Game: McMulti

Thread: Re: Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

no_where_dense — 2008-08-27T22:44:19+00:00

I had the same idea of using deck of dice. Last time (Aug 23, 2008) I played this game for the first time in 5 years, we decided to use the deck of dice with one "reshuffle" card. It worked perfect. Nice pace of doubles show up in reasonably even intervals but still unpredictable.

We used only one deck of dice. Each card depicts one black die and one white die. Used black die for blue and white die for red.

Thread: Re: Which Hexagames version is more rare?

Flix — 2008-08-27T08:43:24+00:00

Speedwaysupporter wrote:
hope it helped,
viele Grüsse von

Michael

It did, thank you!

Thread: Re: Which Hexagames version is more rare?

Speedwaysupporter — 2008-08-26T19:19:51+00:00

Hello, Jan,

several years ago I got to know the sales manager of Hexagames in person.
I often used to talk to him and about the companies games.
As far as I can remember both versions had exactly the same factory output.

hope it helped,

viele Grüsse von

Michael

Thread: Re: McMulti computer game

solove — 2008-05-14T10:00:24+00:00

Been playing this quite a bit over the last couple of weeks. Excellent conversion considering it's written in Basic.

Thread: McMulti computer game

archipel — 2008-03-31T19:43:15+00:00

Here is a link for a QBASIC version of the game. It's called CRUDE and it even has computer players !

http://www.george.crawshay.com/cgi/products.pl?game=Crude

Thread: Re: Which Hexagames version is more rare?

Flix — 2008-03-18T23:58:08+00:00

No one...??

Thread: Economic Change Condition

onigame — 2008-03-04T14:43:39+00:00

This variant is for those of you who want a bit more predictability in knowing when the economy is going to change (just like real life)! This variant was invented by several members of the Midnight Gamers (I won't credit individuals because I don't remember which ones they are) and has been my default house rule since 2002.

Get a third die (I use a big giant one) and put it in the center of the board on the 80 space, with the 6 facing up. This is the Economic Change Condition, or EconCON for short. This is a number that is a bit like DEFCON (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DEFCON); a large number means a low likelihood of economic change, whereas a high number means a high likelihood of change.

After the roll on every turn, ignore the economic change doubles chart, and instead compare each die to the EconCON.

If both dice are less than the EconCON, there is no economic change and no change to the EconCON.

If both dice are greater than or equal to the EconCON, then there is an economic change. Roll the EconCON die and treat the result as if it were doubles in the original rules to see what the new economy is. Reset the EconCON die back to 6.

If neither of the above is the case (one die is smaller and the other isn't), then there is no economic change, but the EconCON decreases by one.

For example, if EconCON = 6, then only double-6s will change the economy, any other 6 roll will turn the EconCON down to 5, and all other rolls will have no effect. If EconCON = 1, then there will be an unavoidable economy change.

Some raw numbers:

At EconCON = 6, the expected number of turns until a change is 6.743.
At EconCON = 5, the expected number of turns until a change is 3.817.
At EconCON = 4, the expected number of turns until a change is 2.521.
At EconCON = 3, the expected number of turns until a change is 1.782.
At EconCON = 2, the expected number of turns until a change is 1.314.
At EconCON = 1, the expected number of turns until a change is 1.

The expected number of turns until a change in the normal game is 6, so purists might find the value of 6.743 too high for their tastes. (I think it's fine; there's still enough randomness left in the game as is.) However, if you do want to tweak that, some possibilities are:

(1) You can make it so that a double-1 always triggers an economic change. This changes the expected number of turns to be 5.943, although now there is no way for the EconCON to stay at 2 for more than one turn in a row.

(2) You can start the game at a different EconCON other than 6. This makes the first change happen faster, although future changes still come at the same rate.

(3) If you want to be really precise, make it so that a double-1 always triggers unless the EconCON is 4. That makes the expected number of turns 5.999.

Another side effect of this variant is that the rumors are no longer pegged to the economic changes -- it is now possible to have a rumor action happen without an economic change happen. This seemed like a fine thing to us, but if you'd like to keep that correlation while willing to give up some unpredictability, you can try this:

If the economy changes when the EconCON is 5, then the rumor is FALSE; if the economy changes when the EconCON is 3 or 1, then the rumor is TRUE.
In the long run these give approximately the same probabilities as the original rumors (0.174 and 0.333 vs. 0.167 and 0.333), but now when the EconCON goes below 5, everybody might want to stockpile their cash for tax purposes! (Although one problem with this is that strategic placement of building gas stations on the "rumor spots" is now mostly useless.)

