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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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I really like multi-use cards. I like that dilemma when your have a card as to what action to use. Invariably the card has two good actions you want to use. By chosing one you are forgoing the other(s)
Fleet was the first game I owned with multi-use cards. In this games the cards can be used as money, as a boat or turned over and used as a captain. Multi-use card enable designers to creat a compact games and add variety.:strip_icc()/pic1503681.jpg)
Oh My Goods! is another great game that has multi use cards. Here the cards have even more choices. The cards can be used as resources or buildings to build. Turned over they become the resources they produce. The suns on the cards also determine the number of cards that come out each round.
This is such a clever game. I really like the satisfaction of running your engine. The expansion Oh My Goods!: Longsdale in Revolt allows you to play it solo and really adds to the game by creating a branching story.
Oh My Goods! was developed into a fully pledged board game Expedition to Newdale which appears to use the same system. I have never bought this as it seems too similar to Oh My Goods!
The designer Alexander Pfister also designed a more recent game Maracaibo which also uses multi-use cards.:strip_icc()/pic6149546.jpg)
Bruges is the ultimate multi use card game. Each card has 6 uses and can be used as a person, as two workers, as a house, a canal piece, as money or to discard a treat market. Inevitably the person you want to play is also the canal piece you want to build and it’s worth the most money.
You do have some limited control over the colours of the cards you draw but not much. I like the way dice control how valuable each colour is. I am becoming more and more attracted to games that use dice in this way.:strip_icc()/pic5933111.jpg)
It seems to me more and more games are using cards in this way. Scrumpy: Card Cider is a another recent game. I came close to backing this on Kickstarter./pic5997362.png)
Fort is another game with multi-use cards. You can discard cards in the same suit to make you action more powerful. You can also follow the active players action if you have a card in the same suit. Cards have a private and public action. It makes for some difficult choices. I’ve still yet to get this to the table having only played it two handed.
In La Granja each card has five uses. This is the ultimate mult-use card game which each decision agonising as each card inevitably has at least two great uses. I’ve been playing this on Yucata and would really like to get hold of the promo cards. They allow you to complete market barrows that have a money requirement rather than just goods. So they are good for me as I always build a money engine so I can buy roof tiles.
I am looking forward to the deluxe reprint.:strip_icc()/pic6065756.jpg)
Of course the poster child for multi-use card is Glory to Rome which is very difficult to get hold of. It’s my only grail game now really. I’ve managed to get everything else. There is actually a pristine copy on ebay as we speak. I am tempted but then every time I pay over the odds for a game they reprint it.:strip_icc()/pic3135304.jpg)
The Dyslexic Gamer
A blog about Euro’s with wonderful art and components
Archive for Mechanics
36
Comments
Sun Jun 13, 2021 8:19 am
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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I like games when you can do stuff on other people’s turns. It’s a mechanic you see fairly often.
It helps get over that issue of downtime whist you are waiting for another player to take their turn.
The absolute top game that does this is Keyper. In Keyper you can join another player on their turn if you have a meeple (keyple) the same colour. This benefits both of you. The whole games built round this interaction and you can even reuse your meeples if your’ve used them up joining other players.:strip_icc()/pic6056056.jpg)
With Low Lands the active player can invite another player to help him build the dike. There is a benefit for both the player taking their turn as well as the player they invited to help. You don’t have expend a worker to do this.:strip_icc()/pic5702899.jpg)
Sometimes it’s just about keeping an eye on what other players are doing, like in Wingspan when you are checking to see if it activates your pink powers. There are also birds that give other players food or a card.:strip_icc()/pic4619745.jpg)
Probably the classic game is for this is Catan. You can negotiate with other players to trade goods. One sheep for two wood. Also at the beginning of each turn you might get goods based on the player dice roll. But you can lose resources if the player rolls a seven and the Robber moves.:strip_icc()/pic5344612.jpg)
Stone Age is another classic game when you can get resources on someone else’s turn. The problem us that you can never be sure what you might get.:strip_icc()/pic1413597.jpg)
Port Royal is another example. If you have the money you can buy a card on someone else’s turn, assuming there are cards left. The person who’s turn it is, gets a coin if you buy a card.:strip_icc()/pic3019146.jpg)
It’s similar with 7 Wonders where you pay a coin to a neighbour if you use one of their resources. This idea is repeated in Era of Kingdoms which also has events that affect all players and also NEOM.:strip_icc()/pic5069272.jpg)
I have a friend that always tries to build alliances with other players so they pick him for any bonus action. There are lots of games with cards which might give other players a bonus and you get to chose which player. I just tend to pick the player that doing the worse. I don’t like games where you can pick a negative impact on another player.
