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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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Trajan is the latest example in the ultra-complicated Euro trend. Euros used to do one or two things really well, now they try to do ten or a dozen things not so well. The Mancala bit is so good, but everything else about this game kind of rubs me the wrong way. There's no elegance here, just a big pile of scoring mechanisms that all work in their own unnecessarily convoluted ways. Most of them bear no relationship to each other, and it seems like you can just pick a couple scoring possibilities and ignore the others. The timing mechanism is a little too fiddly, and since it's not particularly interesting there's a good chance it will be forgotten from time to time. There is some true depth, though, in the board movement, wherein you can do some real planning. I would love to see this in a stripped down game (though not stripped all the way down to Mancala) with fewer actions and special scoring things to remember.
Please, game designers! Edit! Cut out the chaff and just give me the wheat.
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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Power Grid: The First Sparks
It seems like this Power Grid variant was intended to streamline the experience. That's a noble idea, but for me it didn't really work. I just never quite "got" Power Grid, and this doesn't change things up enough for me to feel much different about it. The arithmetic is simpler and quicker which is a plus. The auction house shuffle is still present and still a nuisance. Goofy special rules abound as well, such as "virtual food" provided in specific cases which only exists to provide a chance at a bonus. One of the highlights of the original design, the auction, is much diminished-- it's now a low fixed-price auction, determined in player order. First player picks an item, last player decides to buy it or not, repeat until everyone's got something.
In the end, I'm not sure who would actually like this design... Some of the nuance has been streamlined out, while a lot of fiddlyness was left in or added. Power Grid fans will find little here to recommend it over that game, and new players will still have to deal with most of the same issues and eccentricities of the original.
(1 play)
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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Domaine
I thought this might be one I'd like. First impression is pretty good but this thing is just brutal! The board is so crowded, and money is so tight that the intensity on this one is through the roof. Domaine is very original, the closest thing I can compare it to would be something like Go or Through the Desert where you are trying to wall off big pieces of territory for yourself. The big wrinkle here is that what you can do is determined by action cards, and you have to pay high prices just to use them. The spacial board play is the meat of the game, but the card play really turns the screws against the player. If you enjoy games where you always have that feeling of needing to do more on your turn than you can accomplish, this game has that in spades. And it's short. Definitely want to play this more.
I probably shouldn't admit this on the internet, but my first game ended with me having a score of one point. I had several grand long-term plans in the works, but the game ended before any of them could come to fruition. The good news is, I can only improve!
One more thing about player count... this is a more-the-merrier type game. You want that board to be crowded for maximum player interaction. I'd recommend against playing with two, and the jury's still out on three.
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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Ora et Labora
If you like Rosenberg's heavier gamer offerings, this should appeal to you. Me, I often find them just a tad bit on the complex side for my taste. There's a lot to take in here, and it all seems balanced at first blush, so your choices are myriad. There are several ways to score, and at least 8 types of goods that you'll have to use as currency for buildings, settlements, and other goods and VP items. Finding the combos and coming up with a decent engine will require some analysis.
The big wheel is the central mechanism, and it works very well in the good old Puerto Rico way-- choices which are left unselected become more and more valuable until someone can no longer resist. Like similar mechanics in games past, it's a very clever way to add tension to a game. Should you get that pile of stone now or wait a turn for a bigger pile, taking the risk of someone else grabbing it first? I wonder if a simpler, more elegant game could be made from this one basic idea. Hmm...
As for the rest of the game, buy up lots of special action buildings, put your workers on them, collect resources to trade for other resources, to build more buildings and special scoring areas, and so on. You can also take opponents' actions and waste their workers for a pittance... this can really hose their plans, and was the weakest part of the game for me. I'm sure it was added as a nod to player interaction, but I felt the game would have been fine leaving players to run their own little engines without outside interference. Still, it's a little bit friendlier than Agricola... despite its food and fuel gathering, there is no punitive phase where you must pay up or face consequences. There are special building phases you'll want to be ready for, but they aren't nearly as common and not building every time won't kill your game.
Overall, not a bad game, but I would have been happy with a much more paired down design. The wheel mechanism is great, but really just a new face on an old idea, and the rest of it we've seen elsewhere. For those players that want to plumb its depths, I suspect Ora & Labora may have quite a bit of replayability. As for me, I'll play it on occasion until it loses its luster around here, which I suspect won't take long.
(1 play)
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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German Railways
Ohh, here's a tough one to rate. I unreservedly liked everything in the game except that kah-razy turn order system. And even that... I have to give it points for doing something wildly different. I found it kind of tolerable, but then I didn't miss out on more than a round at a time. In my first play, one player missed out on 4 rounds in a row. He didn't do well. If I were that guy I'd probably hate this game. There may be some real depth here, but I'm not sure that depth is a good fit for the whole "maybe you get a turn, maybe you don't" thing. In spite of all, I kind of want to play it again. Maybe it's one of those deals where frustration makes success sweeter... We'll see. For now, it gets a 7, and I could see this rising or falling quite a bit.
