First, there aren't enough buildings to choose from in the early game to give the player any real feeling of picking something their opponents hasn't or won't.

But even beyond that, any true strategy seems to be overshadowed by the luck of placement of the resource markers anyway. Get lucky with the right combination of markers in the right spot and the game will be a shoe in.

Secondly, Europe I felt was greatly undervalued.

This makes waging war in Europe pointless in my opinion. Napoleon sacrificed half a million French soldiers for Europe, but war in this game makes no such attempt at rewarding such an endeavor.

This makes waging war in Europe pointless in my opinion.

but if a shipping lane fills up before you can get a token into that area, then it prevents future connections and future points.

Endeavor has some interesting aspects and the game time is as low as you are going to find with a 5 player game, but I was really surprised at how uninteresting it became after just a couple of games.

First, there aren't enough buildings to choose from in the early game to give the player any real feeling of picking something their opponents hasn't or won't.

This limits choice of strategy to one or two moves. But even beyond that, any true strategy seems to be overshadowed by the luck of placement of the resource markers anyway. Get lucky with the right combination of markers in the right spot and the game will be a shoe in.

Secondly, Europe I felt was greatly undervalued. I got no sense that I was controlling a ruling power in 1800's Europe. The cities have no distinction from each other. Paris is the same as Moscow which is the same as Rome.

They all have connections to some colony which just lessens the impact of player choice even more.

Of course the player who owns the most cities in Europe has access to more Europeon and slave cards and therefore more resourse points, and eventually more glory points, but even that doesn't seem to guarantee a victory if somebody else has found fortune in the colonies.

This makes waging war in Europe pointless in my opinion. Napoleon sacrificed half a million French soldiers for Europe, but war in this game makes no such attempt at rewarding such an endeavor. Just as well I guess, because the attackee has even less incentive for retaliation.

Also, players have no incentive whatsoever for keeping a base city in Europe. There is no game feature to punish a player for abandoning Europe and establishing oneself in the "new world". Really?? It's ok for the Spainards to abandon Spain and establish themself in the Carribean and call it the New Spain?

Where is the sense of pride of controlling Rome or Berlin or London. There is none.

There is no purpose to forge alliances. Players have little reason to cooperate other than the fact to keep a sprinting leader at bay. Each player goes about his business occasionally peaking at other players' resources value tracks, but little else.

All of this pulls the theme of the game down to the basement level in my mind. I got no "old world competition" feel from playing it. The whole theme could have easily been applied to which Space Power could move and process the most moon rock. Sorry, but this game turned out to be a huge let down.

You are not playing right, because there is no luck in this game. You start by placing the tokens randomly around the map, but you place them face up for all to see. Everyone gets to figure out which tokens to go for.

It's game. Just assume that everyone starts the game with three more European cities that you can't lose, and the cards are numbered 3 to 8.

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You are not playing right, because there is no luck in this game. You start by placing the tokens randomly around the map, but you place them face up for all to see. Everyone gets to figure out which tokens to go for.

Heh. He must have left them face down or something.

That invalidates much of the review right there.

Didn't Napoleon's decade and a half of warfare sort of end up being pointless in real life too? Half a million troops later and France was back to being France, Napoleon was on an island, and most of the monarchies of Europe lived to see the dawn of another century.

Advanced Squad Leader and Fields of Fire are your 10s, so the only surprise is that you chose the game. But since it all hangs together for me I don't understand the title of the thread at all.

Shouldn't surprise you that people try different games. I read the back of the box, I knew it wasn't a WARgame. So what?

Age of Empires III...The WAR aspect in this game is way to abstract.

You've pointed out the final results Napoleon and France suffered, but I beg to differ it was pointless in real life. It help shape the maps for Europe and America and all the history that would follow after him.

This makes waging war in Europe pointless in my opinion. Napoleon sacrificed half a million French soldiers for Europe, but war in this game makes no such attempt at rewarding such an endeavor.

There is no game feature to punish a player for abandoning Europe and establishing oneself in the "new world". Really?? It's ok for the Spainards to abandon Spain and establish themself in the Carribean and call it the New Spain?

Maybe you don't call it luck, but it sure seems UNLUCKY when you need or wait on a certain token, but it's snatched up by an opponent before your next turn. Sounds like a small bit of luck involved to me.

Shouldn't surprise you that people try different games. I read the back of the box, I knew it wasn't a WARgame. So what?

You are correct again. The mechanic could have been paired up with other themes. The theme did give the game polish and seemed to fit everything perfectly IMHO. The same statement could be applied to a number of great games. Dominion could be about Galactic conquest using credits or dilithium ore instead of gold and planets/solar systems instead of Estates and Provinces *don't get any ideas* -or- BSG could be a fantasy game of who's black knight... wait someone did that already. The point is this is not the game for you. You should have titled your post Endeavor - not for War Gamers or Historical Recreationists.

"It is what it is..."

In a sense, that's what Spain did. It was taken over by Napoleon, who put his brother (cousin?) on the throne. But Spain retained its overseas colonies (at least until its sovereignty was restored), only to lose most of them in the 19th Century.

Maybe you don't call it luck, but it sure seems UNLUCKY when you need or wait on a certain token, but it's snatched up by an opponent before your next turn. Sounds like a small bit of luck involved to me.

So when in a game like Chess my opponent takes my knight off the board just before I wanted to fork his queen and king with it, I am 'unlucky'?