Game: Vexation

Thread: Re: Makes the game shorter?

Salt-Man Z — 2008-06-28T17:37:43+00:00

When playing with TransAmerica, we've found it somehow evens the scores out more. For example, without the expansion, a player starting alone on the west coast will often hand the game to the first player to connect to them. The expansion can solve that problem. So TransAmerica games seem to run longer (closer) with the expansion.

With TransEuropa, we've found that the opposite seems true. The Europe map is so difficult, using the expansion often makes it harder on players who were already going to lose big points, giving them even lower scores and ending the game sooner.

That's my impression, anyway.

Thread: Re: Settler's road can be used??

Salt-Man Z — 2008-06-28T17:32:50+00:00

The only one that wouldn't "match" is the yellow, as Settlers only comes with that yellowish-orange.

Thread: Re: Makes the game shorter?

steveoliverc — 2008-05-28T12:14:52+00:00

How many players did you have?

I haven't played it enough to know for sure, but I agree that it seems to lower some of the scores each round.

But that makes up for what the expansion does to the length of each round -- the game seems to take longer to play.

Thread: Makes the game shorter?

Phrim — 2008-05-27T17:01:40+00:00

I've only played once, and I liked the strategy of when and where to place the colored tracks. However, it also seemed like it was a lot easier for people who didn't win to lose by a LOT. I didn't really find this to be a welcome change, as it tends to make the game shorter (and I wished it were longer without the expansion). In the game I played, the game almost ended after the first round.

Anyone else have similar experiences?

Thread: Re: A Route

mark_biggar — 2008-05-13T19:54:09+00:00

Don't think of it in terms of routes, just in terms of connections. Your goal is to connect all five of your cities to your starting marker. A city is connected to your starting marker, if you can trace a connected sequence (you can call it a route if you want) of track pieces between them consisting of only black pieces and pieces of your own color. As far as you're concerned, the track pieces of the other players colors do not exist except that they prevent you from placing a track piece in the same place.

Thread: Re: A Route

cagriggs — 2008-05-13T19:42:52+00:00

Wrecker wrote:
steveoliverc wrote:
Just that one piece of track.

So if the only way for you to connect to a city is through a piece of track that is another player's color, then you can't trace that route.

This one seemingly simple little rule sure has me & my group confused! Sorry, but I still don't get it, so here's an example. I build from St Louis to Dallas. I put 1 of my colored tracks in this route. So...can someone else use this route?

Yes, the two black sections of the track simply need to be connected with black track, then everyone can use them, even if there is a colored track in the middle. The only part of the route that is unusable is the colored part. A player cannot claim an entire track with a colored piece, just one small part of that route. Look at this image:

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Despite the use of both a red and a yellow track, the black tracks have been reconnected, so anyone connected to the black track has access to each point on the track. Hope this helps.

Thread: Re: A Route

Wrecker — 2008-05-13T19:28:20+00:00

steveoliverc wrote:
Just that one piece of track.

So if the only way for you to connect to a city is through a piece of track that is another player's color, then you can't trace that route.

This one seemingly simple little rule sure has me & my group confused! Sorry, but I still don't get it, so here's an example. I build from St Louis to Dallas. I put 1 of my colored tracks in this route. So...can someone else use this route?

Thread: Re: A Route

steveoliverc — 2008-05-13T15:01:50+00:00

Just that one piece of track.

So if the only way for you to connect to a city is through a piece of track that is another player's color, then you can't trace that route.

Thread: Re: A Route

mark_biggar — 2008-05-13T15:01:00+00:00

Wrecker wrote:
mark_biggar wrote:
If you can trace a connected path of black (and your own colored) track pieces between your starting marker and a city, then you have a route to that city. Yes, you need only build around a colored piece belonging to another player to connect to everything beyond that colored piece. That statement in the rules appears to be one of those "helpful" explanatory thingers that just confuses things, and may be due to the translation into English.

So if there is a route with a colored track in it, ONLY the owner of that colored track can use the route? Or is just that ONE PIECE of track that can't be used by others?
Yes, only that player. As far as other players are concerned that colored track piece doesn't exist and the far side is not connected to their starting marker.

