Summary
👥 A game for 2 to 5 players
⏳ Play time is 90 – 180 minutes
🏢 Publisher is Medusa Games
Introduction
Oranges and lemons,
Say the bells of St. Clement’s.
You owe me five farthings,
Say the bells of St. Martin’s.
When will you pay me?
Say the bells at Old Bailey.
When I grow rich,
Say the bells at Shoreditch.
When will that be?
Say the bells of Stepney.
I do not know,
Says the great bell at Bow.
Here comes a candle to light you to bed,
And here comes a chopper to chop off your head!
Chip chop, chip chop, the last man is dead.
Based on this rhyme, players need to become the Master of Commerce in the early 18th century in London. So buy and sell lemons, pancakes, bricks, and pans to fulfill the export contracts or back risky expeditions to the East Indies and become that one mean selling machine in Oranges & Lemons.
Setting up the game
Place the Main Board in the middle of the table.
Determine who the first player is and give each player a set of Player Pieces in their choice of color.
The first player places one of their Workers on the turn order track in the first white spot next to the blue spot. The second player places one Worker in the next white spot, with each of the remaining players placing one Worker in the succeeding white spots. Then, the last player places a second Worker in the next available white spot, with the remaining players each placing a second Worker on the turn order track in reverse player order. The remaining three Workers for each player can be placed at location 15 of the Main Board as a reserve.
Place each player’s Transaction Marker near the St. Katherine’s market tracker, and Share Price Markers near the share price track in Jonathon’s Coffee House. Then, also place the grey Share Price Marker on the Gold 1 space of the share price track.
Each player should place their Bells and Storage Upgrade Tiles on the matching spaces on their Player Boards.
Place the Coins next to the Main Board, and based on the player count, each player will receive Gold to start with.
Place the Resources in the warehouse. Fill the resource spaces in location 1 with lemons, location 3 with bricks, location 5 with pancakes, and location 9 with pans. Fill all the spaces in the Shoreditch market with Resources of matching colors.
Place the Loan Tiles in the Loans Office.
Sort the East India Company (EIC) Ship Tiles into type I, type II, type III, and type IIIB. Return the type IIIB Tiles to the box, as they are not needed for the base game. Put the 12 type I Tiles into the bag, shuffle the 12 type III Tiles, add 6 to the bag, and place the remainder together with the 12 type II Tiles near the East India Company Docks, as they will be needed later in the game.
On location 12 of the Main Board, place the Ship Price Tile so that it overlays the 8 and 12 numbers, and place the Customs Inspector on the circle.
Sort the Cargo Tiles by level into three separate piles. Shuffle the Level 1 Tiles and deal out 5 face up on the ship spaces in Stepney Docks, starting with the lowest ship space. Return the remaining Level 1 Tiles to the box, as they are not needed in the game. Shuffle the Level III Tiles, create a deck related to the player count, and place them in a stack face down on the top, white-colored ship space. Place the Change Ships Tile face up on top of the stack of Level III Tiles. Then shuffle the Level II Tiles, deal out 10, and place them face down on top of the Change Ships Tile.
Shuffle the Vote Tiles and place them face down on location 16 of the Main Board.
Place the bonus VP Tokens in the storage area in the bottom right-hand corner of the Main Board.
Give each player a Summary/End of Round Card Place the End Game Scoring Tile near the Main Board and we’re ready to play Oranges & Lemons!
Let’s get in on the table
The game ends when the last cargo tile has been placed on the Stepney Docks, signaling the start of the last round.
Before reaching this point, each player will take the following phases during a round:
1. Worker Placement Phase: All players, in accordance with the turn order, will place their workers on one of the open locations on the board.
2. Action Phase: Starting at location 1, all workers will now execute the action at that location. When more than one worker is placed, this location will be activated from left to right. After all locations are activated, the workers need to return anticlockwise to the turn order track. However, there are some locations/ways to be on that spot, which grant you the very first position in turn order for the next round!
3. End of Round Phase: This phase will have the following steps:
1. Refill the resources at locations 1, 3, 5, and 9.
2. Bell powers: Players who have placed Bells on the board will now receive their bonuses.
3. Players receive 1 VP for their ship transport upgrades.
4. Receive interest on loans issued by players.
5. Move any resources remaining in the East India Company (EIC) into your storage. When players don’t have enough storage space, these resources need to be sold to the Storditch location if there is space; otherwise, these resources can go back to the general supply without any benefits.