Thread: Re: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

JeffyJeff — 2008-02-11T02:41:43+00:00

DaviddesJ wrote:
Under "End of the Game", it is repeated that selling of facilities should be limited to those that were activated, on the final turns. But this just re-emphasizes the existing rule. It's not a new and different rule that only applies to those final turns.
Great, thanks! Looks like I was taught wrong! The guy who taught us was the one who sold all his facilities and declared the last round. He shouldn't have been able to do that then!

Thread: Re: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

DaviddesJ — 2008-02-11T01:42:05+00:00

I'm not sure if your question has been answered to your satisfaction. It is certainly the case that, on every turn, a player can only sell those facilities that have been activated. You can't just sell everything! That would be a totally different game.

In the online rules, this is explained clearly under Section III, "Purchase and sell facilities to the bank".

Under "End of the Game", it is repeated that selling of facilities should be limited to those that were activated, on the final turns. But this just re-emphasizes the existing rule. It's not a new and different rule that only applies to those final turns.

Thread: Re: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

brdparker — 2008-02-11T01:18:11+00:00

Right... sorry, I'm a little out of it tonight. I see what the problem is... I'll just shut up about things I don't know about

Thread: Re: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

JeffyJeff — 2008-02-11T00:59:13+00:00

brdparker wrote:
Oh, I think I see what you're saying (sorry, only played once). Are you only able to sell a piece of equipment if it's been activated that turn?
Argh, see Dave's reply above where he has the exact quote from the rules. Pay particiular attention to the "Note:" in that quote.

Thread: Re: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

brdparker — 2008-02-11T00:55:40+00:00

Oh, I think I see what you're saying (sorry, only played once). Are you only able to sell a piece of equipment if it's been activated that turn?

Maybe we were playing wrong then...

Thread: Re: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

JeffyJeff — 2008-02-10T18:26:18+00:00

brdparker wrote:
You guys know, after a person declares that he has $1 bil, each player (including that player) gets another turn, right?
Obviously, otherwise it would be a non-problem as the other players would not be able to sell anything, never mind just those facilities that were activated during the player's turn

Again the problem is that normally players can sell any facilities... but one player can sell all, declare they have $1B, thus preventing anyone else from selling all their facilities as well.

Thread: Re: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

brdparker — 2008-02-10T18:02:39+00:00

You guys know, after a person declares that he has $1 bil, each player (including that player) gets another turn, right?

I think that solves the problem. Let me know if I misunderstood...

Thread: Re: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

boydda — 2008-02-08T16:58:15+00:00

It does seem unbalanced, doesn't it? I've played the game several times now, always my copy. I use the rules that are here on the Geek. I'll quote the ending rules:

End of the Game:
In order to win, a player must have at least $1 billion ($1,000 million) and announce this fact. Each player (including the announcing player) will get one last round of play. At the end of the announcing player’s next turn, the game is over. The player with the most money at this point, is the winner.

Note: The selling of facilities on this last turn should be limited to those facilities that were activated during the player’s turn.

Note: Any facilities and/or barrels of gasoline or crude oil do not count for anything at the end of the game. Only cash is the final deciding factor for victory.

It seems ambiguous. Can one player sell off all their infrastructure, then announce victory, forcing the other players not to sell anything they don't activate? Or must the player who announces victory not sell anything not activated as well? I've played both ways. The first, "unbalanced" way, promotes ending the game a bit quicker. The second way, one player can simply sell off, then NOT announce, until his next turn. That leaves the others with a decision: sell off or not? If they don't, they probably won't really be in the running. But then, all you are really doing is counting facilities value at the end, as the game says you don't do.

Thread: Re: Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

JeffyJeff — 2008-02-01T04:51:14+00:00

what about using a card "deck of dice", 36 cards which represent each of the 36 possible combinations that could be rolled? Commercial versions are available for Catan... though would probably need a separate deck for each player.

Thread: End game selling restriction rule seems unbalanced

JeffyJeff — 2008-01-27T19:04:15+00:00

The rules here on the geek say regarding the end game:

Note: The selling of facilities on this last turn should be limited to those facilities that were activated during the player’s turn.

In the one game I played the player to my right was able to sell off all his facilities which gave him the $1 million needed to trigger the end game.

