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viktor_haagThe local game group (the KW Gamers) hosted an all-day boardgaming event (0930 until you drop!) at a local day-care facility. I managed to play until 1900 or so, and got to fit in five games during that time. Here's capsule comments about them. I tried to concentrate on games that I didn't already know how to play. Here's a summmary-list of the games I'm commenting on:
• Gra-Gra Company
• Hermagor
• Tichu
• Carabande
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Taluva (bonus game played Friday night)
Gra-Gra Company
A strange little push-your-luck dice and betting game from "Grimpeur Brand", a Japanese company. There are four companies to "invest in" (i.e. bet on). There are a whole host of wooden cubes. The success of a company depends on the tower of cubes you can build for it. In turn, each player pushes their luck -- they must roll more cubes and possibly add them to the company they're betting on.
It's a lot of fun, and has some interesting strategy, and I usually don't really care for dexterity games (the only one that I own is Villa Paletti, and that's mostly for the sake of my kids). When this one comes out from Z-Man, who are reprinting it apparently, I'll probably pick it up. Thanks for introducing it to me, Ian!
Hermagor
This seems like a roid-ed up, and nastier, version of Thurn Und Taxis (in the same way that the designer's earlier game, Oltre Mare, is a roid-ed up, and nastier, version of Bohnanza). In this route building game, players essentially bid for the right to sell certain kinds of goods, then mark routes on the board that give them revenue for selling the goods whose rights they've won. To top it off, some of the auction rights govern the ability to manipulate a stock market which also factors into the revenues gained from "selling goods". The routes that players mark out can also result in them acquiring a significant "market presence" in a variety of the goods, and the points this presence is worth at the end varies with the goods' values in the stock market.
I think Hermagor is a better game than Oltre Mare: it feels more solidly developed and has a more natural length. I played the game with all five players, so I'm not sure how it would scale down. But at its price, I'm sure it's also a bargain. This is a good, but not a great, game. If you like Thurn Und Taxis, and other "pick up and deliver" route style games, and you also like multiple levels of strategic control, and some interaction nastiness, then give Hermagor a try!
Tichu
Probably the momentary czar of ladder-type games, this "traditional Chinese card game" (I put that in quotes because I have no idea whether this is, in fact, a traditional game, or whether it's a german game based on such a game, or whether it's just clever marketing) is quick to play and almost as addictive as Wizard. It has the advantage of having slightly more going on than Wizard, but that also makes it more challenging to play. As well, Tichu is really a four-person partnership game, whereas Wizard plays almost as well with 2 through 6 players.
If you play in a group where two people are hold hands and two people are not, you really need to split up the veterans and be willing to provide lots of friendly coaching along the way to preserve the fun. Otherwise, the newbies are going to get dismantled and in a rather mystifying and not-very-fun fashion.
Carabande
Light dexterity game that crosses crokinole with a car race. Frankly, I'd prefer to play crokinole. I'm not personally attracted to these sorts of games, but I can see that they'd be fun for people who like them. Very nicely produced in all. Just not my cup of tea.
Leonardo Da Vinci
To top off my day, I finished with a three-player "beginner game" of Leonardo da Vinci. By beginner, I mean that the starting position is somewhat programmed for the ease of learning the game. Like other games that do this, I think it's a very wise thing for you to do on your first time or two through the game. Pay attention to not only the things that you start with, but also the things that the other players start with. This should give you an idea about the relative worth of the various favours you can start with, and what they do during the game.
Leonardo is a state-machine type game where you're pulling yourself up by your boot-straps, like Goa or Antiquity (or Settlers, come to that). You get points by getting cash. You get cash by "inventing things" which cost resources, labour, and time. In most other games, the "time" resource is rather nebulously accounted for, but in Leonardo it bumps right up against your nose. You only have nine turns in which to accomplish things, and each invention takes a certain amount of time to complete.