Thread: Re: A Route

Wrecker — 2008-05-13T14:38:58+00:00

mark_biggar wrote:
If you can trace a connected path of black (and your own colored) track pieces between your starting marker and a city, then you have a route to that city. Yes, you need only build around a colored piece belonging to another player to connect to everything beyond that colored piece. That statement in the rules appears to be one of those "helpful" explanatory thingers that just confuses things, and may be due to the translation into English.

So if there is a route with a colored track in it, ONLY the owner of that colored track can use the route? Or is just that ONE PIECE of track that can't be used by others?

Thread: Re: A Route

steveoliverc — 2008-05-13T02:03:46+00:00

Wrecker wrote:
I assume there is more to this than just going around 1 colored track...

Doesn't seem like much until one of the other players blocks you near the end of the game!

Thread: Re: A Route

mark_biggar — 2008-05-12T15:56:50+00:00

If you can trace a connected path of black (and your own colored) track pieces between your starting marker and a city, then you have a route to that city. Yes, you need only build around a colored piece belonging to another player to connect to everything beyond that colored piece. That statement in the rules appears to be one of those "helpful" explanatory thingers that just confuses things, and may be due to the translation into English.

Thread: A Route

Wrecker — 2008-05-12T14:56:55+00:00

I assume there is more to this than just going around 1 colored track, as the rules state that the colored track effects a whole route. So, what exactly is considered a route?

Thread: Re: The new fixation for TransAmerica and TransEuropa

WinningMoves — 2008-05-05T19:26:31+00:00

spielekeller wrote:
Thank you very much for you nice reviews of my Trans America and Trans Europa expansion. You can be happy that you can buy it in the USA. I sold this expansion in Germany to Winning Moves and you can not buy it in Germany. I don´t know why. They gave it away as a free addition with our SPIELBOX magazine in 2007. I was told that it will be in the original TA and TE boxes this year. But up to now I haven´t seen it.
Thanks again from Germany

Manfred Keller

It will be included in the Immortal Eyes version in the U.S. later this year by Winning Moves USA.

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Gamethyme — 2008-04-12T20:23:52+00:00

Keeping Russia free of other players seems to be a priority.

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fractaloon — 2008-02-24T03:35:11+00:00

Back of the package.

Thread: Re: Vexation in TransAmerica

PlayMe1 — 2008-02-20T04:15:46+00:00

We've thought of playing so that you can only play one colored track segment in a round. Just one opportunity to derail the others. 3 chances to block them seems excessive. Just got it and haven't tried it yet, though. I was just checking on line here to see if others had.

Thread: Re: Settler's road can be used??

kevinb9n — 2008-02-17T07:54:35+00:00

Sure I guess, but the colors won't match. The expansion is super-cheap anyway...

Thread: Settler's road can be used??

skytostar — 2008-02-17T00:57:29+00:00

Is it possible to use Settler's of catan's road block as the expansion intead of vexation ?

This is my first thought when i saw this expansion.
Maybe the size might be little different...

Anyone tried?

Thread: Thank you to America

spielekeller — 2008-02-03T18:22:42+00:00

Thank you very much for you nice reviews of my Trans America and Trans Europa expansion. You can be happy that you can buy it in the USA. I sold this expansion in Germany to Winning Moves and you can not buy it in Germany. I don´t know why. They gave it away as a free addition with our SPIELBOX magazine in 2007. I was told that it will be in the original TA and TE boxes this year. But up to now I haven´t seen it.
Thanks again from Germany

Manfred Keller

Thread: Re: A Somewhat Vexing Review

Tomaton — 2008-01-17T18:33:53+00:00

Good review.

I would quibble on one point in that intellectual property and profit must account for some percentage of breakdown of prices not just the cost of components. In this case, $3.50 seems entirely reasonable to me.

I'll be picking up this expansion set.

Thread: Re: A vexing new year's eve

steveoliverc — 2008-01-01T15:49:06+00:00

quartex wrote:
P.S. It's funny how people will cut off their own route and then notice that with no one helping it goes much slower than the combined alternate route used by the other players. Knowing when to ride the momentum of several players all going in the same direction, and when to chop off your own section is one of the really interesting decisions of the game.

How true!

and nice session report!

