Game: Boomtown

Thread: 2008 WBC Game 2

raolsson — 2008-08-26T01:58:09+00:00

Following a game of Race for the Galaxy at the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster, PA, (See 2008 WBC Game 1) Bobby Tweaks had finished up at the Manoeuvre tournament, Phil W. had arrived, and Malloc and I were ready for another game. Peter from England was up for another game as well and so we buckled down around a table while Bobby Tweaks pulled out Boomtown.

Boomtown is a game that I have seen on the table a few times at Bobby Tweaks' Wednesday night gaming sessions, but I have never been sitting at that table. That experienced changed very early at this WBC.

Ah the joys of bidding games. After a brief introduction, I found myself accidentally taking advantage of a majority in yellow and having the bad fate to be the early leader in the game (never a good experience). Peter, like me, had never played the game before and bid on a saloon card, choosing a color that was already on the board, but never seemed to come up for the rest of the game. Given the odd distribution of payoffs from bidding (where the person to your right would get half of what came to you), Phil W, Bobby Tweaks, and Malloc were all quite adept at choosing the number to drop the bid where the person to their left was either stuck with it or would have to bid higher to stay in the game.

Phil W. ended up being the more adept by not bidding too often or too high. In the end, he was able to secure 83 points for a win. Bobby Tweaks was a close second with 77, then came Malloc with 75 and me with 73. Peter finished with 57, but it was a lot of the luck of the cards. And the bad luck to be sitting at a table with three experts. A good first time round on this game. I will be better prepared the next Wednesday I get to Bobby Tweaks' place and see it on the table.

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mdu2boy — 2008-08-25T15:33:16+00:00

From Bobby Tweaks' game night

Thread: Re: Reduced randomness

atomzero — 2008-08-09T04:29:23+00:00

That may be good just to move the gold more. When we played, we went about four turns before anyone produced anything!

As for the randomness, I don't care. For Pete's sake, it's a prospecting game.

Thread: Re: Is money public?

astroglide — 2008-06-10T14:54:48+00:00

or you could just play as the majority of your group prefers, possibly alternating hidden/non-hidden between games.

if there's a tie, flip a coin. if there's still a problem, find a new group!

Thread: Newbies and mining! (and my strategy)

Prismcat — 2008-06-10T14:04:04+00:00

Ok, I love Boomtown as a quick filler or intro game. I've played it at least 1/2 dozen times and just like the skill/luck balance and easy play dynamics. While I wouldn't say it is fully a push-your-luck type of game, there is definitely a certain "How much can I rile the other player up and make him spend his money?" factor!

We had 2 new peeps at our boardgame meeting last night who I will call E and J, to protect their true identities, lol. We decided to play Boomtown to start the evening off and right before we started a 3-player game, S joined us, who I already know and had played this with me before. So it's pretty balanced: 2 veteran players (me & S), 2 new players (E & J), also it's 2 men & 2 women.

The new players, E & J caught on quickly and were soon fired up to bid on everything! S & J - the two guys were soon giving each other the bid-if-you-dare stare and pushing the bids higher and higher. Me & E - the two females tended to play a bit more conservatively unless something came up that really interested us. Oddly, luck seemd to play a large factor in this session, imho, because E had almost all of her mines in the same town (not diversified and she frequently was last choice) and got payouts every turn, so ended up high in gold chips. This is the first and only time, I've seen this happen and yammered about it for no good reason, sorry.

The first game ended with E winning. I think it was because of all the payouts on her mines (lucky rolls) and that poor J may have been tricked by S into overbidding several times. I personally blame my poor score on the fact that I spent half of the game explaining rules, how the cards worked, etc. (uh huh, I know it's not a good excuse, but I'm sticking with it)

The final scores of the first game were:
E = 112, S = 106, Me = 82, J = 75

I was ready to put the game away and move on, but J said, I like this game, can we play it again? I look at E & S and they say, yeah, let's play it again. E looks at S and says, I don't like sitting here, you keep winning the bid and I'm always last to pick (go newb! I personally love it when my fellow female gaming buds aren't afraid to speak their minds, lol)! So, S & E decide to switch seats. Now S & J are on opposite sides of table - all the better to implement the stare!

This time lucky rolls don't help E, so she plays by her wits alone. The previous game, I had been caught up in the explanations, now I was focused on the game. My strategy is:
1) get a mayor and get 3 mines under him to keep him as mayor (don't get too many of that color or you don't get paid, just stay ahead of the others).
2) get mines with larger payouts
3) get mines with different payout numbers - ie, diversify.