Fri Mar 19, 2021 8:13 am
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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Recently I have really enjoyed playing Dice worker placement games. My introduction to this was Rajas of the Ganges. I was a bit worried because I don’t like dice rolling games. They have too much luck. I had got rid of Sagrada a couple on months earlier so I was really worried it wouldn’t work for me.
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However, I have always loved Rajas and have played it a fair few times. I like the different strategies you can employ and for some reason I love racing up the Ganges picking up all the bonuses as I go.
This seems like a game with so many different mechanics that it wouldn’t work; worker placement, tile laying, connections etc. But it does. I like that’s there is something to do with even a low value die results:strip_icc()/pic4052995.jpg)
Santa Maria is another game I really like. Again this has got multiple mechanics; tile laying, engine building, connections, set collection. I really like building a little engine and then seeing it produce. I like the flexibility of using you own mini market to buy and sell goods. I like how you can tactically end you round by selecting a juicy bonus. The art is just awful in this game. I am going to use my new Iron Clays when I play next time instead of the creepy smiley face tokens.:strip_icc()/pic5005158.jpg)
I lost my first game of Grand Austria Hotel but recently I’ve really grown to like this. There is some tricky decision making in this game. I rarely pass as it’s just too risky.:strip_icc()/pic5820486.jpg)
In the similar vein, by the same designers, I’ve been playing Lorenzo il Magnifico. This has so many strategies I am only just beginning to scratch the surface. It has the familiar emperor track mechanic of Grand Austria Hotel but feels different enough that I could own both. I really like the leaders cards in the advanced version.
I played the most dreadful move in my last game of this. I used up all my people on the penultimate turn only to find I just had my zero worker left and was unable to use him! Won’t do that again.:strip_icc()/pic4008793.jpg)
That of course leads me to my favourite dice rolling game The Castles of Burgundy. This is such a good game. Even though I have played this multiple times, I am still finding new strategies. I’ve had fun playing all the different boards on Yucata. I’ve upgraded my Silverlings with metal ones that’s really improved the feel of it. I wish that there was an upgrade for the workers.:strip_icc()/pic6043726.jpg)
I’ve also been playing Machi Koro on Yucata but this seems to have too much luck. This is a cool game. But it sort of feels like it could have been so much better for me.:strip_icc()/pic2319175.jpg)
I am not really a dice fan. I know some people upgrade their dice but it’s never interested me. I look at displays of dice in board game shops and think they all look the same. I don’t like games that have a lot of dice rolling. I even find the amount of dice rolling in Castles of Burgundy a bit much.
Having a dice tower makes the dice rolling in Wingspan bearable. I have a little confession. I like calling single dice dice. I don’t know why but die sound weird to me. Besides I dislike irregular plurals.
The only special dice I have is the solo dice in Everdell, Tapestry and special temperature dice and d20 in Rescue Polar Bears: Data & Temperature.:strip_icc()/pic4753981.jpg)
So two questions for you. Your favourite dice in any game? Other great dice worker placement games?
Sat Mar 13, 2021 9:26 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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As I have mentioned before, I am a bit of a tile laying fan. Over a third of my collection are tile laying games of one sort or another. I have written about this before Tile laying games but today I am going to explore some lesser known tile laying games.