Thread: A vexing new year's eve

quartex — 2008-01-01T07:44:10+00:00

So here I was sitting around on New Year's Eve, thinking that my last minute gaming party was over after everyone left by 10 pm (cause bars clearly beat Coloretto), when I get surprised at 10:30 by a sudden influx of neighbors, complete with all kinds of food and a non-gamer relation. More than 4 players, and a newbie to the genre, clearly time to break out TransAmerica!

An hour and a half later, I mentioned that there was this expansion called Vexation, which made things more exciting. After beating them 3 times in a row (I was at 11 points when the game ended) they wanted some payback.

In this 4 player game (the newbie got tired) I started in memphis, along with another player in Jacksonville, and the other two players in the rockies. I quickly connected up to Winston, and then me and jacksonville both realized we had nowhere to go but west, so stopping each other wouldn't help much. Both of us put colored rails across the Mississippi, which later helped keep the westerns from roaring east. What was interesting was that the westerners had connected the midwest, and while they were stopping each other, I was able to go straight up near Denver. Using a colored rail to keep people from following me, I ran u[p to Helena, and by the time I was heading over to Medford, they realized I would easily win. The problem was that they foiled each other, but didn't really stop me, and the westerners helpfully built rails across the midwest, allowing me to jup from Oklahoma City to north of Denver.

In the second game we all started in the northwest, specifically Helena, Portland, Medford and Sacramento. That was an interesting game, because we were all headed in the same direction, and while people tried to foil each other early on in the rockies, it was easy to just loop around the obstructions. A more interesting development occurred when we each made different routes across the midwest, I went along the north to Duluth, green made a path from Omaha to Chicago, and Red and Blue made a path from Santa Fe to Memphis. My problem was that I had to get from Duluth to New York, with no one to help me. Then Green made a key move by abandoning her western rout at Chicago and instead bypassing blue's southern rail to use it instead. This allowed me to use the southern rail and with help we shot up the west side of the Appalachian mountains. I cut over to Washington D.C. and red cried that she'd won, until she realized that I had a laid my last white track. Blur actually won, leaving me one space before Washington, but it only dropped my overall score to 11, and I ended the night with a win. I managed to win both games partially due to luck, but I think also by foiling people at just the right time and still allowing others to do my hard work.

In the end it was a wonderful way to usher in the new year. I like the added strategy of Vexation, how the rail map can get quite convoluted as various branches extend out and people try to secure their own paths instead of everyone just joining up along the best route. The overall maps are much more spread out and twisty. Since clever placement of the colored rails can make a big difference in the development of the routes, especially if multiple people gang up on one player (which never really happened to me) , playing the rails becomes a lot less automatic. For those who think that the only deep thinking in TransAmerica is your start location, Vexation makes you think twice about how you're going to connect those cities.

P.S. It's funny how people will cut off their own route and then notice that with no one helping it goes much slower than the combined alternate route used by the other players. Knowing when to ride the momentum of several players all going in the same direction, and when to chop off your own section is one of the really interesting decisions of the game.

Thread: Vexation in TransAmerica

Stormbull — 2007-11-11T20:42:42+00:00

We were eager to try out Vexation as we all had played TA a fair amount of times amd were interested to see how much depth the blocking pieces added to the game.

The game lasted 4 rounds, with me taking a good lead in the first by being more aggressive with the use of colored pieces for blocking (Me 13, Quyen 11, Tim 11, Ken 7).

Second round people were more used to the new pieces with Tim taking the round (Me 12, Quyen 10, Tim 11, Ken 5).

We mentioned to Ken that now was a good time for him to win a round and so he did (Me 11, Quyen 9, Tim 9, Ken 5).

The last round saw me winning and Ken falling off the edge of the world, so nobody else took note of their points.

Some Observations
Tim didn't like the blocking pieces -- he felt they only increased the luck factor in the game -- how so you say? It was his opinion that the persons most likely to be affected by blocking were those who had the most geographically diverse cities -- if your cities were all clustered, the new colored tracks gave you even more of an advantage.

The rounds were usually 1-2 turns longer, as everyone had to go around at least 1 block, if not two.

The player tracks made it less "gimpy" to go to either the West or East coasts -- since you could block at a mountain, you were not giving your opponent's an easy way to connect.

Playing two colored tracks in a row was often a strong play, especially when you were the only player in a region.