I tend to try to do things in that order. Now, if I can get a second mayor pretty easily, then I would say that would supersede #3. Also, if you have a choice of where to be mayor early on, choose the color that hasn't come up much - it increases the number of potential times that other players will have to pay you. I like the Governor card, but if you can get 2 mayors, you can get almost the same effect, imho, so I don't go crazy over it. Now if you can get the Governor early in the game, then it might be worth more because you have more chances to get paid, but later in the game, especially on colors that have already shown up a lot, it becomes less valuable.

I don't worry too much about saloons, because to be honest, I don't want to have to keep track of what color mines are paying out in order to get paid (yeah, call me lazy). I usually don't worry too much about the dynamite or the hold-ups either. I do like the Expropriation card, because stealing a mine from another player not only helps you, but could take away a mayor from someone else if they only have 2 mines under that mayor. I think the whole strategy in this game is the balance of the end value of the cards you are bidding on. Some people get silly over the Stagecoach Robbery, saying I'll get 10 gold from the bank - well, that only helps you if you pay a lot less - if you pay 10 and say but I'm getting 10 back, the end result is - you get zero at the end of the game, whereas, even a lower paying mine with a value of 3 is still worth 3 at the end of the game.

Ok, all that in mind, back to the newbies versus veterans game...J figured out that S was egging him on and started keeping his betting under control. I pushed the bets a little to egg the guys on, but things stayed reasonable in the betting for the most part. E understood how to play, but seemed to still be working out the strategy aspect of the game. Toward the end, E tried to rob me, but failed - if she had succeeded, I would not have won.

The second game final scores:
Me = 105, J = 104, S = 77, E = 64

Great job to J who picked it up really fast!

Thread: Re: Is money public?

davidme — 2008-06-10T07:57:20+00:00

Not a very good rule. It means we have to pile our money to hide the amount. If we put them into stacks, it can easily be counted by merely looking at it, assuming your eyesight is ok.

Thread: Re: Is money public?

apecage — 2008-06-08T16:48:58+00:00

Sorry for the delay. I was out of town for a bit. But here are the designer's words:

"The way I play it is like in Mancala: you can count your money at any time. You can have a look at the pile at opponents' coins, but you must make an estimate and can't count them precisely."

Thread: Re: Is money public?

apecage — 2008-05-16T01:58:29+00:00

fnord23 wrote:
A friend (who may post later, when he sees this) asked Bruno Faidutti this question directly.

The answer was "semi-open".

You can pile rather than stack your chips, and no one is entitled to know *exactly* how much you have if they can't tell immediatley by looking. But you can't hide your chips.

How's that for a less than definitive answer?

Not being able to find the designer's original quote, I've just emailed him asking him to either get back to me or respond directly to the thread.
He's very attentive. You should have the answer soon.

Thread: Re: Is money public?

fnord23 — 2008-05-15T23:53:51+00:00

A friend (who may post later, when he sees this) asked Bruno Faidutti this question directly.

The answer was "semi-open".

You can pile rather than stack your chips, and no one is entitled to know *exactly* how much you have if they can't tell immediatley by looking. But you can't hide your chips.

How's that for a less than definitive answer?

Thread: Re: Is money public?

Barticus88 — 2008-05-15T22:41:05+00:00

General rule to apply: If a game comes with bills, money is secret. If a game comes with chips (as Boomtown does), money is public.

Thread: Re: Is money public?

SwedeLad — 2008-05-15T22:05:50+00:00

We always play with the money being public. The rules don't state this outright, but I think it is the way it is meant to be played. Also, a player can't bid more than he has, so it makes sure nobody is jacking up the price when they don't have that much money.

Thread: Re: Is money public?

cferejohn — 2008-05-15T21:30:23+00:00

gonzoron wrote:
I assume so, since no screens are given to hide the chips, but had some players want to hide their money and couldn't find a cite in the rules against it.

I thought money was explicitly public in the rules, but I am at work so I don't have them in front of me right now. In any case I always play it with public money.

Thread: Is money public?

gonzoron — 2008-05-15T20:51:28+00:00

I assume so, since no screens are given to hide the chips, but had some players want to hide their money and couldn't find a cite in the rules against it.

