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viktor_haagWe had five players to attempt a boardgame last night, and since (a) we'd all played Age Of Steam before, and (b) hadn't played it in a while, we decided to drag it off the shelf. We also thought it would be nice to try a board we hadn't yet tried, so we settled on the Germany expansion board.
This expansion has really two main features different from the basic game:
• The edges of the board are ringed with "long distance" links to foreign cities (these act a bit like the "Western Link" in Railroad Tycoon). To connect with these cities, you must pay the exorbitant cost listed in the plains hexes directly around the foreign cities (representing long-distance rail-line investments). Each of these long-distance cities do not produce anything; rather, they consume a randomly selected good type.
• Players may not build un-completed links, and the Engineer action does not let you build four tiles (it halves the cost of one of your tiles). This means that each time you build, you must build a complete link, and you cannot build more than four tiles. This tightness in building makes up somewhat for the plenitude of closely available goods.
The board also has a special "local" city: Berlin, which consumes black goods, and produces one random good per turn (not dependent on production rolls).
This expansion produces plenty of resources, and so we all thought it would play best with larger numbers of players (five seemed fine: no-one was every catastrophically squeezed for resources, despite the odd jab in the eye here and there). However, the tightness of the towns, the limitation on building complete links, and the lack of a four-tile-build power makes it slightly more difficult to construct reliable long links. No players were starved for resources, but there was only one or two six-link shipments in the entire game.
Urbanization has a critical role in this game, as it can turn your five-link deliveries into two or three linkers. If you're going to build on the outside edge of the board, then Engineer is critical, but you can play a central strategy and never need it. Build First and Move First seem almost as important in the early game as in the standard board, but by the time midgame arrives, they seem much less important. Locomotive and Urbanization seem even more powerful actions in this game than in the standard board, and the other actions even less powerful. This makes turn auctions more vital to time properly, and your ability to judge exactly how many shares you must issue and when to issue them more vital.
This expansion board seems set up to reward those players that have an even-handed approach, and make the best of their situation. The abundance of resources and universal tight building restrictions mean that those players who time and make the most clever builds, and time their locomotive advances best, will end up ahead of those less able to do so. Oddly enough, the relative abundance of resources makes the Production role quite useful especially if you get lucky -- the ability to seed cubes that will give you that extra link or two in a delivery can make a big difference in this board where everyone is scrapping for that extra incremental advantage.
Overall, the Germany board seems quite fun, reasonably forgiving, good for more players rather than less, and still will reward clever and well-timed play. If you have a large group of newbie players, or less capable players, then I think the Germany board would actually be a better way to introduce them to Age Of Steam than the basic board.
I'd rate this expansion highly, but the real problem is its availability. It's probably a rarity at this point, so finding it could be tough. If you can find one at a decent price and you already own the basic game, I'd advise picking it up, especially if your group often has five or six players.
[Addition]
Please note that anyone owning or thinking about owning Age Of Steam should seriously consider reading (carefully) Karl Rainer's thoughtfully written strategy articles available on the boardgame geek website. Age Of Steam has an unforgiving learning curve, and these articles will help you over that hill.
This expansion has really two main features different from the basic game:
• The edges of the board are ringed with "long distance" links to foreign cities (these act a bit like the "Western Link" in Railroad Tycoon). To connect with these cities, you must pay the exorbitant cost listed in the plains hexes directly around the foreign cities (representing long-distance rail-line investments). Each of these long-distance cities do not produce anything; rather, they consume a randomly selected good type.
• Players may not build un-completed links, and the Engineer action does not let you build four tiles (it halves the cost of one of your tiles). This means that each time you build, you must build a complete link, and you cannot build more than four tiles. This tightness in building makes up somewhat for the plenitude of closely available goods.
The board also has a special "local" city: Berlin, which consumes black goods, and produces one random good per turn (not dependent on production rolls).
This expansion produces plenty of resources, and so we all thought it would play best with larger numbers of players (five seemed fine: no-one was every catastrophically squeezed for resources, despite the odd jab in the eye here and there). However, the tightness of the towns, the limitation on building complete links, and the lack of a four-tile-build power makes it slightly more difficult to construct reliable long links. No players were starved for resources, but there was only one or two six-link shipments in the entire game.
Urbanization has a critical role in this game, as it can turn your five-link deliveries into two or three linkers. If you're going to build on the outside edge of the board, then Engineer is critical, but you can play a central strategy and never need it. Build First and Move First seem almost as important in the early game as in the standard board, but by the time midgame arrives, they seem much less important. Locomotive and Urbanization seem even more powerful actions in this game than in the standard board, and the other actions even less powerful. This makes turn auctions more vital to time properly, and your ability to judge exactly how many shares you must issue and when to issue them more vital.
This expansion board seems set up to reward those players that have an even-handed approach, and make the best of their situation. The abundance of resources and universal tight building restrictions mean that those players who time and make the most clever builds, and time their locomotive advances best, will end up ahead of those less able to do so. Oddly enough, the relative abundance of resources makes the Production role quite useful especially if you get lucky -- the ability to seed cubes that will give you that extra link or two in a delivery can make a big difference in this board where everyone is scrapping for that extra incremental advantage.
Overall, the Germany board seems quite fun, reasonably forgiving, good for more players rather than less, and still will reward clever and well-timed play. If you have a large group of newbie players, or less capable players, then I think the Germany board would actually be a better way to introduce them to Age Of Steam than the basic board.
I'd rate this expansion highly, but the real problem is its availability. It's probably a rarity at this point, so finding it could be tough. If you can find one at a decent price and you already own the basic game, I'd advise picking it up, especially if your group often has five or six players.
[Addition]
Please note that anyone owning or thinking about owning Age Of Steam should seriously consider reading (carefully) Karl Rainer's thoughtfully written strategy articles available on the boardgame geek website. Age Of Steam has an unforgiving learning curve, and these articles will help you over that hill.