You can easily find yourself in the position at the end of the game that you lack one of the key resources and thus short yourself on victory points horribly (i.e. you just don't have the required resources, or time, to complete an invention in time).
Leonardo feels like a smooth hybrid of Puerto Rico and Caylus, and is certainly less time consuming than the latter. Like Hermagor, I'm not sure it's a great game, but it's certainly a good one. I'm not going to buy it until I see Pillars Of The Earth's arrival later this year, but I suspect it'll be a toss up between the two of them for me.
I quite liked Leonardo, but I find these state machine games quite frustrating in the mid to endgame. More often than not I feel like a complete dolt for forgetting that I clearly had to accomplish goal A in order to have any hope to meet goal B, and then things just all go pear shaped. I prefer games where you have some tactical flexibility throughout the game. But that doesn't stop Leonardo from being a good game. It is.
Taluva
I didn't play this game at the KW Gamers event, but I spent my boardgame budget on it on Friday afternoon, and then put it on the table on Friday night for my Friday Night Friends just returned from their world travels. It was a toss-up between buying this and Hermagor, and I'm glad I went with this, as we all really liked this game. In fact, I'm including it here because it was my favourite game played all weekend. So, yay, for purchasing this one!
In Taluva, each player expands the available landscape, and then exploits it by building buildings. This game, done by the designer of Attika, feels a bit like a cross between that game and Knizia's classic Samurai. Taluva feels a bit better developed than Attika and doesn't quite have the race-to-finish problems that Attika has in anything other than the two-player configuration. Taluva feels like it would play equally well across the 2-4 player spectrum.
It has wonderful components, is very easy to explain, and plays quickly while still providing some strategic and tactical depth. If there's one thing that the folks at Hans im Glück know how to do, it's develop games, and Taluva is no exception. It's smooth, simple, and fun.
The only downside is I think that the box-cover-art is ill-considered and a bit ugly (certainly compared with Attika, its "sister game"). But if you can get yourself past that, I highly recommend the game. If your group likes games like Settlers, Carcassone, Ticket To Ride, Attika, and others of similar complexity, then I think you'll be really pleased with Taluva!
• Gra-Gra Company
• Hermagor
• Tichu
• Carabande
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Taluva (bonus game played Friday night)
Gra-Gra Company
A strange little push-your-luck dice and betting game from "Grimpeur Brand", a Japanese company. There are four companies to "invest in" (i.e. bet on). There are a whole host of wooden cubes. The success of a company depends on the tower of cubes you can build for it. In turn, each player pushes their luck -- they must roll more cubes and possibly add them to the company they're betting on.
It's a lot of fun, and has some interesting strategy, and I usually don't really care for dexterity games (the only one that I own is Villa Paletti, and that's mostly for the sake of my kids). When this one comes out from Z-Man, who are reprinting it apparently, I'll probably pick it up. Thanks for introducing it to me, Ian!
Hermagor
This seems like a roid-ed up, and nastier, version of Thurn Und Taxis (in the same way that the designer's earlier game, Oltre Mare, is a roid-ed up, and nastier, version of Bohnanza). In this route building game, players essentially bid for the right to sell certain kinds of goods, then mark routes on the board that give them revenue for selling the goods whose rights they've won. To top it off, some of the auction rights govern the ability to manipulate a stock market which also factors into the revenues gained from "selling goods". The routes that players mark out can also result in them acquiring a significant "market presence" in a variety of the goods, and the points this presence is worth at the end varies with the goods' values in the stock market.
I think Hermagor is a better game than Oltre Mare: it feels more solidly developed and has a more natural length. I played the game with all five players, so I'm not sure how it would scale down. But at its price, I'm sure it's also a bargain. This is a good, but not a great, game. If you like Thurn Und Taxis, and other "pick up and deliver" route style games, and you also like multiple levels of strategic control, and some interaction nastiness, then give Hermagor a try!