Thread: Crónica en español de una partida

Schroinger — 2008-04-24T05:51:19+00:00

Aunque al inicio de la noche parecía que no habría mayor respuesta a la excitativa a participar de la tanda de juegos, conforme avanzaron las horas fueron apareciendo más jugadores, lo que abrió la posibilidad de incluso hacer partidas paralelas.

Para comenzar y, mientras esperábamos para hacer quórum, Paúl, Luis Pa y yo, nos deleitamos con unos bocadillos de la cafetería que nos prestó el local. Así contribuimos a que nos sigan facilitando esta sede en el sector noroeste de la ciudad.

Una vez que llegaron Jeffrey y Roberto, nos dispusimos a jugar el entremés: "Boomtown", un juego simpático, sencillo y a la vez bastante entretenido, buena sugerencia para empezar por parte de Nino.

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El juego está inspirado en la fiebre del oro, por lo que se trata de acumular la mayor cantidad de pepitas, dinero y alcaldías. Las reglas son bastante sencillas y permiten que todos los jugadores tengan posibilidad de ganar hasta el final de la partida. Me gustó el hecho de que la plata que se paga por comenzar cada turno sea repartida entre los demás jugadores, pues esto ayuda a equiparar mejor las posibilidades y evitar que alguien se vuelva demasiado fuerte y arrase con el juego.

Como pasa normalmente, al tener que aprender el juego en pocos segundos, Luis Pa, al dictarnos las reglas, parece como si estuviera rezando el rosario y una vez que finaliza, no queda otra que decir: ¡Amén!. Por esto, siempre queda alguna regla por ahí que sólo pocos captan, situación que puede ser aprovechada por alguno de los jugadores.

Ya desde la primer jugada, cada jugador comienza a montar su estrategia, por ejemplo, Paúl decidió convertirse en chulo y abrir un elegante club para caballeros: D`Pauls, el cual fue mejor aprovechado por Jeffrey, quien al final de la partida se ganó una tarjeta de cliente frecuente. Por otro lado, Roberto, decidió montar una cantina, para sorpresa de todos, Jeffrey también se convirtió en su mejor cliente. Así pues, mientras Jeff contaba con la cadena de minas más grande y era el alcalde con mejor salario, a lo Johnny Araya, todo el dinero se lo gastaba en p… y guaro (cualquier parecido con la realidad es pura coincidencia).

Mientras esta relación de negocios Roberto-Jeffrey-Paul se daba, Nino y yo nos mantuvimos trabajando silenciosamente en nuestras minas, hasta que, en un momento de avaricia, decidí destruir una de las minas de Luis Pa, situación que no fue bien recibida, pues este ya había sido blanco del sabotaje por parte de Jeff, sin embargo, fue punto clave en mi estrategia.

Por otro lado, Roberto, gracias a las ganancias de su cantina, fue aprovechando y compró varias minas, no obstante, también fue víctima del sabotaje por parte de Jeffrey, lo que minó sus posibilidades de ganar la partida.

Al final, a la hora de contar los puntos, aún cuando no era quién poseía más efectivo, mis minas eran todas muy valiosas, por lo que, al sumar los puntos, gracias a esa regla que no todos escuchan: las pepitas de cada mina se suman al final, logré amasar la mayor fortuna y quedar en primer lugar.

Las posiciones finales quedaron de la siguiente manera:
1. Alejandro 81 pts
2. Jeffrey 67 pts
3. Luis Paulino 64 pts
4. Roberto 60 pts
5. Paúl 50 pts

Esta crónica puede verse también en http://juegosdemesacr.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&t...

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

locusshifter — 2008-03-26T14:37:35+00:00

I wonder if Funagain Games would release the information for the cards that won the make your own card contest if we asked REALLY nicely?

Have you written to F2F and asked their permission? I can't believe that it would be such a big deal if they aren't planning on a reprint.

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

thoia — 2008-03-26T12:20:08+00:00

apecage wrote:
I am, however, opposed to anyone who's not licensed to do so, putting anything out on their own.

OK that was not my idea and if you read my original post I said the winning cards are their property and should NOT be used. What I'm talking about here is like all the files on BGG where people create new things for games. Hell look at Pirate's Cove...the Brutal Buccaneer's variant is...well...basically and expansion that you can print and play. How about the Green Knight for Shadows Over Camelot? I'm talking about a small simple expansion that we can put together ourselves to suffice until when (and probably more appropriately IF) the real one gets released.

