Game: Goa

Thread: Re: Tournament tie-breaker? Advice, please.

montu — 2008-08-26T01:40:22+00:00

Thanks to everyone for the impassioned arguments. I've decided on these three tiebreakers:

1) Most money (official tiebreaker)

2) Fewest pts. from Expedition Cards--I really like this because luck of the card draw can kill an otherwise skillfully played game, so this tiebreaker slightly mitigates the luck. If we both finish w/ 5 expedition cards and you have a full house (9 VP) while I only have two pair and a singleton (7 VP), and if our overall scores are tied, then I got unlucky on card draws and probably played better overall (after all, I was ahead before our card draws were taken into account). Finally, I like any rule that weakens the card track (even if ever so slightly).

3) Flag, or closest to the flag. Andy makes an excellent argument for this one, and there's another really good argument: it settles the game. There's no way to have a 4th tiebreaker once you have this one.

I hope you all can play Goa at EuroQuest. We need to keep our player count high so we don't risk being dropped. Attendance for Goa has gone down at EQ and WBC the past couple of years, and it would be a shame to see such a great game not played in major tournaments any more--that fate has already befallen Taj Mahal, despite our efforts to save it.

Thread: Re: Tournament tie-breaker? Advice, please.

Eric Brosius — 2008-08-24T21:08:45+00:00

I agree with Andy. No point introducing slow-down at the end of the game for no reason.

For El Grande, I'd prefer "most caballeros in your yard" as a tie breaker. It takes work to get caballeros in your yard, and this is something directly involved in the game (if you pick a lower-numbered power card in Round 9 to get more cabs, you may wind up with a more limited choice of action cards.)

Thread: Re: Tournament tie-breaker? Advice, please.

andylatto — 2008-08-24T17:00:47+00:00

If you allow taking fewer spice than permitted by a harvest, expect a final-turn slowdown, as everyone calculates exactly how many spice they will need, and takes only that number. Worse, suppose I plan one more card draw later in my turn, and there is one possible card for which I would like to have more spice. I should then carefully calculate what everyone else is going to do on their final turn, count up the scores, and only if a tie seems likely should I avoid taking the extra spice. I don't think this is the kind of behavior you want to encourage in your players.

Fourth, it seems strange to have a sudden inversion of goals that occurs only in the case of a tie. During the game, I am always trying to choose actions and win auctions to get more money, more spice, more ships, more pilgrims. Why suddenly switch that to "more money, less spice, less ships, less pilgrims", and only make that switch in the case of a tie?

Fifthly, I don't see how having less spice at the end is indicative of "more efficient" play in any meaningful sense. If I take the same 24 actions as you, and produce the same number of tech track advances, the same amount of money, but more spice, in what sense have I been less efficient? In the real world, no-one would consider you to be more efficient than me, even if I had nothing to do with those final spice than give them to the field workers as a gift. If you're claiming that the leftover spice means I was less efficient in converting VP into spice, you really don't know that; you have no idea how much spice either of us produced and converted during the game.

During the game, you are rewarded for converting actions to spice efficiently, and for converting spice to VP efficiently. Extra spice is a sign that I've done a better job in the first of these jobs. Why suddently punish this on the last turn?

Whatever tiebreak you use, it could still tie, and you'll wind up using the flag as final tiebreak. Again, I'd give the win to the owner of the flag. Owning the flag is good; that's why people buy it in an auction. If people know that in addition to the action card, the final flag gives them tiebreak, they can know this and take it into account in bidding. Rewarding someone for not buying the flag seems wrong.

Thread: Re: Tournament tie-breaker? Advice, please.

andylatto — 2008-08-24T16:56:42+00:00

But I also think, as a general principle, that a tie should go to the player who scored the same number of points with fewer resources, actions, etc.

I see this principle suggested from time to time by people adding tie-breakers to games, and I think it's a bad idea.

First, it's worth noting that virtually no game designers make use of this principle when they have tiebreaks in the rules. It's very easy for me to think of games where money or other resources that are useful during the game are used as endgame tiebreakers (Princes of Florence, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Race for the Galaxy, Goa, St. Petersburg, Power Grid), or where resources or money convert into a small number of VP's at the end of the game (St. Petersburg, Caylus). I can't think of a single game where the designer-approved tiebreaker rewards the player who has fewest resources left over.

