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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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