If I had been able to sell all my facilities on my final turn I either would have come very close or possibly gone over the top of that person and won the game myself.

So it is really an unbalanced advantage. It would make more sense that the final turn everyone sell off facilities if they desire.

Would love to see a reprint of this game though!

Thread: Which Hexagames version is more rare?

Flix — 2008-01-25T17:43:22+00:00

Does anybody know which version of the two Hexagames is more rare - the square blue box or the bigger one with the truck on its cover? I remember me being young and staring at the toy's shop shelves when they had McMulti for sale and it was always the blue one.

Thanks for your input,
Flix

Image

henk.rolleman — 2008-01-16T21:16:54+00:00

Front Box of Hexagames

Thread: Re: Missing Drill Towers

simon craddock — 2007-12-22T01:07:01+00:00

Two missing towers shouldn`t affect the game too much,however there will
be times in the game when all 80 towers are needed by the players.
For example a common start strategy is to place 36 towers,or when the market is depressed many players build as many towers as they can to get the later capitol appreciation.

Thread: Missing Drill Towers

Game Knight — 2007-12-22T00:03:24+00:00

Hi all,

I recently finally managed to buy one of these on eBay for the reasonable price of €41 (I guess the 'freaks' who kept pushing the price out of my range into the €60s-70s were all on holiday that weekend, because another went out the same day at around the same price...), and received it today in quite good shape.

Only one thing: after counting I noticed that I'm missing two of the black drill towers (bohrturme). Since it's 2 out of 80, I'm assuming this should not impact the game, but can anyone confirm?

Still, should someone have 2 extra they would be willing to part with, let me know

Thread: Who Shot JR?

MWChapel — 2007-10-12T22:41:24+00:00

I have to admit, I love McMulti. And it's a Damn shame that this game is so out of print, and so very hard to find. Lucky for us, Mark owns a copy, a we get to play it a couple times a year.

Last night we had:

Me
Mark
Jon
Doug

We were trying to decide of what game to pay, and just the mention of the word "McMulti" made for a resounding HELL YEAH.

It's been a little while since I last played, so I wasn't 100% on what strategy worked best. Mark went first and chose a nice spread out Oil field /Gas station/Refinery setup. I followed suite with a criss-cross oil field and a single refinery. Then Doug did about the same, and finally Jon chose to take the opposite route with just gas stations.

At most I thought I "should" be able to buy a pump for $20K. Unfortunately for Mark and I, we both rolled diddly, and it went two full rounds without anyone being able to buy an oil field.

What REALLY killed Mark and I early, was a second round "NEWS". Bumm Bum Bum! Yes, No NEWS is good news in this game! And it was a doozy, taxing the refineries! Ugg. Everyone had already spent most of their cash getting set up. Both mark and I had to sell off a bunch of stuff in a low sell rate to make the Tax. I think it hurt Mark the worst.

The next "several" rounds, I played a well balanced building. Got lucky enough to build 2 oil pumps, and two that hit often(Thanks the lucky dice).

We didn't have many market crashes for about 3/4 of the game. Things just got more and more expensive. We did play the variant that the market would only shift after the rolls exceeded the white dice. So the markets moved sllooooowwwwwww. Maybe too slow. I think you could sell gas on the open market than you could on the center market most of the game.

OK, so the kicker. By the last couple of rounds, the market crashed. And buildings became uber cheap. Doug and Jon went on a buying spree. Me I stayed back and just sold goods. Then I had about $700K, I thought, with the market trend going up and Jon and Doug with tons of buildings being laid out, if I didn't go out soon, they would exceed my overall earnings. Plus me going out would give me one whole extra turn.

This turned out to be the best turn ever. So I went over $1000K to end it, and the very next roll. MARKET CRASH! Oh yeah, Doug and Jon were forced to sell off all their buildings for the lowest price.

Suffice it to say. I got the win. I did make a mistake though. When I knew I was going to go out that turn, I should have sold all my oil and gas in the open market. It would have made my lead much stronger. I ended up having to sell off my leftover resources for very low cash as both markets became flooded.

Something to keep in mind.

]]> - Mike ]]> - Doug ]]> - Jon ]]> - Mark

If you haven't ever had a chance to play McMulti. I cannot stress it enough what a great game it really is. Maybe they will have it ready to go at BGG.CON. I'll even teach it!