Ryan Wheeler wrote:

I understand, though, what's being said about the expansion not being a realistic venture at this point. It may have to be designed as a 'print and play' which I know Bruno has experience with for some of his designs that had yet to be picked up.

THERE WE GO! This is the point I'm trying to make...I think someone finally got it!

Keep in mind people the "not going to press due to dye lot" is not my idea. I was not the one (as I'm in no way affiliated with Bruno or F2F) who phoned up and said "STOP the presses!" I'm just a fan of the game trying to deal with reality.

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

Ryan Wheeler — 2008-03-26T05:20:26+00:00

I think all but one problem could be alleviated with mismatched backs by dealing from the bottom of the deck every round.

The problem, of course, being if one of the new cards ended up on the top of the deck you'd be able to tell. The two ways around this would be to make sure an 'original' card ends up on top by whatever means seems efficient or a 'cap' card could be printed with the logo or something clever on it that could be put on top after the cards are shuffled.

You could have another player 'cut' the deck by sticking the cap card into the middle of the deck, separate the deck there and put the top cards on the bottom.

Not perfect but it would work.

I understand, though, what's being said about the expansion not being a realistic venture at this point. It may have to be designed as a 'print and play' which I know Bruno has experience with for some of his designs that had yet to be picked up.

Maybe with more discussion like this the publisher would be willing to let things take their course or, better yet, get in on the action.

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

Rokkr — 2008-03-26T03:55:21+00:00

I don't see why if they got at least close in color it would be that big a problem. Especially if there are as many new cards as old or some of the old were required to be removed.
You can only see one card on top during the current round and I don't see how that would affect play even if players could tell whether a new or old card was coming.

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

apecage — 2008-03-26T03:39:27+00:00

As one of the contest winners (and a real lover of the game!), I've been waiting for a lonnnnng time and hope that the expansion happens some day.
I am, however, opposed to anyone who's not licensed to do so, putting anything out on their own.
Additonally, I agree with Kevin that newly printed cards wouldn't matter as much as, say, St Petersburg, where the card's new back might actually affect what a player did with, say, the Observatory.

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

thoia — 2008-03-26T02:51:10+00:00

LOL Missing the point. I agree too...I'd gladly shell out my $5-$10 for the expansion...IF it gets printed. The contest was run in Dec. 2004! Almost 3.5 years ago. Do you really think F2F thinks they are sitting on their own gold mine (pun intended I suppose) with this expansion? NO. They realize a lot of little problems making the whole thing just not worth it most likely. AGAIN this is my own summation but from a business stand point it makes sense. I personally am a HUGE fan of the game and just want some other people's input for card ideas. I've got a few of my own don't get me wrong but more brains working on it will produce a better end product even if it is just a print and play thing.

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

Blacknightjj — 2008-03-26T02:47:22+00:00

i have to agree with kevin, the cards are face down but they all get turned up during the bidding. just print the expansion and not worry about the matching of the card backs.
i have played a bunch of card games which the backs do not match, so why should this be any different, when it doesn't even matter.

just print it!

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

thoia — 2008-03-26T02:40:20+00:00

Yeah I read that somewhere in one of the threads about the expansion....sigh.

You also have to contrast the idea of them printing it and not making much money on it either. Popularity of Boomtown has diminished as time has marched on and new games have come out. The expansion was only ever suppose to be 14 cards in a package so their profits on such a small product aren't going to be huge.

Me I think the odds of this ever seeing the light of day are kind of slim. Which is the point of this thread. Let's do it ourselves.

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

kevinb9n — 2008-03-26T01:45:22+00:00

Ahh, is *that* what happened... well, I don't really see the big deal with this particular game if the colors don't match exactly. Nearly everything is face-up all the time, and the colors are pretty well distinguished (contrast with "Corsari"). So my advice to F2F: just start printin' that expansion!

I think Boomtown is definitely one of the best games in its category.

Thread: Re: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

Limp — 2008-03-26T01:11:13+00:00

If i have ideas, i'll give you...

Thread: Geeks, Fans, Faiduttites...lend me your ear...

thoia — 2008-03-26T00:37:11+00:00

Face to Face Games announced to us an expansion for Boomtown many many moons ago. As has been covered there is no way for them to produce the expansion with the exact same dye lot of the original making it difficult to mix the cards. Which means the only way to truly implement it would be to repress the game either with expansion included or base game with expansion sold separately but same pressing for consistency. Which leads them the inevitable decision (which probably was made I have no real information just making an educated guess) to hold off on the small expansion until the game is sold out at the very least.