Second, as a practical matter, such tiebreakers will suddenly involve you as a GM in making rulings on things that have never come up before. When you harvest in Goa, are you allowed to take fewer spices than the number you are entitled to, even if you have room for them? No-one has ever asked this question before, since there was never any reason to. A tie-breaker that involves fewer spices winning will suddenly have you carefully rereading the rules to see of the word "may" occurs in some particular sentence.

Third, I don't see that you want to encourage the sort of play that this tiebreak rewards. With a "most spice" tiebreak, players will continue to optimize their moves from a "more is better" standpoint on the last turn, just as they do on the first 7 turns. Normally, you are rewarded for arranging your actions in such an order that you increase your harvest technology before you reap a harvest. Why should you instead suddenly be rewarded on the final turn for harvesting before you increase your harvest tech, instead of after?

(continued)

Thread: Re: Tournament tie-breaker? Advice, please.

spotcard — 2008-08-22T05:11:38+00:00

montu wrote:
A final choice of tie-breaker is fewest total spices, ships, and colonists. Again, a player who has the fewest of these items left over has played more efficiently and should therefore be rewarded.

This aint necessarily true. If both players collected the same number of resources over the course of the game, the one with more resources left over would have spent more efficiently. But, I agree, it's not a big deal. Make a decision, and move on. It's not worth worrying about

Thread: Re: Tournament tie-breaker? Advice, please.

fnord23 — 2008-08-22T04:45:38+00:00

The number of resources left at the end of a game of Goa is essentially statistical noise, and deriving meaning from it would seem to be a bad idea. Resources in Goa are not a finite, trackable item like caballeros in El Grande.

If you want to know how "efficient" players are, you'd want to track all of their resources used over the course of the game. That ain't happening.

It would be easier, and perhaps a better measure of efficiency to track how many extra actions a player gets over the course of the game. But that's still too much effort.

Since you need an actual absolute final tiebreaker, why not go with *furthest* from the flag? Simple, easy, fast, and it addresses your objections to using closeness to the flag as the final tiebreaker.

Thread: Re: Goa: Unleashed on newbies

djcack — 2008-08-21T19:34:11+00:00

While I'm not the most hardcore gamer out there, I have played my fair share of games. I played Goa for the first time last weekend and really enjoyed it.

One tip that I would have is to read the instruction manual backwards. The first thing it explains is the auction board. Until you fully understand what you do with the auctioned items, the auction is a mystery.

Thread: Re: Tournament tie-breaker? Advice, please.

jhagen1908 — 2008-08-20T15:25:20+00:00

Thread: Tournament tie-breaker? Advice, please.

montu — 2008-08-18T02:20:38+00:00

I have volunteered to GM the Goa tournament at this year's EuroQuest (and at next year's WBC), and the only real decision I have to make is what to use as a tie-breaker.

I already know that my first tie-breaker will be most cash, and I've all but decided to use Bruce Reiff's 2nd tie-breaker: fewest points from expedition cards. Now I need a third tie-breaker. I like Rod Spade's EQ tie-breaker--player closest to the flag--because it decides the game certainly: no more tie-breakers are possible after that. It has a certain elegance.

But I also think, as a general principle, that a tie should go to the player who scored the same number of points with fewer resources, actions, etc. This is why I like Rob Flowers' El Grande tie-breaker: most unused caballeros. Giving the player with the flag (already an advantage) another advantage (tie-breaker) doesn't seem quite right to me. Of course, the same argument could be made about using cash as a tie-breaker--since cash can generate 3 VP--but cash is the official tie-breaker: it's in the rules.

A final choice of tie-breaker is fewest total spices, ships, and colonists. Again, a player who has the fewest of these items left over has played more efficiently and should therefore be rewarded.

I realize this is a third tie-breaker and will probably never come into play, but just in case, what do y'all think?

Thread: Re: Re-supply tile

Luthrin — 2008-08-03T16:35:23+00:00

You draw the expedition cards, add the total, and then take that much in either Spices, Ships or Colonists. You don't get a combination

However, you do choose which one you want after you see the total of the two cards

Thread: Re: Re-supply tile

jupiterchild — 2008-08-03T15:55:45+00:00

http://www.riograndegames.com/uploads/Game/Game_100_gameRule...

The description of the tile from the English rules on the Rio Grande website: "The player draws 2 expedition cards and adds the colonist numbers on the two cards together. He takes that total in either spices, colonists, or ships. He decides which after drawing the cards and seeing the total. Afterwards, the player discards the two expedition cards."