The initial placement after the first round picture taken by Mark, and his nifty huge fancy camera!:

]]>

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T22:05:55+00:00

A booming oil industry

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T22:02:37+00:00

Early game

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T21:58:52+00:00

A booming oil industry

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T21:35:51+00:00

Domestic crude oil market

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T21:32:02+00:00

Foreign gasoline market

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T21:26:38+00:00

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T21:22:51+00:00

All game components

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T21:20:32+00:00

A booming oil industry

Image

cuazzel — 2007-09-30T21:17:36+00:00

Lots of game pieces

Thread: Re: Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

Tazzmann — 2006-06-10T18:03:01+00:00

keel wrote:
Tazzmann (#6633), I've played so many times, I've lost count and I and my friends still enjoy the game and consider it a favorite. I see no reason for drill rigs to be snapped up as swiftly as you suggest. I've seen players select 20 drill sites on die combinations of 7 and take ten turns to ever hit a 7. I've played on combinations of 1 & 6 and done far better. I've also found it wise to buy as many drill rigs as possible at first to increase drilling success and then sell excess rigs as necessary. One really only needs to hit two or three for the entire game.

I really don't understand this response. You say you wouldn't expect them to be snapped up all that quickly, but you concede that they are needed, albeit in small quantities (2 or 3 for the whole game). Since they are needed, why wouldn't a player go ahead and get them while they are still as cheap as they are likely to be for the entire game, on that first turn. Since this is an item that would generally be kept after it is in place, I find it very doubtful that the price would drop below 40 once the point is reached where all 4 players own a pumper until the very end of the game when players are selling the kitchen sink. With this in mind, it only makes sense to buy while the price is still low.

Maybe for the first turn or two, the players would only be allowed a "strike" if they choose to use the natural roll, the red and blue dice, instead of making a substitution for that third die? Then after that point, strikes could be made on any valid dice combination. This idea is somewhat inspired by the common practice in Monopoly of not allowing the players to buy property until their second lap of the board. Would this help to even things out a bit?

Thread: Re: Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

Vulch — 2006-06-09T13:25:36+00:00

In the English rules that are posted here, it says that the cost of an oil pump is "$10 million times the total number of oil pumps (including the newly purchased oil pump) in entire game".

Thread: Re: Session Report

Christine Biancheria — 2006-06-04T04:05:08+00:00

I don't know about the idea of waiting for derricks to convert. In my games, they rarely did since you have to hit them right on the head with both dice to convert. I think getting gas stations up and running early is a much better way to have the money to invest in a broad infrastructure.

Thread: Re: Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

nillocsivad — 2006-03-23T20:31:04+00:00

Tazzman, it was my understanding that only your own oil wells affect the cost of placing a new one. So, I fail to understand how the price of an oil well would be up to $40 mil by the time it gets around the board.

Thread: Tao of Gaming Review

Bankler — 2005-07-15T03:33:24+00:00

[This review originally written in 1999 -- Brian]

I was perusing the Top 100 Games as voted by the readers of rec.games.board list and noticed that McMulti was voted #10. Sixteen voters give it an average of around 7.5 (on a 0-10 scale). Just to note, only two games currently have an average over 8. Now, I'm one of the sixteen people who have voted for the game. I gave it a '6', slightly above average. But in retrospect I'm going to have to change my vote to a 5. It's an average game, not great. Certainly not one of the Ten Best Boardgames.

This 'review' is done from memory, because I sold my copy of McMulti earlier this year...or maybe late last year.

McMulti has the (four) players trying to make money in the oil business. Each player controls a 6x6 island. And the islands themselves form a 2x2 grid. Each player starts with some money. The basic turn order is something like the following: You roll the two dice (one red and one blue). Your island has a grid marked with rows and columns numbered 1-6 (one side red, one side blue). Anything in one of the rows or columns that your rolled is activated. For example, if you have a drilling rig activated, you can convert it to a well. if you have an activated well (not one that you just converted), you get a barrel of oil. If you activate a refinery, you can convert a barrel of oil into a barrel of gas, and if you activate a gas station you can sell a barrel of gasoline. Your rows and columns that are activated are also activated for the adjacent players (all the players are in a 2x2 grid, remember?), the player across from you doesn't get anything.

After activating you can buy new drills, refineries and gas stations then you pass the dice.