Atta Ants is a game about ants collecting leaves. When they do and take them back to the nest, then the ant breeds and becomes two ants. But there are deadly spiders which move around the board and eat the ants. Interestingly in the game, ants can jump onto a different tile without following the trails. The tile laying basically is just extending the board. The real game is in moving the ants.
This game could do with republishing with more thematic components./pic33710.jpg)
Crows is a line of sight game where crows are attracted by shiny objects. The tile laying does matter as by carefully positioning the tiles you can add crows that will be attracted to you. There are two versions, the original version and an updated Tyler Sigman's Crows which is a bit darker with added gameplay elements.:strip_icc()/pic1301526.jpg)
Maori is a light tile laying game, where you are trying a fill up you tableau with islands. It has an unusual tile selection mechanism where you move a boat around a parameter of a grid of tiles. You can move around the gird based on the number of boats you have. Shells can be used to buy the inner tiles or move further. At the end of the game points are lost for incomplete islands.:strip_icc()/pic577130.jpg)
Citrus is an area control game. You select coloured plantation tiles. You need a worker to control each of your plantations. You can score points at any time by withdrawing your worker and cashing in on the tiles based on the number and whether they have wells. It possible to take over an unmanned plantation. There is a constant struggle between getting enough income to buy tiles and gaining control of a Finca. I really like how the drab board becomes brightly coloured.:strip_icc()/pic2390348.jpg)
NEOM is like every other city building game but more so. It uses those familiar city building categories of residential, commercial, industrial and civic and you group your residential areas together and well away from the polluting industry but near your commercial centre. It feels weird that unlike most tile laying games you can’t rotate the tiles.
There are the same familiar adjacency bonuses and that sense of escalation as the tiles get more powerful in each era. With the disasters we have the familiar mechanic I first saw in Warsaw: City of Ruins where by you have to destroy a building. In this game there is a little more flexibility in that you can pay up instead. You can also build buildings like the fire station or police station which gives you protection for surrounding buildings.
What is a bit new for a city building game is the resources. Some buildings give you access to resources which can be useful to build bigger and better buildings in the future. If you build a trade route to the outside of your board you get a slight discount.
I like the way you get upgraded resources which help you build better buildings. I like the way that you can get tiles not only for money but for resources too or because you meet the prerequisite of having other tiles.
Cornerstones are drafted at the beginning of the game and gives you a steer on your strategy. Leveraging your cornerstones is key to winning. Just like in the majority of these games you can burn a tile for money.
Like Warsaw: City of Ruins before it, you can over overbuild tiles. You don’t get any discount but it allows you to place a tile in the right place to get adjacency bonuses. The new tile must be placed on one the same colour or on top of a grey resources generating tile. This really adds to the strategy.:strip_icc()/pic4279036.jpg)
One of my favourite tile laying games is Castles of Caladale. I was watching Tom Vasel’s review of Lorenzo il Magnifico and I noticed this on his shelf. This is a really simple game but the art is delightful. You simply select tiles and build a castle. You score points for turrets but lose points if you castle isn’t complete. Unlike most other tile laying games I know you can actually move your tiles around so it’s a really fast paced and dynamic game./pic3530968.png)
Habitats is all about building a wildlife park. Again like so many of these games it has an unusual tile selection mechanism. Tiles are laid out in a grid and your meeple can select a tile by going either forwards, left or right. A new tile will fill in the space he just left.
Animals in your wildlife park will be satisfied by surrounding them with their required tiles. Also there are bonuses each round for having parks which meet certain conditions. I love this game. Its really puzzly. It also has a good sense of interaction as you jostle with your opponents trying to get the best tiles.