Thread: Re: The new fixation for TransAmerica and TransEuropa

steveoliverc — 2007-08-17T03:07:54+00:00

A great expansion to a great game(s) and you can't go wrong for three bucks!

Thread: Re: The new fixation for TransAmerica and TransEuropa

virre — 2007-08-16T19:20:23+00:00

This really is a great expansion. It adds so much evilness to the game, it definitley adds on to the game.

Thread: Re: The new fixation for TransAmerica and TransEuropa

Aardvark — 2007-08-16T19:14:50+00:00

Never liked TransAmerica much. This may save it for me.

Thread: A Somewhat Vexing Review

Bearcat89 — 2007-08-16T18:36:41+00:00

TransAmerica and TransEuropa both sport very simple game play. Connect up the rails on the board as soon as you can to create a network that includes all five of your cities. Everyone shares the tracks connected to their starting token, so the winner is typically the player that best exploits the track laid by his opponents. If a player has to deduct more than 2 or 3 points from his score during a round, then they have had a horrible round. Typically, the player winning the round finishes only one turn before most (if not all) of his opponents would be finishing their own network.

But what if you could prevent other players from running on your carefully crafted track network? That is the idea behind Vexation. Each player receives three (3) sections of track in their own color (rather than the normal black color of the track sections). On your turn, you can use a piece of your colored track in place of the black track. Other players CANNOT use your colored track in order to trace their connections. A maximum of two (2) pieces of colored track may be laid connected to a single map node. As one might expect, these colored track pieces tend to show up in mountain passes, river crossings, and ferries. Why let the others get a free ride? Let them build their own connection! This results in each round lasting an average of 4 or so track laying turns longer and occasionally causes an anomaly such as a player scoring -8 or more points in a round.

Vexation takes a very simple and friendly game and adds a small element of strategy and cutthroat play. So...is this new element good, bad, or indifferent? My (somewhat PC) answer is...it depends upon the players. If your group is a hardcore set of strategists that delights in the occasional "take that!", then Vexation takes the very light TransXX games and makes them a bit more challenging and enjoyable filler between games of Imperial and Tigris & Euphrates. If your group is a friendly, family type gathering that takes more enjoyment out of the social aspect of game play than the won-loss record generated, then Vexation allows for a more aggressive player to "ruin" the game for the others through "unfair" play of colored track. My group enjoys Vexation and my only beef is the pricing. With an MSRP of $5.00, you can probably pick this up for around $3.50 at an online vendor. That breaks down into around 20 cents per track piece, which seems a bit pricey. Especially considering that you can pick up an entire TransXX game for around $16.00 or so (and that includes the board, cards, start markers, scoring markers, and scads of track pieces).

In summary, Vexation provides a bit of a twist and a nice change of pace for the TransXX games. Will it be a hit or a flop on your game table? That depends upon the play style of your group.

Thread: The new fixation for TransAmerica and TransEuropa

johncarlton — 2007-08-16T18:09:32+00:00

This review is based on one playing of Vexation in a three-player game. I’ve played Transamerica hundreds of times (mostly through Brettspielwelt) and have enjoyed it as a filler. Recently, however, the game has sat unplayed on my shelf for over a year as it has taken a backseat to the Ticket to Ride series.

WHAT IS IT?
Vexation is a small expansion that consists of 18 new wooden track pieces (3 in each of the 6 player colors) and rules for incorporating them into the base game. It can be played with either Transamerica or Transeuropa. I picked mine up for $5 at my Friendly Local Game Store. (Actually, the owner threw it in free with a recent game purchase.)

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THE BITS
The 18 tracks are the same quality, size and shape as the ones that came in the base game. Only, instead of being painted black, they are painted in each of the six player colors.

The rules are featured on a small pamphlet, about the size of a washing instructions tag you might find on a new shirt. They feature full-color graphics and illustrations.

The entire expansion is contained in a small plastic bag. The bits can be easily stored in the original game box.

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HOW IT WORKS
Each player is given three wooden tracks of their own color. These can be placed just like standard tracks. The only difference is that this particular section of track cannot be used by other players to link their routes. The result is that you can create choke points, which force other players to create workarounds if they want to link into your network.

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HOW IT PLAYS
Many have dismissed Transamerica and Transeuropa as too light and too luck driven. After all, you often don’t have many choices of what to do on your turn and often it’s a matter of being patient and hoping the other players do the bulk of the “heavy lifting” for you by building the network close to your cities.