Now the game would be dry as a bone, but you also can deal with the big lucrative markets. There is an oil market in the center of the board that you can freely buy and sell from. It works like so: There are a bunch of spaces labelled from 1 up to however many there are in total (80?). When you sell oil you cover up a space and get that much money. There are also smaller markets in oil and gasoline on each side of the board. Normally the price of oil would stay about the same, but everytime doubles are rolled, the economic condition changes. This has two effects: first, it drives the price of oil up on the main market. Secondly, it changes the price (and resale price) of equipment. During a recession, it's cheap to build that refinery, but during a boom, with the tight labor market, well it gets pricey. As for the market, a recession will drive the price up a little bit, but a boom sends the price soaring! A change in the economy may also trigger a random event, but those were chrome. If you end your turn worth some amount (including the resalue value of your equipment) you win.

Why did I sell my copy? After a while I just didn't like the market mechanism. Let's face it, the board mechanism isn't great. Siedler uses a similiar idea (a die roll for one helps all) and has much more interesting board play. Here you can't block another player, only yourself. I did originally like the market mechanism, but now I'm lukewarm. The game really boils down to who gets to sell after the price jumps. Yes, you want to maintain your cash stockpile for the dry times do massive building during the recession and then hoard until the price goes back up, but it turns out that the decisions weren't really that difficult. Build during recession (as much as possible). Don't sell oil when the price is cheap unless you have to. You were at the mercy of the dice, but it took me a few games to really appreciate it.

Another problem is that you throw the dice a lot. In the mid game you see a lot of waiting, because nobody wants to sell oil when the price is low and (assuming you don't want to buy any equipment) you don't really need money. So you throw the dice, people grab their oil (or convert it to gasoline) and pass the dice. You are waiting for that doubles to bump the price of oil. Even then the oil price might not rise much. So you have a half hour or more of nothing. I found that McMulti was taking about 2 hours and occassionally breaking 2.5. That's slow for a game with that much luck. I've considered variants to make the economic condition change more often (as have others, I've noticed). That would help. Also having to pay infrastructure costs for hoarding oil would help, but would add fiddly detail. But all in all I'm just forced to admit that this game, as nice as it looks, is really just a precursor to Siedler. It did it first, but now I can play the superior game.

Thread: Re:Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

kenjohns — 2004-10-19T15:15:10+00:00

rdsmith (#854),
Yes this was my idea, we've been playing it this way virually since we got the game.

You probally read it in an article I wrote in COUNTER -I think it was issue 3.

I'm not sure if it is quite as we play it.:-

Three Dice Red; Blue,(with the game), and White.

Roll all three, but the Red can only go on the Red side and the Blue only on the Blue. Th white can subsistute either. e.g. If Red [5]; Blue [2]; and White [3] then you could have [5][2]; [5][3]; or [3][2]

You could NOT have [2][5].

Everyone we've played this with seems to like it/

Thread: Re:Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

NickDanger42 — 2004-05-13T02:46:43+00:00

Robert Chang (#6676),
How about issuing some (3 to 6?) tokens that represent the number of times that you could 'fudge' the dice? Then the other color die would be relevant, and it wouldn't totally skew things...maybe.

Thread: Re:General Comment

keel — 2004-04-26T04:36:17+00:00

Steve 'K-Ban' Kurzban (#898), I think there is a way to slow down foes. Sell off as much gas as possible, driving the price down for the next player who will then likely not sell, leaving him cash short. Also, buy up gas and oil off the board and resell next round if others have bought after you, forcing them to pay high fees. Also, this isn't a way to slow 'em down but to keep even - play your refineries and gas stations in line with other players so that when they 'hit', you do as well.

Thread: Re:Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

keel — 2004-04-26T04:31:24+00:00

Tazzmann (#6633), I've played so many times, I've lost count and I and my friends still enjoy the game and consider it a favorite. I see no reason for drill rigs to be snapped up as swiftly as you suggest. I've seen players select 20 drill sites on die combinations of 7 and take ten turns to ever hit a 7. I've played on combinations of 1 & 6 and done far better. I've also found it wise to buy as many drill rigs as possible at first to increase drilling success and then sell excess rigs as necessary. One really only needs to hit two or three for the entire game.

Thread: Re:Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

Robert Chang — 2003-03-05T14:57:45+00:00

Sounds good, but I'm curious, why does the third die have to be a different color?