I once played this with someone with learning difficulties. She wasn’t able to get her head around the perquisites for each tile. So I suggested she draft road tiles, as the only requirement for these is that there are no tiles on the edges with entrance roads. She understood this and built a park that was mainly roads and flowers (which are simply worth one point) and won. It’s not a strategy I would normally employ as I enjoy finding combos between animals but it just goes to show that sometimes the simplest of strategies pays off because inevitably you can’t satisfy each animal tile.:strip_icc()/pic4007865.jpg)
Sun Feb 28, 2021 6:47 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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This weekend we are playing Lorenzo il Magnifico. I was watching a review by Tom Vasel and he describes a mechanic of “Do what I say or I will smack you down” and I realised I like games that do this.
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With this game you have to achieve a certain level on the faith track otherwise you will get ex-communicated. You will suffer a penalty. This means won’t be able to do something. This could be minus one power for each of your family members or receiving fewer resources. The effect lasts until the end of the game. It can happen three times.
Of course if you are not collecting blue cards you don’t really care if you can’t score blue cards at the end of the game.
It reminds me a bit of Grand Austria Hotel and the emperor track which has a similar mechanism. In this game there are three options. If you have enough points you get the bonus, if you have some points but not enough, you get the points but not the bonus. Finally if you are still at the beginning few spaces of the track you suffer a penalty. Again this happens three times and the penalties get worse each time. There is a staff card that stops you suffering the penalties.:strip_icc()/pic5739465.jpg)
In Bruges you have threats. Threats can be removed but you will have to expend cards. You can trying hoping that a five or a six won’t be rolled but inevitably the threat turns up. But again it might not be a worry. The blue threat removes all your workers but if you only have one worker, you might not be bothered. Same if you lose a person. You might want to get rid of them anyway if you have used their ability./pic1556743.jpg)
With some games it’s almost impossible to win without meeting the prerequisite. It’s very difficult to recover from not feeding your people in Agricola. Let’s face it getting a begging token in Agricola is almost impossible to recover from. Feeding governs the whole game and setting up an efficient food engine is crucial.:strip_icc()/pic778563.jpg)
In Fields of Green you have to be able to run each of your tiles. If you can’t then the tile is flipped over and you have to waste a turn un flipping it.:strip_icc()/pic4413034.jpg)
I actually can’t think of any other games that have this mechanic. I am not sure what you would call it. I notice Grand Austria Hotel mentions once per game abilities. BBG lists 160 games with this mechanic including Finca and Heaven & Ale.
Sat Feb 27, 2021 12:09 am
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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I have always like rondels in games. BGG describes rondels as “actions are represented as pie wedges in a circle. On their turn players may move their token around the rondel and preform an action”
That’s not really what I think as a rondel is. But this perfectly describes Finca. In Finca players select fruit by moving their merple around a windmill. You can only move you meeple by the number of other meeples on your pie slice. So if there are two other meeples you can move three spaces. You get the number of fruit equivalent to the number of meeples on the pie piece you land on.:strip_icc()/pic1380638.jpg)
I think of this as more of a resource wheel. Other games that have resources wheels are Vikings and The Palaces of Carrara. Both of these work by moving the wheel. In Viking you gave to select a pair of viking and token. As the cheaper pairs get taken, the more expensive pairs get cheaper. You can’t buy the free one unless you have no money. Which is usually what happens to me.
I am hopeless at this game. :strip_icc()/pic5987302.jpg)
In The Palaces of Carrara it’s works even more simply in that you just turn the wheel and take resources from one pie section. In the advanced game you get to choose whether or not to move the wheel which adds a nice bit of decision making. I like this game but I like that you get to decide when to score rather than the resource wheel. In fact the resource wheel makes the beginning of the game a bit boring. Unfortunately they only have the basic game on Yucata.:strip_icc()/pic3004417.jpg)
For me the classic rondel game is Walnut Grove. I love this game. I like the jigsaw tile laying and the token portion of the game with the roundel. The dan only go in one directions and every time you go round you have to pay tax. Inevitably the action space you want is round the other side. Planning ahead is the key!:strip_icc()/pic5325173.jpg)
Another game that has a great rondel is Versailles. Again you can only go in one direction. But it has that most delicious of all mechanics. It allows you to break the rules and take a little short cut. I like this game although it’s not without its problems. It’s a pity a bit more work play testing wasn’t done and this could have been fantastic. As it is you have to house rule, something I am always uncomfortable with.
