Session
Last Friday a dedicated group of gamers got together to play Die Macher. If you've read my geeklist from the game day a few weekends before, you can see that we tried to play it before, but circumstances prevented that event from taking place.

Chris J, Joel, Aaron, Tristan and myself gathered on Friday night, all of us mentally prepared to play a full game of Die Macher, even if that meant ending at 2:00 am. We gathered at 5:30 pm, and began a rules overview. That took about 40 minutes. I had been stressing out for the previous few days, scouring the Geek to find any rules questions that might come up and any issues that often trip people up when playing. I had printed off 3 different player aides. Each of them actually contributed to the session by answering specific questions during play.

Three of us had watched the BGwS video, the other two weren't as familiar, but we pushed ahead with fortitude. I was the only one who had played before and that was only one time.

After the rules, we took a break and had some pizza for dinner. Chris J had brought some good German beer to accent the occasion. My only regret about the night is that we didn't have appropriately German food to accompany the game.

After a satisfying dinner, and at 7:00 pm, we started the game. I was playing the Christian Democrats, Aaron was the Green party, Tristan "the Left", Joel the Social Democrats and Chris J was the Free Democrats. I should mention that Tristan speaks German and was giving us some fun words to use and Chris J has studied European politics as part of his Ph.D. Both of these extras added a lot to the discussion and game play.

The first state up for election was a larger state at about 46 or so points. The next one was even bigger at about 60 or so. The last two were both in the 20's. Our initial placement of resources was balanced between the first two states with the later two virtually ignored.

Joel won the initial bid for turn order and decided to go first. Almost immediately, he realized that that was not a good decision. Aside from being able to place media markers first, he was always at a disadvantage on most of the steps. Fortunately, it was early in the game.

We trudged through each of the steps, duteously ensuring that we missed nothing. All of us struggled with each decision, and carefully chose our party platform, shadow cabinet cards, where to place media markers, where to place meeting cubes, etc. The first election was pretty close. I had gained a lot of votes and received a nice sum of money. Others had also done well and had their treasuries replenished. We also got money from the party membership, which helped.

On the "bribe" phase, I took 50,000 euros. Most everyone else turned down contributions and ended up increasing their party membership. We were on to the next round. The new state was a middling state and not worth too much.

We all concentrated our actions in the 60+ state and a vicious fight broke out. Two coalitions were formed. I was left out. But I still got a handsome number of votes. I again took a bribe. I seemed to remember in my last game that money was always short and that those who had it often had more options.

The national board was beginning to fill up and most of the cards were aligned with what my party was in favor (or against). This was really a bonus for me, as I hadn't yet won an election, so hadn't placed any cards up there.

After two elections, we added the 80 vote state. That got our attention and now the decisions required us to either commit resources to that later election, or try and win the two crappy states that were next. I believe it was at this point, too, where Joel seemed to be slipping away. None of his party platform cards in his hand were anything that he wanted. He was beginning to be frustrated that he couldn't change his party platform to something that he wanted.

I was feeling pretty good at this point. I had placed well in the first two elections and was well positioned in the next two. I decided to focus the rest of my resources on the 80 state. After two elections, I really thought that either Chris J or myself were in the best position to win. We both had great party membership, we had both got a significant number of votes in the first two elections, and we both seemed to have a lot of money. I was wrong on the last part. Chris J had been turning down the contributions every turn. This helped his party membership, but he was running out of money.

The next two states went quite quickly. Again, I didn't win either one, but I came in second in both. I really thought that I was going to win this quite handily. I even felt sorry for Joel and Aaron who just couldn't seem to get anything going. Tristan, Chris J, and I had strong membership, had used our shadow cabinets to double key issues or increase our party's favor in the states, allowing us to cash in early votes.

The 80 state election came around and we all had coalition tiles. I really wanted to win this one, as the National board was starting to be a little less favorable to me. Aaron forced a coalition with me, and we won the 80 state handily against the Chris J and Tristan coalition. Poor Joel just seemed to get further and further behind. I don't think he even got enough votes (5) to get points in that one.

I placed a favorable card on the national board and Aaron did the same. We played through the next two elections. I still thought, at this point, that either myself, Chris J, or Tristan would win, as we'd had the largest showings in the elections. Aaron won both of the final elections, though, and changed the national board radically to reflect exactly the issues his party espoused.

We tallied the points on the back of our bidding sheet and to our surprise, Aaron had pulled out a win! His similarity to the National board and his strong, late party membership increases caused him to get some significant points that more than made up for his lackluster early action.

The game ended at 11:00 pm. Only 4 hours! Not too bad for a bunch of newbies!

Impressions
I was shocked. I thought for sure that I would win or Chris J. I couldn't believe that Aaron had pulled it off. To me, this shows just how much, you have to stay in this game right until the end. There are so many variables that you have to try and manage, that being mediocre in all of them (my strategy) will not guarantee a win.

This game was interesting, too, because there was a lot more money floating around because of the larger states showing up. We'd routinely buy opinion polls for 27,000 euros, just to ensure that we wouldn't be screwed. I also almost always got the right to have turn order (after the first turn). This helped me a bit, as I went last, and could see what others were doing and use my actions to mitigate any damage they'd done against me.

Die Macher is among the best games I've played. It has so many options, with so many ways that those options interact with each other. It is impossible to "game" the system, because there is an element of randomness that keeps you interested and engaged throughout the game.

I had a really good time playing the game and the only drawback to it, is the length of time it takes.

Not everyone liked the game as is. Joel thought there was a little too much luck and that that caused a lack of predictability and also a lack of control of certain variables that might have helped him finish a lot closer to the pack. Specifically, he would have liked to have more direct control over his party's platform with a wider selection of cards; not just the three random cards you get each turn.

All in all, though, I'd love to play this game again. Everyone was interested in giving it another go, so we'll see about getting another game set up some time in the future!