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Surya Van Lierde is pure Eurosnoot and proud of it!
Belgium
Gijzegem
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I got an explanation of Drum Roll in Essen, but didn't actually play. It sounded like a solid game, but I knew I'd find a copy and time to try it out at home. Last night I did.
If you look at this game mechanically, it acutally has a lot of similarities to Prêt-à-Porter. It's a worker placement game in which you need certain resources to be able to show of your 'product' a couple of times in the game. The details are of course different. There are way fewer spots to put your workers, and especially the resource spots are very limited. Others, like money are limited to 2 per person. Which is a good thing, since money can be very tight, depending on your strategy. In the first round, I had to pay a total of $1 to pay for all my performers, since the rest was offset by not having to pay them or the income they created. One other player though, had to pay a total of $19, for just about the same amount of performers.
I liked how you could choose to focus on certain things, but it wasn't always easy to do so. Also, focusing wasn't always what you wanted, you need a bit of everything.
I liked Drum Roll quite a bit, but I don't think I like it as much as Pret-a-Porter, which seems to be a deeper game. But still a very decent effort from both a first time publisher as the first time designers. And the artwork is great.
The second game we played last night was one I had been looking forward to for quite some time: Belfort. I have been following the Tasty Minstrel Games titles since they where announced, buying, playing and loving both Homesteaders and Terra Prime a lot as soon as they where released, despite the component issues. They helped putting Tasty Minstrel at the very top of my publishers to watch list. Both titles are very, very good strategic games with well thought out game design, but also well thought out visual design and rulebooks and nice artwork. Especially Terra Prime, which I think didn't get the attention it deserves.
So, back to Belfort. A building game by Tasty Minstrel Games with artwork by the guy who did Endeavor and Terra Prime? I consider him to be one of the very best currently active in the industry! So, totally up my alley, at least on paper.
Reading through the rules was a pleasure again. Everything is there, well structured, clearly explained with all details you might ever need. No rules questions left open. And if you forgot anything, you'll easily find it again. The artwork on the components is top notch too. And component quality is all you could ask for, except the nice German linen finish, which I knew we wouldn't get. So top marks there.
Luckily the game plays very well too. Short, well structured turns, meaningful strategic and tactical options and some turn angst thrown in to spice things up a bit. Very nice.
It wasn't love at first sight, but I did enjoy this very much and I do expect this to grow on me in future plays.
Excellent job again, Michael, you have yet to dissapoint me. Let's hope that never happens. Kings of Air and Steam is already looking very, very nice 
More gaming planned for tonight, tomorrow and maybe even Sunday. Nice 
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