I recently bought New York Zoo which has an interesting rondel. Again you can only go in one direction but you are limited to jumping ahead by four spaces. You can see what us coming up and the prefect tile for you. You have just got to hope that another player doesn’t nab it.:strip_icc()/pic5817633.jpg)
Another game I really like is Carpe Diem. In this game you select tile on a rondel, but this time you can go in either direction. But you can’t take the tile on the space your on. This makes for some tricky decisions.:strip_icc()/pic5839690.jpg)
The classic roundel game is Tzolk'in: The Mayan Calendar which has roundel within roundels. I have never played this although my understanding is the resources change price as you move the interconnected gears.:strip_icc()/pic1465655.jpg)
Tue Feb 16, 2021 5:58 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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I have a funny relationship with luck in games. There is nothing like the thrill of taking a risk and it paying off. But generally I don’t like games with lots of luck.
Recently I have been playing Machi Koro. This game is almost entirely luck. Yes you can mitigate it a bit by finding combos but the outcome is almost entirely based on luck. My friend built up a great combo around the cheese factory and then didn’t roll a seven all game.:strip_icc()/pic5832301.jpg)
But seven is the most common number to roll with two dice. That why the Catan robber moves on a seven.
I like taking risks in Stone Age. I will put my meeple down on a market and just hope I get the goods, or just put the bare minimum meeples down for food and just hope I get get enough.
I made the mistake of telling my friend about the starvation strategy (he is not on BGG) and now he wins every game.:strip_icc()/pic3664835.jpg)
One of things I really like about Rajas of the Ganges is that you can still go up the river it you roll a one or a two. Also both the one and two spaces in the palaces are both pretty lucrative. But actually in the long term in hurts you as you can’t build tiles. I think Yucata has something against me because it keeps rolling me ones!:strip_icc()/pic5971862.jpg)
I think a bit of luck in a game adds to the fun. I really Istanbul and the gambling element to it definitely adds to the fun. That said it’s perfectly possible to win without going to the tea shop or the black market.:strip_icc()/pic3002897.jpg)
Another game I like is Oh My Goods!. In this card game you have to decide whether your workers is going to work sloppily or not. If he works sloppily you need one leads resource. So it’s a safer bet in case you don’t get the cards you need. But working sloppily isn’t as productive. I recently got some nice little crates for this.:strip_icc()/pic5971882.jpg)
Carcassonne has a lot of luck. Hence why there is a draft ing variant. But I still like trying to finish off an nearly impossible city. Of course it helps if you know the tile combinations.:strip_icc()/pic296240.jpg)
With push your luck games it’s all about working out probabilities. Diamant is my favourite. This uses luck in two ways. There is the straight forward will a hazard come up for the second time and mean all the gems are lost. But also a sort of social deduction element trying to work out which other players will take the gems and run.:strip_icc()/pic385278.jpg)
Another great push your luck game is Skull. We absolutely love this. This is literally poker boiled down to its essence. I love it that it’s so simple. Just a set of beer mats. Mine have nice “tattoo” art. I like the bluffing element. There is nothing as high in jeopardy as do you have a skull or not?/pic1163077.jpg)
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Recently I’ve been playing Fire in the Library solo. This is great little push your luck game about rescuing books.:strip_icc()/pic5971918.jpg)
Mon Feb 8, 2021 11:59 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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Drafty is a word according to the Scrabble dictionary but not according to my spell checker. I have to be careful as I do have a tendency to make up words that don’t exist. I love drafting. I was reading Brian Moore’s excellent blog post Mechanic: Card drafting #2 about card drafting games and I thought I have very few drafting games. But then I realised I have loads!