6. Check Stepney Docks and refresh.
7. If the Change Ship tile is revealed, remove the Ship Price Tile from position 12. Then, empty the EIC bag and take the type II and III tiles that are already beside the board, exchange them with the current Ship Tiles.
Because the game theme is built on the Oranges & Lemons rhyme, the different locations and actions are related to this.
Locations are called as follows:
1. St. Clements, where the Lemons can be bought
2. St. Margarets, to get some extra gold
3. St. Giles, where players can buy bricks
4. St. Martins, issue a loan
5. St. Peters, buy some pancakes
6. In Whitechapel, for a certain fee, players can place one of their bells at the bonus spots that every location has. Some bonus locations will grant extra resources, while others can interfere with the other players. The way you buy your bells is related to which level you have already purchased. Level I bells can be replaced by any Level II bell, and so on. Yes, this means that players can remove bells from other players, allowing them to receive the bonus from that point on. When a bell can’t be placed anymore because all spots are taken, the bell will be melted, which still grants 3 gold.
7. St. Katherines, sell resources, and by selling, a player’s market transaction tracker will move up that track as many as they sold resources. This market transaction track will give extra VP with the end scoring.
8. St. Johns, here a player can choose to receive gold, resources, or VP’s. Besides this, the first player who places their worker will be on the blue spot on the turn order track when the next round starts. If someone places their bell in this location, that player will start on the orange spot in the turn order track. So, orange is the very first spot, then blue, followed by the standard track order lane.
9. St. Annes, get your pan for a nice price.
10. Aldgate, get your transport/storage upgraded.
11. St. Helens, the place to buy or sell shares.
12. Old Bailey, invest in the EIC, draw EIC tiles from the bag, and depending on the player count at that location, pay the cost of a tile. The tile will also affect the share price value. Even if this location has not been used by a player, the Custom Inspector stated in this location will always ensure that the share value changes each round.
13. Shoreditch, trade resources to get gold or buy the resources you require.
14. Stepney, fulfill one of the five contract cargo tiles. These will grant extra VP for the final scoring. So, fulfill them and keep them near your player board faced down. 😉
15. St. Paul’s, recruit an additional worker.
16. Bow, take a vote token and place it near your player board. This will give you VP at the end of the game.
So, after the final Cargo Tile is placed and all players have had their final round, the endgame scoring will take place.
The player with the most VPs will be the best player of the 18th century.
This is how you become the Master of Commerce in Oranges & Lemons!
Conclusie & eindscore
Difficulty: 3.30/ 5
Re-playability: 8
Our score: 8 out of 10 dice
Noticing Oranges & Lemons has already a very nicely looking theme, which involves London, something that you will see in other games from Richard Denning. But in this game, we have a real old-fashioned worker placement mechanic vibe.
The only thing that is, in our opinion, not an added value is the extra VP count for the first and second players. If players enjoy the twist of possibly still becoming the winner, this extra count is fun. However, when the first player has done a good job, the punishment for the second player will be even greater, like a crying man and empty tissue boxes 🤪.
However, the materials used for the game are very well done. Everything in the game has a nice spot on the main board, so the items that need to lie beside the board are sufficient to provide a good overview.
A very nice touch is how the Bells work and need to be placed. Even in a two-player game, everyone is prompted to do something with the Bells. There are nice spots to place them, and being able to replace Bells with a higher-level Bell is a really good mechanic. With more players, the Bell actions are even better. Although the bells themselves would have been better if they were a bit thicker, so they are even better visually in the bells round. So, a small component upgrade could be a great idea.
Small things, like all locations being numbered, which determine the turn order for the next round, add extra strategy to the game. Planning your moves a few steps ahead really pays off if it works, but if your idea is blocked, it makes the game very engaging. We truly enjoyed the evenings spent playing Oranges & Lemons.
Yes, we do understand the theme can be a little divisive, but the mechanics are nicely applied. Players can adjust the duration of the game with some small adjustments, which greatly extends the replayability.
Truly a must-have for gamers who enjoy nicely themed worker placement games and a good overview, even when you’re in a five-player game. Oranges & Lemons is that game!
We want to thank Medusa Games for this review copy and the opportunity to write about this game.
