Hansa Teutonica has got to be one of the most uninviting board games around. Granted, it came out in 2009, but in a market where every game has bright, vibrant, beautiful artwork on full display, here’s Mr. Beige Boy with his stupid little moustache staring morosely at the player as he signs his tax documents. And yet, Hansa Teutonica has endured because its gameplay is so interactive and interesting. This is the quintessential example of “don’t judge a book by its cover.”

In Hansa Teutonica, players are members of the Hanseatic League trying to spread their influence by establishing routes of traders and merchants. On your turn, you’ll place a number of your pieces onto spaces between towns on the board. If every space on a route is your colour, you can claim that route and establish your influence in one of the trade houses at either end.

If someone happens to be in your way (and trust me, they will be in your way a lot), you can bump players off their space on a route. Displacing people is a core part of the game. It costs you, though. When you place one of your cubes in a spot where an opposing cube already lays, you must discard an extra cube from your supply into the general stock. Then the displaced player gets to place the kicked out cube, plus an extra cube onto an adjacent path. This feels like a huge cost, giving your opponent an extra token on the board, but you know what they say. A cube on a prime route is worth two on other routes.

Once a route belongs entirely to you, you can spend an action to claim it. Whoever has the most recent trading post in the trade houses connected to that route earns points, and then you have a decision to make. You can establish a trading post by placing one of your markers into a trade office beside the route, potentially scoring points every time that route is completed in the future. Alternatively, if the route is connected to one of the guild houses, you can instead improve one of your abilities. These upgrades remove pieces from your player board, increasing the number of pieces available in your supply while also making your actions stronger. It’s one of those satisfying upgrades where you don’t really feel like you’re giving anything up. There’s also a third option available on one specific route that lets you place one of your discs onto the board for an immediate point bonus. Regardless of which option you choose, every cube on that completed route is removed from the board and returned to the general supply.

A big part of the game revolves around establishing yourself in those trade offices and guild houses scattered across the map. One of the biggest scoring opportunities comes from being the first player to connect the left side of the board to the right, rewarding players who expand efficiently across the entire network rather than simply fighting over one corner.

The other major source of points comes from controlling those trade offices. Whenever someone completes a route next to a trade office you control, you score a point. That can become incredibly lucrative. One of my favourite spots to grab is the trade office beside the route that allows players to upgrade their actions. That route gets completed over and over throughout the game because everyone wants those upgrades. Instead of placing their own marker into the office, they’ll usually take the upgrade instead, and every single time they do, they’re quietly feeding you points.

And that decision itself, the short-term gain of upgrading your actions versus the long-term investment of claiming that trade office, is absolutely delicious. There are decisions like that scattered all throughout Hansa Teutonica. How often should you bump opponents, knowing it costs you an extra worker while giving them an extra worker in return? How often should you intentionally get in someone’s way, hoping they’ll eventually bump you off so you can place two cubes with a single action? Sometimes that first placement is almost a sacrifice. You’re betting that another player will follow through with the route you expect them to take. Of course, if they suddenly pivot somewhere else, you’re left with one lonely worker languishing on a forgotten route, wondering what could have been.

As the game goes on, everyone becomes more powerful. Players earn more actions, their actions become stronger, and the pace of the game accelerates dramatically. One of the upgrades lets you move workers already on the board. Getting cubes onto the board in the first place can be expensive, but once they’re out there, they’re surprisingly mobile. Being able to move three workers before claiming a route lets you swoop into opportunities that didn’t even exist a turn earlier. You spend the early game building your infrastructure, and then the late game becomes this wonderful scramble where everyone is repositioning pieces and trying to capitalize on whatever opportunities appear.

And that’s really what Hansa Teutonica is all about: capitalizing on situations as they present themselves. You’re constantly watching what your opponents are doing, trying to predict where they’ll go next, and slipping just enough into their plans to gain a small edge. Maybe you occupy a key route they wanted. Maybe you establish yourself in a guild house because you’re almost certain they’ll use that adjacent route to upgrade an action. Maybe you leave a cube in just the right place, practically inviting someone to bump it because you’ll benefit slightly more from the displacement. The game ends as soon as someone reaches twenty points, and once everyone’s engines have developed, those points come surprisingly quickly. Hansa Teutonica doesn’t so much end as it comes to a screaming halt.

This game is an absolute delight to play, provided you enjoy bumping shoulders with your opponents. If your favourite Eurogames are the kind where everyone puts their head down, quietly optimizes their own little puzzle, and compares scores two hours later, this probably isn’t the game for you. Hansa Teutonica wants you paying attention to every single move everyone else makes. It wants you delighting in getting in each other’s way. It wants you relishing the opportunity to bump someone off a route or profit from their decision to improve an action instead of taking a trade office. It’s a far more interactive game than that beige board and drab cover would ever lead you to believe.

The first time I played Hansa Teutonica, the person who owned it pulled it off the shelf and casually said, “Oh, this one’s actually on my sell list. I haven’t played it yet, though, so we should probably give it one play before I get rid of it.” After we finished, he immediately took out his phone and removed the “for sale” listing. Honestly, I can’t think of a better endorsement than that. There really is a fantastic game hiding underneath that unbelievably drab presentation.

To be fair, the subsequently released Big Box Edition does improve things. The board is more colourful, the cover art is better… although only slightly better. It’s still hardly going to catch your eye from across the room, but it is easier to look at than the original. Perhaps more importantly, the rulebook is significantly improved. I had an awful time working through the original rules, trying to remember the differences between cubes and discs, what counted as supply, what was available, what wasn’t available… it was just a chore. The newer rulebook presents everything much more clearly, which makes learning the game considerably easier.

Overall, I don’t have much to complain about with Hansa Teutonica. I’ve played it quite a few times now, and I’ve enjoyed every single play. Sure, your group might eventually develop a bit of a meta around which opening routes are strongest, but I don’t think that’s much of a problem. Once the early game settles, strategies naturally branch off as opportunities appear, and reacting to those opportunities is what makes the game so much fun. I also think it plays better with more players than fewer. The extra interaction really brings the board to life. This is the kind of Eurogame that gets people talking, laughing, blocking each other, and generally messing with one another’s plans, and those are exactly the kinds of Eurogames I enjoy most.

Last week I talked about Gaia Project and how that game, with all of its decisions and cascading consequences, makes my brain hurt. Hansa Teutonica makes me smile. Yes, there are still plenty of meaningful decisions to make, but they’re so much less mentally taxing. There are fewer gears constantly turning in your head. Instead, the joy comes from putting down a cube, knowing you’re getting in someone’s way, looking them square in the eyes, and silently daring them to bump you off the route. Not many Eurogames encourage that kind of interaction, and I think that’s what makes Hansa Teutonica so special.