This appears to mean either/or. I think it would say a combination if that were the case.

Thread: Re-supply tile

djnesq — 2008-08-03T14:26:55+00:00

The revised Goa player aid states that you may take a mixture of colonists, spices, and ships when you use this tile. The text in the rules seems to state that you choose one of those three items and take the appropriate number of tokens or cards. Which is correct?

Image

Liumas — 2008-08-01T16:50:19+00:00

A Spice Rack to store the spices. Also includes a scoring summary.

Thread: Re: Blarg!! (A reprint question)

Eeeville — 2008-07-28T23:11:11+00:00

I'm waiting on 4 games in a large pre-order:

Goa
RftG: Gathering Storms
Saint Petersburg Expansion
Titan

I'm thinking Goa or St. Pete's going to be the one that holds everything up. Be patient and it will show up sooner or later.

Thread: Re: Goa: Unleashed on newbies

bonster20 — 2008-07-23T17:13:57+00:00

Congrats on taking the plunge into what in my opinion is one of the best games out there! You'll find that you're constantly trying new strategies, based on the tiles available in the auctions, the expedition cards you get, and the number of players. For instance, in a two-player game, money is really, really important (which is why I'm terrible at the two-player game--with more players, I play with very little money, and I've not been very good at making the adjustment). Driving the direction of the auction choices can be very powerful, as well.

There are lots of strategy discussions up here, and you can delve into those at some point. For now, it sounds like you're enjoying discovering the game's strategies for yourself, which is great. I would just keep playing. Every game is different, so you shouldn't get bored.

Eventually, you might want to try playing against different opponents, as well, as that can greatly change the game and force you to adjust to different styles. For example, I recently played with someone who said his group almost never buys their own tiles during the auctions, but takes the money instead. My friend and I, who were playing with him, often take our own tiles, so he really had to make an adjustment to that.

(On a side note: As you've pointed out, with a few medium-weight games under your belt, Goa's quite accessible and enjoyable. However, I wouldn't suggest it as someone's gateway game, for sure. One night at the Berkeley Game Group, we had a new player show up. He'd never played any Euro-style games at all. We had enough people for just two games, and Puerto Rico and Goa had already been chosen. He ended up with me in the Goa group. The game lasted 3.5 hours! He just couldn't get the hang of thinking about his turn while everyone else was taking theirs, and he wouldn't take any advice, either. It was very, very frustrating--probably for him, as well. I don't think he ever came back, which is too bad.)

Thread: Goa: Unleashed on newbies

bkstipp — 2008-07-23T04:07:44+00:00

I'm pretty new to boardgames, starting with Settlers of Catan about 5 months ago. Since then I've played a handful of light and medium weight games. After a few months of trying new gateways and picking them up quickly I found that I wanted to try heavier boardgames...but, as with the case with many BGG users I am sure, I usually stayed away from them in my trades because my family and friends would not be interested in playing them. Then last week I found a trade match for Goa in my mailbox, and after some deliberation, I accepted the trade. After 3 sessions of Goa with my family, I actually found that it came quite naturally for all of us. Quite strangely, we had more trouble learning two other games, Pirate's Cove (1.93) and Bootleggers (2.65), which seemed so much harder because of the way the games were structured and designed. In fact, my 13 year old sister picked it up in about 15 minutes, and is currently the reigning champion of our Goa sessions .

I think it's safe to say that a game's weight rating doesn't necessarily translate into a "hard" game. A heavier game like Goa, which is very well designed, can actually be easier to play then a lighter weight game that has sharp corners or some baroque rules. Goa turned out to be the type of game that I would classify as being fairly easy to play but hard to master in the long run. I certainly would not want a game that is hard to play, then easy to master. So the next time you see that 3 point something weight rating (even for wargames), it might not be as hard as you think.

I think after 10 or so more plays we will understand the nuances of the game, but right now we're rolling. It's important to note that we are all quite new to boardgaming. I imagine that if I had played Goa with seasoned Goa players, it would have been a diffeent situation. However, I think that Goa is a lot less delicate than what I have heard about Puerto Rico.

Thread: Re: Switching columns 2 & 3:

CortexBomb — 2008-07-22T14:47:09+00:00

I played a 2 player game with the new cards yesterday, and I think they are a pretty good improvement to the game. I think the changes are the least dramatic with the 2 player game, mainly because the money track more useful than usual at that scale, but the overall power of the cards was definitely reduced.