Tichu
Probably the momentary czar of ladder-type games, this "traditional Chinese card game" (I put that in quotes because I have no idea whether this is, in fact, a traditional game, or whether it's a german game based on such a game, or whether it's just clever marketing) is quick to play and almost as addictive as Wizard. It has the advantage of having slightly more going on than Wizard, but that also makes it more challenging to play. As well, Tichu is really a four-person partnership game, whereas Wizard plays almost as well with 2 through 6 players.
If you play in a group where two people are hold hands and two people are not, you really need to split up the veterans and be willing to provide lots of friendly coaching along the way to preserve the fun. Otherwise, the newbies are going to get dismantled and in a rather mystifying and not-very-fun fashion.
Carabande
Light dexterity game that crosses crokinole with a car race. Frankly, I'd prefer to play crokinole. I'm not personally attracted to these sorts of games, but I can see that they'd be fun for people who like them. Very nicely produced in all. Just not my cup of tea.
Leonardo Da Vinci
To top off my day, I finished with a three-player "beginner game" of Leonardo da Vinci. By beginner, I mean that the starting position is somewhat programmed for the ease of learning the game. Like other games that do this, I think it's a very wise thing for you to do on your first time or two through the game. Pay attention to not only the things that you start with, but also the things that the other players start with. This should give you an idea about the relative worth of the various favours you can start with, and what they do during the game.
Leonardo is a state-machine type game where you're pulling yourself up by your boot-straps, like Goa or Antiquity (or Settlers, come to that). You get points by getting cash. You get cash by "inventing things" which cost resources, labour, and time. In most other games, the "time" resource is rather nebulously accounted for, but in Leonardo it bumps right up against your nose. You only have nine turns in which to accomplish things, and each invention takes a certain amount of time to complete.
You can easily find yourself in the position at the end of the game that you lack one of the key resources and thus short yourself on victory points horribly (i.e. you just don't have the required resources, or time, to complete an invention in time).
Leonardo feels like a smooth hybrid of Puerto Rico and Caylus, and is certainly less time consuming than the latter. Like Hermagor, I'm not sure it's a great game, but it's certainly a good one. I'm not going to buy it until I see Pillars Of The Earth's arrival later this year, but I suspect it'll be a toss up between the two of them for me.
I quite liked Leonardo, but I find these state machine games quite frustrating in the mid to endgame. More often than not I feel like a complete dolt for forgetting that I clearly had to accomplish goal A in order to have any hope to meet goal B, and then things just all go pear shaped. I prefer games where you have some tactical flexibility throughout the game. But that doesn't stop Leonardo from being a good game. It is.
Taluva
I didn't play this game at the KW Gamers event, but I spent my boardgame budget on it on Friday afternoon, and then put it on the table on Friday night for my Friday Night Friends just returned from their world travels. It was a toss-up between buying this and Hermagor, and I'm glad I went with this, as we all really liked this game. In fact, I'm including it here because it was my favourite game played all weekend. So, yay, for purchasing this one!
In Taluva, each player expands the available landscape, and then exploits it by building buildings. This game, done by the designer of Attika, feels a bit like a cross between that game and Knizia's classic Samurai. Taluva feels a bit better developed than Attika and doesn't quite have the race-to-finish problems that Attika has in anything other than the two-player configuration. Taluva feels like it would play equally well across the 2-4 player spectrum.
It has wonderful components, is very easy to explain, and plays quickly while still providing some strategic and tactical depth. If there's one thing that the folks at Hans im Glück know how to do, it's develop games, and Taluva is no exception. It's smooth, simple, and fun.
The only downside is I think that the box-cover-art is ill-considered and a bit ugly (certainly compared with Attika, its "sister game"). But if you can get yourself past that, I highly recommend the game. If your group likes games like Settlers, Carcassone, Ticket To Ride, Attika, and others of similar complexity, then I think you'll be really pleased with Taluva!