As a rabid fan of this little bidding game this saddens me. So I come to you the geeks. To help ease my sadness. Let's do our own frickin' print and play expansion people!

Granted there is no way for us to be able to print and play an expansion that will mix into the decks we currently own...so I propose that we create a second deck of print and play cards. Each turn the main deck is handled as per normal one card for each player then in addition ONE card from the new deck is included. This will give the last player to choose a card 2 options with the last card being discarded each round.

If memory serves me correctly, when the contest to design the cards for the expansion was concluded it was announced with overwhelming participation. So granted the 14 or so cards they picked are definitely considered their property but there's probably a TON of other cards that they did not choose and are probably some good cards.

So if people are on board with this idea (and I truthfully don't know how many will) what we need is first people to post their ideas here in this thread for cards. I think both action cards and mines with cool effects would be in order (Like the danger mines but with you neato ideas.) Would have to keep a balanced number of mines colors if we add mines so keep that in mind.

Additionally if there are graphic artists out there who wanted to participate that'd be awesome. I can do the work...but I'm not that good if all else fails I will but someone stepping up would greatly appreciated (and tipped as I can).

There it is...that's my proposal to end my sadness and the sadness of other Bruno/Boomtown fans out there.

Thoughts?

Thread: Re: Any plans for the expansion that used to be talked about?

Doc Sonic — 2008-03-04T00:33:11+00:00

kevinwho wrote:
A friend of mine who's much more in the know than me mentioned that the expansion really is coming. I have no idea of the date, but as I recall we're supposed to expect it this year.

That said, it is now no longer listed at all in Gone Cardboard, so who knows. Some time ago, there was buzz it would be released when the second edition of Boomtown came out. No idea when that will be.

I, for one, hope to see it someday. I'm quite a fan of Boomtown.

Kevin

I play at the owner of Face2Face game's ( publisher )shop. We played with the proto type expansion cards. They still need artwork done.

Thread: Re: Still waiting....any more news on the expansion?

Doc Sonic — 2008-03-04T00:31:01+00:00

e.c.r. wrote:
Face2Face publishes the game, not Rio Grande. I believe they have said that they'll put out the expansion when they do the next printing of Boomtown. That won't happen until the out print run is sold out, and who knows when that will be.

I play at the Face2Face owner's shop. We played with the proto type cards this past Saturday. Expansion is still in the works but the new card art still needs to be done.

Image

jsper — 2008-02-16T15:45:53+00:00

Thread: Train Kept a Rollin' - Variant for Boomtown

thoia — 2008-02-01T01:44:04+00:00

Hi there. I just uploaded a file so it's not approved as of yet but it's a variant I came up with called Train Kept a Rollin'. I think it fits in with the theme well. Plenty will look at the payout grid and think it's unbalancing but it really all depends on where the train is at the time of the payout. The text of the variant is as follows:

INSPIRIATION
I love the game Boomtown. I wanted to create a small little variant that didn’t add too much to the game as I didn’t want to bog it down yet still add flavor and give the players something new to think about.

IMPLEMENTATION
Print out the train/Payout grid below. After cutting it out you can fold it in half to form a card. (Glue, tape or laminate at your own discretion.) The train is set aside at the start of the game. Then whenever the first DYNAMITE card is revealed whoever is the current start player (winner of last rounds auction) places the train in from of himself. (Alternately if you want the train in play for the entire game you can at the beginning of the game after determining start player roll the dice to determine where the train starts.) This is to represent the arrival of the train bringing supplies (Dynamite) to town.

Now that the train has a starting place each time this player receives money instead of keeping half they keep three quarters of the money handed to them. When this player passes the remaining monies on to the next player they will then half this new amount and continue passing.

As you can see if the train holder is the 1st person to get money they stand to keep quite a haul (depending on the bid) and on the other side of the coin if the player with the train is last person to receive monies it benefits them none at all. This makes staying in or pulling out of a auction more tactical. It also makes driving the bid more dangerous.

At the end of the turn the train moves to the player on the right of the current train holder.

Thread: Boomtown - panning for gold and hitting paydirt!

rantinronrevue — 2008-01-28T20:37:39+00:00

About a year ago, I was interested in the game ‘Boomtown’, which sounded like a good solid game that would go over well with my group. Unfortunately, I heard that the artwork was quite ‘provocative’ concerning ladies (especially ‘saloon girls’), and, being a Christian and having several Christians in our gaming group, I thought about it twice and scratched it off my list.