Thread: Re:Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

Tazzmann — 2003-03-04T14:12:58+00:00

I do like this idea, since the game can tend to get a bit tedious if there is a long stretch without doubles being rolled, but I do have one concern. It would seem that with this system, the obvious strategy is to buy more rigs early, since you can almost guarantee a strike given the fact that you effectively have 3 rolls to choose from. This appears to create a distinct disadvantage for the player who is to go last in a 4 player game, since pumpers are all but guaranteed to cost 40 million by the time this player takes a turn. Any ideas how to alleviate this, or has it not proven to be a problem?

Thread: Idea to Reduce the Luck Factor

rdsmith — 2002-05-20T11:33:25+00:00

Although there is the debatable high luck element, this is still a great game for its innovations and components. One way to alleviate the luck somewhat, and make the game even quicker, is to introduce a third d6 of a different color which can be an option die to replace one of the other dice if you desire. This not only provides easier growth, but adds a bit of strategy of which results to apply. (This is not my invention. I read it somewhere, but can't remember where I got it from. A super idea though.) Give it a try.

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

It took me a long time to arrange a trade for this
hard to find game of the Oil business. Originally an American game with cardboard chits called "Crude" it had achieved legendary status among collectors and is very high up on the Internet 100 Games List. Marty had been requesting to play Herb's copy for months (years?) but we never had exactly 4 players on the nights that Herb brought his copy. High expectations, gorgeous plastic bits. Interesting market mechanism where your die rolls effect both your left and right hand neighbors. After 3.5 hours Ron had the win.

I came away deflated. This is a dice fest. Your decisions really only effect you and are offensive only. There's NO WAY to slow down an opponent. it's multi-player solitaire with dice. I felt I was being played by the system instead of the other way around. What am I missing here? Why are folk so enthusiastic about this one? (Parakeetitis, perhaps?). I've never had such a highly touted game hit my trade pile so fast.

Thread: General Comment

BoardGameGeek — 2002-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Having seen the comments on the length of the games people have been playing ( 3 hrs +) I presume everyone is aware that there is an error in the translation of the rules? When the consumer price changes, it does not go up 'x' number of points, it actually goes up 'x' number of RED points on the track. This means that a higher income (on average) can be generated per turn and makes the game quicker. Once we found this out our games reduced to 60-90 minutes, which is an ideal length.

Dave C
Halesowen Boardgamers

Thread: Session Report

derk — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Will, Aldie, Derk

When I first got this game, we played it quite regularly. But Ken got a little disheartened by the game’s luck and length. He’s certainly got a point with either assertion, but I still like this game, despite the facts that say that I shouldn’t. Anyway, we played it the other day for the first time in months because Ken had to leave. That game was pretty awful for George, but it did get Aldie and Drew excited about playing the game (Hell, Aldie liked it a lot, if for no other reason than the fact that there are event cards in the game, something he’s just silly in love with).

So I broke open my well-loved copy of McMulti for the last game of the evening. We each decided to go with a balanced approach, only Will was a little timid on his drill placement at first. When my turn came around, I discovered oil with my first roll. Then I discovered another well on my second and third turns. This was a little out of control, as I couldn’t seem to not find oil. I felt the need to convert my drills just to drive the price up for the other guys, but it meant I would be poor for a while. I completely tanked the oil markets in an effort to get a refinery before the facility prices got totally out of control.

But as the economy really started to heat up, the others made some really good progress. Aldie and Will both had decent islands, with the edge going to Aldie’s refineries and pumps. But with the status of the oil markets, Will could still afford to buy oil for his single refinery and make some profit. The markets kept escalating, and we continued to sell gas as often as possible. In all the games of McMulti I’ve played, I think this was the best overall price for consumer gasoline. As soon as the price started to wane, the indicator die would start dropping and the market would flip. In fact, during the game, we saw the market fluctuate through almost two complete cycles, without major shortcuts.

When the price of gas was so high, I was pumping from my four oil pumps like it was going out of style. Will was slowly buying up the available crude, but the real bottleneck for all of us was refining. The refineries were just too darn expensive to make purchases worthwhile. After a long time, I finally did buy another refinery, just to keep up with my selling demand. I was kicking myself soon after that, because the market bottomed out as we headed into a depression. We all quickly purchased all the missing facilities on our islands, and the game headed into the home stretch.

