, each of which can be placed when a 3-space column of performance cards is populated.
Taking the show on the road means moving your circus wagon to another location first. Whether performing in a small, medium, or large city, there are resources and rewards, including collecting money cards, performance cards, or game points. Each time a player’s circus performs, the Barnum Caravan, which is owned by the game’s supreme round-tracker entity, moves counterclockwise around the main board’s outer ring of towns/cities. When this caravan stops in any large city, round-end scoring takes place. Once the caravan reaches the large city it started in, the game is immediately over. A final end-game scoring is completed, where personal board card points are calculated, and the player with the most points wins!
3 Ring Circus is unique in its mix of mechanics. There are tableau-building elements, movement, and area majorities, along with some money management. The circus theme is well done with cards and components reflecting old-style circus trappings. Identifying and implementing the best strategy is challenging and rewarding. Choosing the right cards to play and playing them in positions on the board with the best resources, rewards, and end game points is the best way to balance the game, but you will need to have access to these cards and be able to pay to place them. Besides card play, there is effective planning required to decide when and where to perform. Performing provides money cards to play entertainers on personal boards and there are significant points gained by being the first to perform in large cities and medium towns—but before you do, you will need resources and the right card placements on your personal board. Because there are different ways to earn points in this game, there are a generous number of paths to victory, and I really like that!
Besides multiplayer play, 3 Ring Circus has a solo mode, as well as some game variation changes based on player count. For 1-4 players with an 80-minute game time. ~Marsha