Well, I finally had a chance to view and play it at the game store over the weekend. One of the first things I did was check out the artwork. To me, it seemed like a non-issue. I don’t know if the cards have been changed at all, but I found nothing offensive with the saloon girls or any of the cards, and would not hesitate in buying the game and playing it with my group. So on to the game!!!

Who will like this game? Fans of auctions and gamers who like light strategy (and that are not turned off by a healthy amount of luck) will love this game. The dice-roll payout system is similar to ‘Settlers of Catan’, so fans of that game may find this to their liking, but there’s a whole lot more going on here.

Components: The most important components here are the cards, and they are quite nice. They appeared to be sturdy, and although it was obvious that the game was often used, the cards did not show any signs of excessive wear other than a bit of white around some the black edges. The artwork was suitably thematic, with large printing that was easy to read. Some cards also had a ‘fine print’ area that details how the card is used, and this area was sometimes difficult to read.

There are three most important parts to the mine cards:

- The color of mine, indicated by the border. This let’s you know which ‘town’ a mine belongs to for the purposes of mayors, governors, and saloons.

- The production number: This is the number in the upper left corner. This number must be rolled in order for this mine to ‘produce’.

- The number of gold pieces indicate how much gold is produced when the production number is rolled. They also count as victory points at the end of the game.

The ‘Mayor’ tokens which could easily been some small, colored chips, are instead decent-sized wooden pawns that are easy to spot from across the table, so you can always tell who the mayor is for any given color. The colored wooden markers to place on your saloons (and other specialty cards) are also easy to spot and play. The small, colored poker chips are the only cheap component. From the size of the stack that was in the box, I’m not really sure whether or not there would be enough chips for a five-player game. They do appear to be serviceable, but we used a premium set of larger chips.

Rules: I did not see the rules sheet, but the game basics were explained to those of us who had never played fairly quickly, and the special cards were explained as they came up during gameplay. They seem to be pretty straightforward.

Gameplay: After settling up and choosing a first player, one mine card per player is laid face-up in the middle of the table. (For the first turn, all cards are mines. Other cards, such as saloons, hold ups, dynamite, etc., can appear on subsequent turns). Starting with the first player, a person may place an oral bid or ‘pass’. This continues around the table until a high bid is reached and all other players have passed. (Once you pass, you can not re-enter the current auction). The high bidder then takes the money that he’s bid and hands it to the player on his right. That player takes half, and passes the remaining money to his right, who takes half and passes the remainder, etc. The money is passed until either it is all used up or every player other than the high bidder has gotten a cut.

The high bidder then chooses one of the cards from the middle of the table. Play then proceeds to the left, until each person has drafted a card. It’s important to note that the last player to draft a card is the person who received the largest share of money from the winning bid! This is an excellent game mechanic!

The last phase of the turn is that the first player rolls the dice. The value shown on the dice is the production number, and anyone having a mine that whose production number matches the one rolled gets a number of gold pieces shown on the card. Unlike ‘Catan’, only one person (the first player) rolls on each turn.

Turns are sometimes altered by different cards that could allow people to keep all the money passed to them (instead of half), reverse the direction of paying and picking cards, acting as a sheriff to stop a crime, and others. These cards add a nice variety to the game without making it a free-for-all.

The game ends when there are less cards left in the deck than there are players so that cards cannot be laid out to begin another turn. The sum of the money, the production value for all mines, and five bonus points for each mayor are added together and the highest score wins.

Good Stuff: With a retail price less than $25, this game is a very good value. Despite the fact that this is a card game, it really doesn’t play like one because players never form a ‘hand’ of cards – cards are drafted directly into your play area. The dueling mechanics of getting the best cards or the most money from the winning bid comes into play quite often, and decisions can sometimes be made depending not so much on who you’re bidding against, but what you stand to gain if you lose the auction.

Because of the auction phase and the special cards, there is plenty of interaction in this game, which us really what makes the game fun. The game usually should play in less than 45 minutes (ours took at least twice that because three of us were newbies and several players were often distracted from our game). The game has some “in-your-face” elements, but it never seems to do so with an air of hostility.