Will was selling gas on an almost constant basis, and I really thought he was going to win the game. But his facility investments hadn’t been terribly timely, so he looked much richer than he really was. I wasn’t doing too badly with my four refineries, as I was finally starting to put a dent in my huge crude oil reserves. I actually don’t know why I didn’t start selling my pumps earlier, but it never occurred to me until it was too late. It was too late, because sneaky ol’ Aldie had squirreled away enough cash to cross the billion dollar barrier. When I was my turn to roll, the facilities I could sell wouldn’t allow me to make massive amounts of cash that I could’ve by selling my pumps earlier. I’m fairly certain that Aldie beat me by 100 million, and Will was three or four hundred million behind us.

Thread: Session Report

gschloesser — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

Peter and Kim (along with their children) headed back to Orlando, so Brent and Maryann introduced Ty and I to McMulti. Brent warned us that it was a dice-fest, but that the game was still entertaining. Early on, I agreed with his assessment, but as the game progressed, I found the game to be little more than a time killer.

First off, the game can take forever to play to completion. With the rules as written, one needs $1 billion to claim the victory. We played for close to two hours and no one was near $1 billion. However, after the first 45 minutes, it was clear that Ty would win and only a sudden heart attack on his part would enable any of us to have a chance at victory.

Now, I've only played once, so my theory could easily be incorrect. However, it seems to me there is one optimum strategy to pursue:

1) Purchase a bunch of derricks and a refinery early on and scatter them about your field. Add one refinery for good measure. Stir.

2) As soon as one or two of your derricks 'hit' and convert to wells, ditch the remaining derricks and purchase as many gas stations as possible. Sit back and watch the money flow in.

That's it. Both Ty and I figured out this strategy fairly quickly and were leaps and bounds ahead financially. Ty's derricks had hit a couple of turns ahead of mine, so he was always two turns ahead of me inpurchases and income. His victory was never, ever in doubt.

I know there are changes in the financial outlook cards, potential taxes, etc., but none of those ever endangered this strategy. It was pretty straight forward and seems fairly foolproof.

Anyway, we called the game after nearly two hours, all conceding to Ty. I found the game fun early on, but once I 'saw' the strategy, it seemed very dull and time consuming. Had it not been for the outstanding company of Ty, Brent and Maryann, I would have considered this two hours lost.

Ratings: Ty 7, Brent 6, Greg 4

Thread: Session Report

BoardGameGeek — 2001-01-01T06:00:00+00:00

(Debbie, Alan, David, Tina)

My second playing of this, and I am coming to the conclusion that it's a fun game, but agree with Tina's opinion that it's too long for what it is - namely, a dicefest.

This was a first-timer for Alan and David, and so I employed Doug's time-honoured tactic of explaining from memory and making it up as I went along (which only bit me once, fortunately). We played with the standard rules, which I might be reluctant to do again, as I will explain later.

I invested heavily in drilling rigs early on, more so than the others. Alan and David bought heavily in them after a few turns, and it was Alan who made the first strike. Not surprising, at one point more than half of his island was drilling rigs! Poor Tina managed to consistently roll empty spaces with her dice, and only got two pumping stations as a result, both late in the game. I made a nice start with some good sales and at one point was about 300 million ahead of everyone else. But Alan was Biding His Time(tm).

During the middle of the game, play stagnated as we went several times around the table without rolling a double. There was a glut of crude oil and the consumer oil prices came down to be very cheap. Every dollar was extremely hard-earned until someone finally rolled a double and we were back in business.

The end of the game came when I announced that through selling off a refinery and a service station that I'd cracked the one-billion mark, but by this time Alan was Breathing Down My Neck and I was afraid that I'd made the dash for the finish too early. I was certainly running out of steam by that time. David and Tina really didn't have a chance at this point, having had some less-than-stellar die rolls.

In the end, it was a photo finish. I think I came out ahead on a technicality. 7 million in the end is really almost nothing. Alan really deserved to have win here, as he played very well and timed his final attack perfectly; luckily for me, I'd saved a few extra cents somewhere along the way and ended up with the most money.

Next time, I think we'll play with one of the variants which reduce the impact a run of non-doubles has on the game. That might stop it from stagnating and might also make the game last less than THREE HOURS!

Final scores (millions): Debbie 1291, Alan 1284, David 773, Tina 359

My rating: Certainly a 6. True, there's little player interaction, there's so much luck it makes all that talk about Andromeda pale by comparison, but it's still fun. And it has cool bits.

Thread: User Review

derk — 2000-07-09T18:09:35+00:00

I bought my copy of this game shortly after Essen '98 from a friend of mine in Germany. I didn't actually know much about the game other than everybody seemed to want the game, and it was a reprint of an earlier American game named Crude.