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I suppose I was originally thinking of card drafting. The first card drafter I thought of was Fields of Green I love this game. It a very satisfying game as you get to run your little engine at the end of each round.:strip_icc()/pic4587459.jpg)
My favourite pure card drafting game is Ecosystem. This game has beautiful art. Again it’s satisfying getting the combinations of cards but always with that jeopardy of whether you will be able to draft the card you need. I think Sushi Go Party! is similar and I love collecting desserts for the end game scoring.:strip_icc()/pic2681366.jpg)
I also like The Isle of Cats. This combines card drafting with tile laying. But If you pay for too many cards you won’t have enough fish to attract cats. It has some delicious decisions.:strip_icc()/pic5935814.jpg)
Another great card drafting game is Spirits of the Rice Paddy. In this game you draft spirit cards. The higher their number, the more powerful they are allowing you to build paddies, clear away rocks and weeds and plant rice. But the person with the lowest cards gets first dibs on the water and water is precious, without it your rice won’t grow. It has a couple of take that cards we remove.:strip_icc()/pic5177013.jpg)
I also like tile drafting and it doesn’t get better than Warsaw: City of Ruins. This game is an under appreciated gem. As well as drafting tiles there are extra tiles for the winner of each round but beware war is coming and you will have to destroy buildings in your city. Unless of course you draft the card that prevents you from having to do this. Just great!:strip_icc()/pic3167068.jpg)
Another great tile drafter is Kingdomino. Again one of my favourite games. Draft a high value tile and it’s going to limit you options next time as you will be low down in the player order. I like playing giant games if this. The new pnp expansion Kingdomino: The Court even better. And the art in Kingdomino is great. I love the little Easter Eggs.:strip_icc()/pic5935460.jpg)
Between Two Castles of Mad King Ludwig us a semi-cooperative tile drafting game when you are building, not one but two castles with each of your neighbours. The art is lovely. So detailed. This is a great game at higher player counts. Again a treasure trove of Easter Eggs and it has that very topical room The Lockdown room!/pic5935465.jpg)
Of course one of my favourite games even has “draft” in the name Draftosaurus. I really like this. What could be more exciting that building a dinosaur park?:strip_icc()/pic5935423.jpg)
I could go on London (Second Edition), At the Gates of Loyang, Notre Dame, 7 Wonders.....The list is endless. As you know I hate aggressive games but somehow card drafting is OK although I am not a fan of hate drafting. It does introduce some great player interaction and that sense of “I got a feeling that useless card I just gave my neighbour is going to come back round to me”
I also like hand management and the two go together well.
Fri Jan 22, 2021 8:13 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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Meeples don’t need feeding. They are made of wood. There are just so many games when you are required to feed your people. I like tight games and I get that this is a mechanic that keeps a break on a game. It makes for some tricky decisions. My board game group always ask two questions. Is there a T-Rex and do you have to feed your people?:strip_icc()/pic4668261.jpg)
Agricola is my favourite game and I have played it hundreds of times. But you have to set up a feeding engine otherwise you have had it. This makes it difficult to play with newbies.:strip_icc()/pic3623701.jpg)
In the expansion Agricola: Farmers of the Moor you also have to keep your workers warm otherwise then end up in the infirmary./pic4405756.jpg)
Agricola Mark II Caverna: The Cave Farmers softens the feeding. Caverna dwarfs eat raw meat and they can find food lurking around in their caves or in their pastures.
In fact this is one of the reasons I really like Low Lands It’s like Agricola with only the fun bits and each pair of sheep breeds. I don’t mind not feeding my workers and in fact I am quite happy for them to toil away building a dam.:strip_icc()/pic5908752.jpg)
I first came across feeding your people in Le Havre. You have to build ships to help feed them. That or smoke fish, bake bread or use the abattoir. The feeding escalates each round. After a while you are taking out loans.