Vexation infuses a bit more strategy into the game. Players can be a little devious if they use their tracks judiciously.

Figuring out where the tracks are likely to come together is now more important than ever, as that is one of the prime locations players will want to place their tracks, in order to block others. Also, mountain ranges and rivers become key strategic points to cut off the network, forcing others to carve their own paths across.

One other effect of Vexation is that there will be a lot more track on the board. Not only do players need to workaround the choke points, but it seems to inspire people to work together a little less than they might have otherwise. With five or six players, determining whether or not you have a valid route can be vexating, indeed!

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CONCLUSION
If you own Transamerica or Transeuropa, then Vexation is a recommended purchase. It adds strategy without much complication. For me, it revived a game that I had considered trading and bumped my rating of Transamerica up from a 6 to a 7.

Although I still expect Ticket to Ride will continue to be the favorite connection game in my house, Vexation is a nice change of pace and definitely worth bringing to the table from time to time.

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johncarlton — 2007-08-15T20:22:35+00:00

Patterns that emerge in Vexation often appear less than efficient as players criss-cross the country.

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johncarlton — 2007-08-15T20:21:29+00:00

Loops are much more common as players try to make valid connections.

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johncarlton — 2007-08-15T20:20:31+00:00

Figuring out which paths you can use can be a puzzle in itself.

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johncarlton — 2007-08-15T20:19:47+00:00

Water and mountain crossings are particularly valuable.

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johncarlton — 2007-08-15T20:18:14+00:00

Round one of a 5-player game. See comment for starting cities.

Thread: Re: per game or per round?

flieger — 2007-08-01T13:42:21+00:00

We played a four-player game last night for the first time. We played it with the option that you have three colored tracks in each round.
It becomes a pretty tough game that way. It seems that if you were to only have three colored tracks for the entire game, it would not make too much difference to the original rules.

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aaronseeber — 2007-07-17T10:23:54+00:00

Vexation Rails

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aaronseeber — 2007-07-17T10:15:01+00:00

Vexation Instruction Book

Thread: Re: per game or per round?

spielekeller — 2007-07-15T17:09:00+00:00

Hi
I am Manfred Keller. Every player gets his three colored pieces back in every new round with the new cards. But I will also try your idea.
Thank you

Thread: Designer

willythesnitch — 2007-06-24T02:00:24+00:00

Anyone else find it odd that the designer for Vexation is Franz Benno-Delonge, but the designer for Schikane is Manfred Keller?

Thread: Re: Why no merge with Schikane?

fnord23 — 2007-06-23T00:46:12+00:00

I do that on purpose. Really. It's funny, I swear!

Thread: Re: Why no merge with Schikane?

Spielguy — 2007-06-23T00:30:00+00:00

fnord23 wrote:

(edited for speeling)

Doh!

Thread: Re: Why no merge with Schikane?

fnord23 — 2007-06-23T00:22:40+00:00

And, in a fit of ingenuity, I edited the descriptions to reflect the pending merge. Sometimes this wiki thing works out nicely.

Thread: Re: Why no merege with Schikane?

fnord23 — 2007-06-22T21:16:35+00:00

That would explain it.

In regard to feedback, I understand your points.

I hope that somewhere (waaaaaaay down) in Aldie's "pony" list is adding the ability to provide feedback directly from the correction. (With checkboxes for "form letter" responses.)

Also, there are times where neither a) or b) is accurate. For example, the Jungle Jam/Jungle Speed issue, or the Werewolf split. At least in those cases, the game descriptions were eventually updated with the relevant information, but it took quite a while and I'm sure more than a few correction submissions, which wasted everyone's time.

It's just frustrating when you *know* (heh) that your correction is "correct", and it just doesn't happen, and you don't know why.

Thanks for the response.

Thread: Re: Why no merege with Schikane?

tool — 2007-06-22T20:22:56+00:00

Because game merging is broken just now. As soon as it is fixed I have at least a dozen merges I need to do, including this one.

At the moment sending feedback on a correction requires sending Geekmail from a separate browser tab or window, so it's not as convenient as it might be. Generally if a correction is declined it's because a)the correction was already made when submitted by someone else or b)the "correction" is not actually correct.