I played the pepper/nutmeg combo, and was able to get to level 5 with both tax and cards. I had a mitt of Expy cards for most of the game, but was unable to make devastating use of the powerful harvest driven ones because my harvest was never above level 2. Though it is possible to still get both the harvest and cards to level 4/5 with the track changes, it would definitely be much more difficult, and your auction strategy would have to be very spice tile driven, which means you would have fewer opportunities to bid on the purple tiles, the blue tiles, and the free actions / ships / guys tiles.

I plan to play with the new mats in all future games, I'll post again when I get around to playing a 3/4 player game with them.

Thread: Re: Goa Top Scores

BaSL — 2008-07-20T08:40:04+00:00

Usually we play with 3 and end up in the mid-30s to low 40s. And most of the time we're all close together as well. Last game: 35-35-35....

Thread: Re: Blarg!! (A reprint question)

richtoosoon — 2008-07-19T17:18:07+00:00

Don't sit on pre-ordered games.

You'll crush the boxes.

Thread: Blarg!! (A reprint question)

logopolys — 2008-07-19T16:36:41+00:00

I've been sitting on a preorder from Thoughthammer since March. All of my other games have come in, but Goa has become increasingly depressing. May 2008 became June 2008 became the rather dishearting Summer 2008. Now, I was optimistic a bit a couple weeks ago when the other Rio Grande game in my preorder, Torres, became avaliable, but there seems to be no such hope for Goa.

Anyone know anything about the reprint?

Thread: Re: Goa Top Scores

Pascal — 2008-07-18T15:02:12+00:00

Played this week with 3 first-time-players and me: 50 - 36 - 32 (my points, second play) - 29 points. The winner could buy, early in the game 3 red tiles!!!!! These tiles gives a serious advantage. Everyone found it a very good game. We like to play it again very soon.

Thread: Re: Switching columns 2 & 3:

CortexBomb — 2008-07-11T19:49:26+00:00

I have the files printed out and plan to be playing with them soon. I anticipate being happy with them, but I'll post here when I get around to it.

Thread: Re: Shipbuilding+Colonist Strategy

beckeykevin — 2008-07-07T19:14:48+00:00

Pedrator wrote:
beckeykevin wrote:
montu wrote:
Dan is right. I can't remember the last time I advanced the colonist track past the 2nd row, and I've only failed to found all four colonies once in recent memory (and only then because I needed the action for something more valuable).

If you get average draws, you will have 4 colonists to help you on each colony founding. If you advance to level two before founding, that means the cost to found the other colonies is zero (Quillon), 2 (Cochin), 4 (Madras), and 6 (Calicut), for a total of 12 colonists needed. You start with 2, so you need to generate ten colonists over the course of the game. There are *many* ways to do that: the 4 colonist tiles, the 3 colonists/3 ships tiles, the red colonist/turn tile, the settlement tiles, the resupply, the espionage tile (de facto colonist boost if you use someone else's track), the 2 colonist card, the found-using-three-cards card, the mixed-harvest card, which can generate 8 colonists in one action. Am I forgetting any?

Yes.

When you fail your Found colony action by drawing less than 4 colonists, you gain 1 colonist for 1 action.

Which is an interresting reply! How often you reckon does this happen in average per game?

Once per game for each player.

I agree with Dan and Montu that the Colonist track is weaker than the Spice, Ship, or Expedition tracks. However, if everyone else is avoiding the Colonist track in a 4 player game, then it becomes more viable. The advantages are that you reduce your risk of failing a Colony draw, require less auction tiles that supply colonists, and guarantee yourself the 2 bonus Expedition cards from advancing the Colonist track to the 4th and 5th rows.

Thread: Re: Goa Top Scores

montu — 2008-07-06T22:17:00+00:00

Our typical 4-player games usually have the winner in the high 40's and the runner up a point or two behind. I've played many games in which all four players are in the 40's. Maybe 30-40% of the time the winner breaks 50 but usually scores no more than 52-55. Mid-50's is a very high score in Goa.

Thread: Goa Top Scores

Pedrator — 2008-07-06T20:55:47+00:00

Hi all you Goa fans out there!

Am interrested in knowing about the Goa Top Scores.