Bad Stuff: After playing with such nice poker chips, the small plastic ones that are included in the game don’t really excite me. How much fun the auctions are depends heavily on the mix of cards that are laid out. We had some auctions that went up to 18 or 20 bucks, while some never got past 5. Ironically, the player who taught this game absolutely HATED it! I loved it, and the rest of the others seemed to enjoy it as well.

Final Words: I’m really glad that I had a chance to play this game, as it is now back on my want list. Not only do I personally like the game a lot, I think that it is the kind of game that will go over well with most of the people I regularly game with.

I had been hemming and hawing about maybe adding ‘Settlers’ to my collection, but after playing ‘Boomtown’, I’ve done an about face and opt to go with this game instead. The auction phase, the special cards, and unique bid distribution system really add to the die roll = production mechanic, so that the luck factor is diminished somewhat and strategy plays a more important role. That’s not to say that ‘Boomtown’ is a brain-burner, but it is fun…lots of fun! I give it a solid 8 out of 10. (Settlers, on the other hand, probably remains the better ‘gateway’ game for new players).

Thread: Re: Saloons and end of game

davidme — 2008-01-17T20:48:07+00:00

No, because the mines do not produce gold at end of game. They just give points equal to production number.

Thread: Re: Saloons and end of game

Barticus88 — 2008-01-17T20:28:37+00:00

skrebs wrote:
I don't understand your question? Why would you "pay for saloons"? Do you mean collect money for saloons?
When the die roll causes a mine to pay off, the mine owner pays the saloon owner. At the end of the game, all the mines pay off. Do the mine owners pay the saloon owners at end of game? It appears not, but the rules are not clear.

Thread: Re: Governor without mayor and saloon girls without saloon

davidme — 2008-01-17T06:52:10+00:00

Agree with the above (except maybe the strategy part).

Thread: Re: Saloons and end of game

davidme — 2008-01-17T06:47:17+00:00

Saloons are not worth points, if that's what you mean.

Thread: Re: Bankruptcy and two saloons

davidme — 2008-01-17T06:46:36+00:00

You never owe money in this game.

The rule would likely be one of these two:

1) Give it the blue-saloon owner of your choice.

2) Neither gets it.

Without further information, I'd rule number 1).

Thread: Re: Probability Sucks

Barticus88 — 2008-01-17T00:35:57+00:00

thoia wrote:
So why not replace teh 2d6 with 1d12?
Because a basic premise of the game is that some numbers are more common than others.

curtc wrote:
This has a very simple fix, which I've mentioned before, but I'll mention again: roll twice per turn instead of once. That's it. All of a sudden the probability curve is tamed.

When I first played the game, I thought the 12 which paid 6 was a terrible mine. Then I realized at the end that all the mines payoff, so that pay 6 was good to have. But then I decided the game is too lopsided in favor of that final payoff. My solution: I think you should roll twice per turn instead of once. Not that it "tames" the probability curve, but it does even it out some, and it makes the different mine numbers more meaningful.

Every time I typed "mine" in the above, I wanted to type "plant".

Thread: Re: Governor without mayor and saloon girls without saloon

cferejohn — 2008-01-16T22:22:57+00:00

You can take any card you like, but if you take the Governor and you have no Mayor, you must use it immediately if you get a Mayor. Similarly if you take Saloon Girls with no Saloon, you must use it immediately if/when you get a Saloon. Of course, you'd almost certainly want to do this in any case...

Thread: Re: Bankruptcy and two saloons

skrebs — 2008-01-16T21:30:20+00:00

Barticus88 wrote:
Suppose: Two different players have blue saloons, I have no money, and the roll causes me to collect one chip for a blue mine. Who do I give the chip to?

If I had designed the game, I would require the second saloon to be a different color from the first, but there are two of each color of marker, so it must be allowed.

Well, if you've worked your way into a situation where you have no money and have a blue mine that pays off $1, you might want to rethink your strategy for the next game. Seriously, I don't have the answer, but I'd probably just say "Owe you a buck" to the unfortunate saloon owner that you didn't pay.

Thread: Re: Saloons and end of game

skrebs — 2008-01-16T21:25:46+00:00

I don't understand your question? Why would you "pay for saloons"? Do you mean collect money for saloons?

Thread: Re: Governor without mayor and saloon girls without saloon

skrebs — 2008-01-16T21:24:26+00:00

You can take any card you wish.

Thread: Re: Who Gets The Mayor?