In Walnut Grove not only do you have to feed your workers but it has to be a particularly type of food depending on their colour. Also you expected to keep them warm and house them./pic5896203.jpg)
In Peloponnes there are random feeding phases that come along in the rounds. If you can’t feed your population you lose the ones you can’t feed. Oh and they are subject to plague, drought, earthquakes and various other disasters.
One game where I don’t mind the feeding is Little Town. I love this game. It just provides a little extra wrinkle and you can always pay with coins.:strip_icc()/pic5336229.jpg)
Recently I have been playing Underwater Cities. In this game a whole city can survive on one piece of kelp!! It’s a superfood.
Of course Grand Austria Hotel is all about feeding. Somehow is doesn’t feel onerous when it’s cake and coffee.:strip_icc()/pic5023348.jpg)
In Tokaido your weary travellers need feeding when they get to the inn. They require a meal that haven’t eaten before. So you had better have saved up as it might be the most expensive meal on the menu. Still there is a bonus for the most well fed traveler.:strip_icc()/pic4002068.jpg)
A la carte is all about feeding.Some of the delicious meals in this game include Trompe d’Elephant aux Epinards (elephant trunk) and Hippo au Pot. Yum.:strip_icc()/pic590805.jpg)
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Mon Jan 11, 2021 9:30 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
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Caroline BlackUnited Kingdom
Braintree
Essex
Tigger playing Agricola. He lost!
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There are so many ways to keep track of your score in games. The most recent game I have been paying Carpe Diem has VP cards. But it does have score track test determines the order in which you score victory conditions. One of the things I have found about playing on line is that it makes me concentrate of the scores more. It also makes me concerned about winning. I don’t want to be a Fisherwomen for the rest of my life. Normally I done really care if I win.
Here are some of my favourite scoreboards.
Carcassonne: The Castle has VP track built around the perimeter as the game progresses. Includes squares that give you a bonus when you get to them so you can try and score points in such a way as to obtain bonuses.:strip_icc()/pic76184.jpg)
Rajas of the Ganges has not one but two victory tracks. The winner is the first person whose tracks meet or cross. In addition the tracks give bonus as well as extra workers so tactically you will try and score points on different tracks during the course of the game. This really increases the sense of tension.:strip_icc()/pic5888066.jpg)
I love the rat tail catch up mechanism in The Quacks of Quedlinburg:strip_icc()/pic4803206.jpg)
Architects of the West Kingdom has a very cool victory track. It combines VP with vIrtue. You start in the middle at 7 and then go up and down. For example if you use the Tax Stand you lose 2 virtue. Lower down on the track you pay one less tax. You can’t build in the Cathedral. At the upper end you can build in the cathedral but you can utilise the black market for cheap goods. Very thematic.:strip_icc()/pic5233027.jpg)
And the worse.
The score track in Suburbia has red lines which reduce your income and reputation as your population increases. As the get more population the red lines get closer together. Did I mention I also hate snaking score track that go back and forth as it’s so easy to go in the wrong direction.:strip_icc()/pic1874746.jpg)
Queenz: To Bee or Not to Bee has the most awful scoreboard. The spaces are so close together it’s often hard to tell where you are. It also has counters that don’t fit on the board. I love these upgraded score markers.:strip_icc()/pic5501330.jpg)
Carcassonne has two expansions that have little Meeples (Messengers and Robbers) that you place on the score board to score bonus points. Dont try playing them both together as the interaction between the two is a little confusing. Both are really annoying expansions. But I suppose with the bonus is that it’s not immediately obvious whose in the lead.
The scoreboard only goes up for 50vp although you can easily score a couple of hundred especially if you use expansions. We used to make the meeples move on their sides or laying down but now I have little markers which go under their feet. Interestingly the original “pebble” score board went up to 70. It’s very rare if you can find it.:strip_icc()/pic5891493.jpg)
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Mon Jan 4, 2021 6:16 pm
- [+] Dice rolls