With how many points does the winner of your group usually stand out in this game? and what about the runner up?

Start posting please!!

Thread: Re: Shipbuilding+Colonist Strategy

Pedrator — 2008-07-06T20:51:01+00:00

beckeykevin wrote:
montu wrote:
Dan is right. I can't remember the last time I advanced the colonist track past the 2nd row, and I've only failed to found all four colonies once in recent memory (and only then because I needed the action for something more valuable).

If you get average draws, you will have 4 colonists to help you on each colony founding. If you advance to level two before founding, that means the cost to found the other colonies is zero (Quillon), 2 (Cochin), 4 (Madras), and 6 (Calicut), for a total of 12 colonists needed. You start with 2, so you need to generate ten colonists over the course of the game. There are *many* ways to do that: the 4 colonist tiles, the 3 colonists/3 ships tiles, the red colonist/turn tile, the settlement tiles, the resupply, the espionage tile (de facto colonist boost if you use someone else's track), the 2 colonist card, the found-using-three-cards card, the mixed-harvest card, which can generate 8 colonists in one action. Am I forgetting any?

Yes.

When you fail your Found colony action by drawing less than 4 colonists, you gain 1 colonist for 1 action.

Which is an interresting reply! How often you reckon does this happen in average per game?

Thread: Re: Shipbuilding+Colonist Strategy

beckeykevin — 2008-07-03T16:02:12+00:00

montu wrote:
Dan is right. I can't remember the last time I advanced the colonist track past the 2nd row, and I've only failed to found all four colonies once in recent memory (and only then because I needed the action for something more valuable).

If you get average draws, you will have 4 colonists to help you on each colony founding. If you advance to level two before founding, that means the cost to found the other colonies is zero (Quillon), 2 (Cochin), 4 (Madras), and 6 (Calicut), for a total of 12 colonists needed. You start with 2, so you need to generate ten colonists over the course of the game. There are *many* ways to do that: the 4 colonist tiles, the 3 colonists/3 ships tiles, the red colonist/turn tile, the settlement tiles, the resupply, the espionage tile (de facto colonist boost if you use someone else's track), the 2 colonist card, the found-using-three-cards card, the mixed-harvest card, which can generate 8 colonists in one action. Am I forgetting any?

Yes.

When you fail your Found colony action by drawing less than 4 colonists, you gain 1 colonist for 1 action.

Thread: Re: Switching columns 2 & 3:

montu — 2008-07-03T14:58:36+00:00

CortexBomb wrote:
I'm also intrigued to hear if more people are trying this variant (the originally noted one by the OP).

Yeah, we can't be the only ones who've thought of or tried this, can we?

Thread: Re: Goa - Review

Maucoin — 2008-07-02T15:14:41+00:00

Thanks for the review Greg. Goa is my favorite heavy game. I didn't like it at first but it really grew on me. As a bonus my wife and sister and brother-in-law like it. I am grateful to the Westbank Gamers for introducing me to Goa.

Michael

Thread: Re: Switching columns 2 & 3:

CortexBomb — 2008-06-29T14:22:47+00:00

I'm also intrigued to hear if more people are trying this variant (the originally noted one by the OP).

I completely agree that the spice / nutmeg combination is the most powerful one in the game. This variant seems as though it could potentially rein it in, which could add some replay to the game for me.

Heck, I'll probably be getting some of these printed out soon regardless, but I'd be interested to hear more from other people who have experimented with this idea.

Image

Qurqirish Dragon — 2008-06-29T14:21:30+00:00

Modified Goa Board for a variant

Thread: Re: Switching columns 2 & 3:

Qurqirish Dragon — 2008-06-29T13:58:51+00:00

A bit late, but I finally got around to uploading the image (actually, I will upload immediately after this post). The best size came with a jpeg (about 1.5 megs), but the image quality suffered (and if you are going to print them out, you don't want that!), so I uploaded the second best compression, which was a PNG file (about 2.5 megs). Load the image into any editor and flood-fill the border with a color to change to another player (since you will probably want a full set of them if you want to use it)

Edit: I have actually uploaded the jpeg form (to the images gallery, under "creative" since that is where the BGG rules seem to indicate it had to go). It turns out that the only reason I thought the quality was poor was because my default jpeg viewer is a web browser, and it scaled the image to fit my window. That caused the image artifacts.

Thread: Re: Additional Action Card with free Flag?