Each player is the CEO of a multinational oil company. The object of the game, predictably enough, is to make a certain dollar amount, 1 billion dollars. To accomplish this, each company has an island on which to place various facilities. The island is a six-by-six matrix with numbers in the form of dice pips along two sides.

There are four different structures that can be built. First, there's oil drills, which can be used to find oil. Then there are oil pumps, which are used to produce the oil once it's been found. Next are the refineries, which convert crude oil into gasoline. The final step in the process is selling the gasoline, which is accomplished by gas stations. Each of the facilities takes up one space, except the refineries, which take up four.

The idea is that at the beginning of your turn, you roll two dice, one red and one blue. The results of the dice will tell you which facilities on your island operate for a given turn. Facilities operate if they lie on one of the two 'lines' on your island, and a facility operates twice as well if it's located at the intersection of the 'lines.' The intersection is also the only location that will allow a oil drill to find oil (oil drills that are activated by only one of the dice do nothing). That oil drill can then be converted to an oil pump, which is the only way to actually purchase an oil pump.

That particular element of the game is perhaps the worst. The simple fact is that getting your oil striking die rolls early in the game is always better than later. As if getting oil pumps early wasn't bad enough, the cost of each oil pump purchased in a game becomes slightly more expensive to buy. This means that if you want to specialize in pumping oil, you need to find oil fast, and early for it work out well. You could cover half your island with oil drills and still never hit one, although probability says that shouldn't happen.

There are ways of producing beyond drilling however. There are four markets on which players can buy and sell crude oil and gasoline. The market is simply fifty numbers (oil rises by ones and gasoline rises by twos). Buying or selling is as easy. Placing barrels onto the markets earns you the cover amounts, and taking barrels costs you total amount uncovered. Therefore, the price of crude and gasoline eventually will stabilize at a certain point, per the players' supply and demand. These markets are divided into two groups (foreign and domestic) with one of each market in both. The idea is that a player can only trade on either the foreign or domestic markets on a given turn, but not both.

In addition to the foreign and domestic markets, there's also the consumer market. This represents the demand for the finished product at the gas pumps. The initial price level is determined through a simply amazing mechanism that I'll describe in a second. As players roll their gas stations and sell their gasoline, the price spots are covered and the corresponding amount is paid out. However continuous selling will eventually drive the price so low that there's little profit to be made.

To drive the consumer market, players need to roll doubles. Doubles will force the current economic situation to change, which will make the price of gasoline rise. Generally speaking, the market cycles from depression to boom and back again, with prices and costs changing appropriately. If the economy is in depression, facilities are dirty cheap to buy and gas prices are low. If the economy is in boom, facility prices are astronomical along with gas prices. The whole market fluctuation mechanism is perhaps my favorite market simulator for a game: realistic without being overly fiddly.

As much as I like this game, I've got no good reason to like it. The primary reason that people don't like it is the luck. As many, many people have observed in numerous games of Settlers, just because something is probable doesn't meant that it's going to happen. This is especially felt when players compete for oil pumps. The cost of converting a drill to a pump is $10 million times the number of pumps in the entire game, so two players could have equal chances to get a pump, but one could get his pumps for half the cost (relative to the other player). And woe be to the person that simply gets iced in this department, because their life will get increasingly more difficult as the game progresses.

And then there's the luck of the market turnovers. If you're lucky, you'll buy facilities cheap before they get expensive, but sometimes it can't be helped. And getting a bunch of sales right after a market kick can be very large also.

That said, most games that have a significant portion of luck can still be played more or less skillfully. I've won this game a disproportionate number of times that I've played it, and I'd be hard pressed to point to one factor for this. Certainly there's a significant decision to be made regarding the timing of facility purchases, and I have to think that that's the main factor. Sometimes even though you want to buy another refinery or gas station, but the cost is so incredibly high you'd have to work for several turns just to make up the loss.

So the bottom line is, would I recommend this game? The answer is yes. However with the significant luck factor, this is not the typical business game. And then there's the price. This game is fairly sought after by collectors, with some auctions going to $150+. Now all the little plastic drills and refineries are really cool, but I don't think I can recommend this game for that price. It really is on par with Settlers in terms of depth, and people should be aware of this. This ain't no Die Macher. However it is still one of my favorite games, and if you can find it cheap, I think you'll like the experience.