A couple comments on the Queen production... not bad, though there are some color issues. The orange and yellow stocks and trains are very similar, and player colors could have been more differentiated from the stock colors. Also, shame on Queen for not including player aids in a game that so obviously needs them. Those company special powers are critical, and they need to be easily accessed.
(1 play)
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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Airlines Europe
THIS is the game Union Pacific aspired to be. Gone are the annoying track cards, and the Abacus stock (This game's version of Union Pacific stock) is no longer just an automatic grab. The result is a game with all the best parts of Union Pacific and none of the chaff. It has to be said that the board placement seems even less important than before, but that's fine as it lets you focus more fully on the meat of the game--the stock play. So for me this totally eclipses Union Pacific and is a good stock game in its own right.
There is one caveat, though: you'll have to tolerate a surprising amount of fiddlyness and housekeeping. The deck must be seeded properly, and you'll probably want to assign different players to banker, VP distributor, stock marker mover, and so on. For some, the nuisance will be small, but for me it was enough to bump the game down just a bit from an 8 to a 7. Still, a fun game, and one I look forward to playing more.
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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The Secret of Monte Cristo
I really hoped to like this one. I mean, come on, it has marbles! Cool, right? And it's got a great presentation too. Alas, I found this to be nothing but extreme frustration. The game's main appeal, the marble slide, is nothing more than an elaborate turn order manipulation system. Games in which turn order is very important tend to rub me the wrong way to begin with, but this one goes a couple steps further. You'd think that seeing that far ahead in the various turn order queues should allow you to plan your moves far in advance, but the actions you take are so short term and tactical, it hardly seems worthwhile. In fact I'd go so far as to say that real long term planning may be impossible. By the time your ball works its way back to the bottom, the state of the game will certainly be radically different from how it was when you made the choice. Furthermore, you can screw and be screwed by the sudden changes in turn order by jumping ahead (or being jumped over) in the action queues, adding to the frustration and lack of control.
Ok, so the marble system isn't really my thing. What else is there? Nothing especially innovative or exciting, just a worker placement/area majority hybrid which is dragged down by limited ability to plan or get a leg up on your opponents. In all, this is a game with one big attraction, and for me it fell completely flat. Others may find it interesting, but I'll be avoiding this one. Monte Cristo can keep its secret to itself.
(1 play)
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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Battles of Westeros
I haven't visited the Command & Colors system since Battle Cry, not because I didn't enjoy that game, but because I never really felt much need to play any of its variants. Eleven years later, I was finally tempted by the chance to skin some direwolves for the glory of House Lannister. I'd say the system is slightly marred by the added complication here, but it's still quite playable. The flanking rules add an interesting (if chromey) wrinkle, but I'm not yet convinced the morale or initiative rules add anything especially worthwhile. Familiarity with the various special rules and abilities will certainly help get the playing time down, which will be important if this is to see much play. I'm a bit concerned that the huge impact of generals (with their limited command range) and the "stalwart" defensive formations could mean that you'll always want to keep your armies in clumps and turtle up. If the game rewards slow defensive play to any great extent, it could be an issue, since a C&C game really ought to be as short and quick moving as possible. Westeros gets an extra point for its tried and true system and because I like the theme/setting, but the jury's still out on the long term playability of this one. One last thing: Don't even play until you've glued the figures to their bases. Moving those things around otherwise is just an exercise in futility.
For Casterly Rock!
(1 play)
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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Glen More
The choices here are interesting, and the tension between wanting to get lots of scoring tiles and the penalty for expanding too much makes for some great trade offs. There are a couple issues that drag it down though, the biggest being downtime. This is one of those games where you will want to get a string of complimentary actions, or even get a string of turns close together, so downtime can be significant. Most of the rules work well enough but some things could have been trimmed down--Glen More feels just a tiny bit more fiddly than it ought to be. For instance the meeple movement seems like an unnecessary constraint and not a very interesting one. Mostly you'll just want to park your guys for many turns, letting most of the movement actions you get go to waste. Odd. Still, this is a reasonable quality game and one I'd play from time to time, maybe with the player count at 3 to keep the downtime at bay. Not bad.
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Burke Glover
United States
Unspecified
Delaware
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Municipium
This may not be the good Doctor's greatest, but it seems woefully underrated to me. Municipium combines area majority with worker placement in a fresh and compelling way. Getting the majority in an area lets you take the action available there, which seems pretty standard (think Royal Palace). The big wrinkle is that you don't know for sure when you'll actually be able to get that action--figuring out the best time and place to commit your guys is crucial. It moves quickly and keeps everyone involved, and it's over before you know it. The presentation is great, and I like that the rules reminders are all right there on the board in English-- you don't have to decipher or look up anything. I wish more games were printed this way. First impression's a solid 8, I could see this moving up.
(1 play)
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