TheCat — 2008-06-18T05:32:50+00:00

It's an edge case scenario, since the chances of everyone bidding zero for the flag approach nil.

Thread: Re: Goa video review

Osirus — 2008-06-14T20:03:06+00:00

Just wanted to thank Tim for posting these video reviews. They're a great help in really getting a look at these games, and deciding what games to buy. Already convinced me to pre-order Agricola, and now I'm considering Goa as well.

Image

yakos — 2008-06-13T15:09:50+00:00

Goa played at "Pionek VII" in Gliwice, Poland (June 7-8, 2008)

Image

Prodromoi — 2008-06-12T18:42:10+00:00

The ideal keyring to buy for an obsessive Goa player...!

Thread: Re: Additional Action Card with free Flag?

the1jugg — 2008-06-06T15:48:59+00:00

lolcese wrote:
If everyone passes, and you are the one how had the flag, then you win it by bidding zero, and have the additional action card.

This is not how the rules read (as I see it):

"The highest bidder takes the flag, 1 additional action card, and pays the bid amount to the auctioneer. If the auctioneer makes the highest bid, he keeps the flag, takes 1 additional action card, and pays the bid amount to the bank. If all players pass and the highest bid is 0, the auctioneer keeps the flag for free."

Taking the flag and taking an action card are independent of each other. Therefore it seems to me that if you dont pay for the flag, you dont get the action card. (Eg. the flag itself doesnt entitle the holder to an action card, but rather the paying for it)

Perhaps the rules were poorly translated? Can someone point me to an official ruling?

thanks

Jugg

Thread: Re: Making auctions more interesting.

montu — 2008-06-01T02:10:04+00:00

I've just found this thread and would like to add one more thing to consider. Allowing colonists, ships, spices, to be traded devalues cash, which weakens the taxation track further. It's already the weakest track in the game (at least in 3-4 player Goa). Why would you want to make it weaker?

Thread: Re: Shipbuilding+Colonist Strategy

montu — 2008-05-30T21:40:44+00:00

Dan is right. I can't remember the last time I advanced the colonist track past the 2nd row, and I've only failed to found all four colonies once in recent memory (and only then because I needed the action for something more valuable).

If you get average draws, you will have 4 colonists to help you on each colony founding. If you advance to level two before founding, that means the cost to found the other colonies is zero (Quillon), 2 (Cochin), 4 (Madras), and 6 (Calicut), for a total of 12 colonists needed. You start with 2, so you need to generate ten colonists over the course of the game. There are *many* ways to do that: the 4 colonist tiles, the 3 colonists/3 ships tiles, the red colonist/turn tile, the settlement tiles, the resupply, the espionage tile (de facto colonist boost if you use someone else's track), the 2 colonist card, the found-using-three-cards card, the mixed-harvest card, which can generate 8 colonists in one action. Am I forgetting any?

Thread: Re: Current print quality?

wmshub — 2008-05-29T23:19:37+00:00

Just so you know - I have the 2nd printing, and I have never noticed any problems at all with quality. Board, cards, whatever, they all work fine for me. So whatever problems they are in the Chinese printing, they aren't huge.

Thread: Re: Current print quality?

facesnorth — 2008-05-29T23:07:43+00:00

I suppose then I will continue to wait, unless someone wants to trade/sell their copy of the first print.

Thread: Re: Current print quality?

dcorban — 2008-05-28T22:40:53+00:00

I don't think it has been printed again since China.

Thread: Current print quality?

facesnorth — 2008-05-28T18:44:08+00:00

Guys is the current printing of Goa now being done in Germany? Or is it still being done in China? Sorry to beat a dead horse on this issue, but I've been waiting to buy this until the 2nd printing sold out to see if Jay would reprint in Germany so it would have the quality of the 1st printing.

Image

tommynomad — 2008-05-24T19:54:54+00:00

I reluctantly part with more cash as the BGGnome defeats me AND Pink Bunny in a cutthroat game of Goa

Thread: Re: Additional Action Card with free Flag?

hrc333 — 2008-05-23T16:47:05+00:00

I have to say the flag is one of the most coveted items in games I play. The extra action, the additional income in the next round from having two auctions and the ability to control what items go in the next round it very valuable. If you are the 2nd player at the start of the game, you can bid on the flag and not worry about money since the next auction is for your item and you will have some cash after that.

(All this implies a 3-4 player game. I have never actually played this with just two.)