LoneCleric — 2008-01-16T20:34:53+00:00

Barticus88 wrote:
Moviebuffs wrote:
IIRC, it becomes uncontrolled until a player again takes a lead in the mines of that colour.
Logical, but the rules don't mention it. I could argue that the current mayor remains mayor, because no one has taken it from him.
Yeah, that's how we play it, too. The rules are specific about when to obtain Mayor status, but not when to lose him, so I say it's yours until it's someone else's.

Thread: Governor without mayor and saloon girls without saloon

Barticus88 — 2008-01-16T20:26:15+00:00

The rules say that a player without a mayor who gets the governor card, or a player without a saloon who gets saloon girls keeps the card until he gets a mayor or saloon respectively. However the rule says "has to". If there are two cards still up when it's my turn to take one, may I take the girls or governor?

Thread: Saloons and end of game

Barticus88 — 2008-01-16T20:22:23+00:00

At the end of game you score for all your mines. You don't pay the saloons, right? The rule is not entirely clear, but it seems the saloons would pay too much at end of game otherwise.

Thread: Bankruptcy and two saloons

Barticus88 — 2008-01-16T20:20:22+00:00

Suppose: Two different players have blue saloons, I have no money, and the roll causes me to collect one chip for a blue mine. Who do I give the chip to?

If I had designed the game, I would require the second saloon to be a different color from the first, but there are two of each color of marker, so it must be allowed.

Thread: Re: Who Gets The Mayor?

Barticus88 — 2008-01-16T20:06:20+00:00

Moviebuffs wrote:
IIRC, it becomes uncontrolled until a player again takes a lead in the mines of that colour.
Logical, but the rules don't mention it. I could argue that the current mayor remains mayor, because no one has taken it from him.

Thread: Re: The weak part ?

MasterHalco — 2008-01-07T03:54:57+00:00

We had an absolutely awful dice roller. She rolled two 12's and two 2's, and then roll a 7 which she changed to a 2 with the "telegraph." Of course all the 2's and 12's benefitted her and no one else. We took the dice away from her and she was never allowed to roll again. In the end she scored 164 points! Second place was 101 pts. and I had a measly 80 pts. A few abnormal rolls decided the outcome of the game. The game was still fun, but I was frustrated that my 6-7-8 mines were useless.

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chezzilla — 2008-01-02T17:39:58+00:00

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chezzilla — 2008-01-02T17:39:33+00:00

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chezzilla — 2008-01-02T17:39:14+00:00

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Artax — 2007-11-26T00:19:27+00:00

Thread: Re: Still waiting....any more news on the expansion?

davidme — 2007-10-14T12:20:34+00:00

I was reading boardgamenews.com & switched from Jay's questions & answers to F2F's without noticing.

So maybe the extra cards could be printed to boost sales of the base game.

Thread: Re: Still waiting....any more news on the expansion?

e.c.r. — 2007-10-14T08:27:28+00:00

Face2Face publishes the game, not Rio Grande. I believe they have said that they'll put out the expansion when they do the next printing of Boomtown. That won't happen until the out print run is sold out, and who knows when that will be.

Thread: Still waiting....any more news on the expansion?

davidme — 2007-10-13T11:30:28+00:00

It was mentioned by Jay Tummelson that he really liked the cards and would like to get them into circulation. Anybody know anything about them?

Thread: Re: Who Gets The Mayor?

caltexn — 2007-10-02T18:17:45+00:00

Never run into this, but it sounds consistent with the rule that states the Mayor cannot be taken until a majority is achieved over the previous owner. Those having the same number of mines are all equal and thus do not have a majority at the moment of ownership determination. But, this is from my own interpreation, and not a FAQ or authoritative source. Could just make a house rule to give it to the guy who blew up the mine.

Thread: Re: Who Gets The Mayor?

VikingBerserker — 2007-10-02T18:04:27+00:00

Where are you getting this from?

Thread: Re: Who Gets The Mayor?

Moviebuffs — 2007-10-02T14:51:09+00:00

IIRC, it becomes uncontrolled until a player again takes a lead in the mines of that colour.

Don't ask me where I'm getting that though ...

N.

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sedge — 2007-06-21T12:23:38+00:00

The mines

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sedge — 2007-06-21T12:22:59+00:00

The special ones!

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Partizan242 — 2007-06-12T08:31:18+00:00

Stagecoach robbery

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Partizan242 — 2007-06-12T08:30:19+00:00

Dynamite is Dy-no-mite!