Thread: Why no merge with Schikane?

fnord23 — 2007-06-22T20:14:30+00:00

Is there a reason this entry hasn't been merged with Schikane?

I've submitted a couple of corrections, over an extended period of time (and I can't be the only one), but nothing has come of it.

On more general terms, I *really* wish Admins would give some kind of feedback when they decline a correction; it would help prevent multiple submissions.

(edited for speeling)

Thread: Re: per game or per round?

fnord23 — 2007-06-22T20:03:48+00:00

Interesting point. Perhaps someone should ask Jay?

I've been playing that all three are usuable every round. It seems to extend each round by about 1 or two turns per person.

If you could only use three tracks total per game, it would render the expansion a lot less useful and interesting.

Thread: Re: per game or per round?

Barkam — 2007-06-22T17:10:44+00:00

When I played the game with Vexation, I feel that there is just too much blocking. It also makes the game fiddly trying to figure out if one has access or not. I think limiting the colored tracks by not resetting them every turn would make it more enjoyable.

Thread: Re: per game or per round?

traininthedistance — 2007-06-22T16:42:27+00:00

LetsGetTrivial wrote:
I reset them every round -- interpretation 2.

However, the rules state that you get three colored tracks over the "course of the game" so I might stand corrected.

All the tracks get wiped off the board and returned to supply after each round. I don't see how the colored tracks would be any different- why would they not be returned to the player for reuse?

Thread: Re: per game or per round?

LetsGetTrivial — 2007-06-22T16:11:56+00:00

I reset them every round -- interpretation 2.

However, the rules state that you get three colored tracks over the "course of the game" so I might stand corrected.

Thread: per game or per round?

dkearns — 2007-06-22T15:16:12+00:00

The rules state that a player can use their colored track pieces three times per game.

Interpretation 1: You can only use three tracks spread out over multiple rounds.

Interpretation 2: You can use three tracks every time you draw a new set of destination cards.

I favor option 1, is this correct?

Thread: Re: Will this be available for retail purchase in the US?

rossum — 2007-06-12T22:03:41+00:00

I picked mine up when I saw it on the shelf at the FLGS yesterday, so it's out there. Five bucks.

MDK

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johnnyrobo — 2007-06-02T17:26:36+00:00

Vexation - Instruction book & Colored track components

Thread: Re: English rules for the expansion?

Boomer — 2007-06-01T15:50:17+00:00

One has been posted.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/fileinfo.php?fileid=24513

Thread: English rules for the expansion?

shawn_low — 2007-05-25T10:02:26+00:00

Hi all,

Just got the game in my issue of spielbox. Anyone done a quick rules translation yet?

From what I can gather, players get 3 lines of one colour and can place them on their turn (instead of the normal black track). Other players can't connect to their coloured lines?

I am probably far off the mark until I get it properly translated. Any help appreciated.

Thread: Re: Will this be available for retail purchase in the US?

Arcubalista — 2007-05-24T16:57:27+00:00

GeoMan wrote:
If the expansion contains 3 rails in each player color and nothing else, it shouldn't be hard to make your own!

It was also released in the new edition of Spielbox, and yes, it contains 3 rails per color plus rules.

Thread: Re: Will this be available for retail purchase in the US?

GeoMan — 2007-05-23T23:51:15+00:00

If the expansion contains 3 rails in each player color and nothing else, it shouldn't be hard to make your own!

Thread: Re: Will this be available for retail purchase in the US?

Henry Rhombus — 2007-05-23T03:42:44+00:00

Paul, Jay Tummelson is supposed to have the first copies of Vexation at Gamex 2007, a con in southern California this coming weekend. He said that Vexation should be at distributors the following week.

Eric
Editor, http://www.BoardgameNews.com

Thread: Re: Will this be available for retail purchase in the US?

boomtron — 2007-05-23T02:29:28+00:00

Looks like it.

http://www.funagain.com/control/product/~product_id=017614

Thread: Will this be available for retail purchase in the US?

Psauberer — 2007-05-23T01:29:54+00:00

The subject says it all.

Thread: Re: What is this?

GeoMan — 2007-05-23T00:32:11+00:00

I think it is a small expansion that comes with Spielbox magazine. A few extra tracks in the player's colors used for blocking.