Thread: Re: Additional Action Card with free Flag?

TheCat — 2008-05-23T14:40:03+00:00

Who sells nutmeg early in the game? hibikir is right, that's a poor move.

Thread: Re: Trying out Goa for 2

jebry — 2008-05-23T13:25:15+00:00

mussels wrote:

* Surprisingly, the auction phase still works quite well. I think the secret is the pay the other player mechanic, which keeps things fresh. Often I was choosing to auction tiles not necessarily that I wanted, but that I knew my wife would pay a premium for, and then bid the value up as high as I thought she could stomach, and she did the same for me. It also avoided the Princes of Florence / Power Grid issue of "last player gets whatever he wants for free," which is bad enough with multiple players, but really breaks auctions for 2 players in those cases.

I was a bit curious about this. I have only played one 2-player game of Goa and we did the auction the same way as with 3 or 4 players, that is once around the table and the auction is over. So it seems to me that it would be difficult for you to put something up for auction and then 'bid it up'. Does the 2-player version let the auction go back and forth?

Thread: Re: Swap tile and interrupting your action.

gonzoron — 2008-05-19T01:19:24+00:00

So was there an official answer to this original question? (using the swap tile to grab extra colonists after seeing that the colony attempt would fail otherwise.) It came up for the first time last night, and we allowed it, based on not having a rule that disallowed it.

Thread: Re: Question about used expedition cards stack.

PaleHorseRider — 2008-05-16T11:00:18+00:00

TermiGator wrote:
If you allow one player to go throuhg the discard pile - everyone will do it.
"Hmm... what are my chances of drawing two 3-colonist cards right now, let's count".
You'll lengthen your game for half an hour at least.

It's a discard pile so you can see the topmost card. Finito.

My thoughts exactly, if a discard pile is a stack, you can see the top card only. If players were allowed to see all the cards then they should be fanned out ala Rummy.

Thread: Re: Additional Action Card with free Flag?

hibikir — 2008-05-15T02:43:14+00:00

Ok, if you are the first player, in the two player game, and the first tile is a nutmeg tile, it might make sense to not pay 4, just to avoid giving your opponent very cheap nutmeg. The thing is, that situation should never happen, because if that's the case you placed the starting flag in a terrible location, so you deserve what's coming for you.

If it's not worth it for you to pay 4 in the first flag, you're already playing badly.

Thread: Re: Additional Action Card with free Flag?

dkeisen — 2008-05-15T02:27:42+00:00

I am not convinced. Particularly in the first round in a two player game spending 4 for it puts you in a situation where the other player will likely get both tiles being put up for auction. This is not good, although it depends what these tiles are.

My experience is primarily in the two player game so perhaps it is different with 4. But the auction is only partially about value, it is just as much or more about cash flow and economic power. So hard to make firm statements about how much the flag is worth.

Thread: Re: Additional Action Card with free Flag?

TheCat — 2008-05-15T02:16:23+00:00

Ronin49 wrote:
With my limited experience with the game I have never seen anyone bid over three, and seldom that.

Next time you play, bid 4 for the flag every time, take all the extra actions and flag placements and you will absolutely run away with the game.

p.s. cymric is right - if everyone else passes, the starting player wins the auction with a bid of zero.

Thread: Re: Goa - Review

gschloesser — 2008-05-07T12:05:54+00:00

Rüdiger Dorn wrote:
hello greg,

thanks for the review.
one small correction - goa was published by hans-im-glück, not by alea!

best regards
rüdiger dorn

Oops! I've made the correction.

Thread: Re: Goa - Review

Rüdiger Dorn — 2008-05-07T11:57:30+00:00

hello greg,

thanks for the review.
one small correction - goa was published by hans-im-glück, not by alea!

best regards
rüdiger dorn

Thread: Re: Additional Action Card with free Flag?

cymric — 2008-05-06T19:52:52+00:00

Yes, you are.

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josephc4 — 2008-02-25T19:35:55+00:00

People category. Photo rights - lily_bloomers

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jsper — 2008-02-17T11:32:17+00:00

Red and green suply boards backside

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jsper — 2008-02-17T11:28:13+00:00

Red and green suply boards principal side

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jsper — 2008-02-17T08:35:30+00:00

Blue and yellow suply boards backside

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jsper — 2008-02-17T08:30:42+00:00

Blue and yellow suply boards principal side