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Last night for the first time in an age we had ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
alaimacerc over for a board game session. We dragged out Puerto Rico and played a three hander. alaimacerc's shipping strataegy looked good at first but didn't really get the money rolling and he suffered in the end game as a result. I thought I had a pretty good lock on first place, but I was surprised (pleasantly enough) to find that sammywol pulled up sharpish in the last couple of turns to grab first place in the tie-breaker. Final scores: 49, 49, 39, I think.
Well done,sammywol!
alaimacerc over for a board game session. We dragged out Puerto Rico and played a three hander. alaimacerc's shipping strataegy looked good at first but didn't really get the money rolling and he suffered in the end game as a result. I thought I had a pretty good lock on first place, but I was surprised (pleasantly enough) to find that sammywol pulled up sharpish in the last couple of turns to grab first place in the tie-breaker. Final scores: 49, 49, 39, I think. Well done,
sammywol!
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- 1st seat chose builder, and seats 2 and 3 built small markets. Grrr. I, in turn, built the construction hut.
- 2nd seat chose settler, and since there was only one corn up it got snapped up by 3rd seat. No corn strategy for me. On a flyer, I took the lone coffee.
- 3rd seat chose mayor, to get his two corn off the ground, and I populated the hut.
- I took prospector (sic).
From this point on, I was pretty much locked in. I never generated more than two barrels of produce (one corn, one coffee). I ended up shipping for only 5 VPs in chips. However, I got a Large Market on board as my second building build (thanks to the quarries I kept acquiring from the hut), and this got me huge cash from the three goods I sold (one corn, two coffee, for a breathtaking 16 coins). In the midgame, I built the build that gets you an extra field (hacienda?).
In the end game, thanks to my four quarries, I build four of the big buildings to race the game to an early game before my opponents could get their shipping for VPs truly off the ground. This is the only time I have ever seen anyone build that many large buildings. I ended up winning the game with only 38 points.
Wow. A real freak of a game.
I suspect that I lucked out because my strategy was perfectly opposed to my competitors, especially my right-hand opponent. He constantly got squeezed into having to make decisions that were good for him, and almost as good for me (on two occasions, RHO and opponent-across-the-table chose to produce, leaving trader on the table for me, or space in the trading house for me).
Still, it was an interesting game: I marvel at Puerto RIco. It seems like a flat game after only 8 to 10 games, but play it more than that and suddenly it starts to blossom again, especially when played with others of a similar level of experience.
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I agree: Puerto Rico gets better after several plays once you get through a period of group think. It definitely benefits from everyone having a similar level of skill.
Maybe we should try and get a game in via Brett Spiel Welt with Joshua Kronengold
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The site allows for in-game chat via an IM-like interface I think.
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Last night I tried Mission: Red Planet (a Space 1889'ish game) and a fun bidding-war card game called Stupid Vultures. It's neat how the simplest games can be the most fun sometimes.
(http://www.rainydaygames.ca/Product.asp?Product=ASMMPR01US&Name=Mission_:_RED_PLANET)
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Never played Puerto Rico? God GOD man! 8) (Seriously, though, Puerto Rico is most probably one of the top five german-style boardgames of all time, and quite possibly still top-five of all boardgames of all time -- there are detractors, it's true, but still it's pretty much an essential to any collector's shelf.)
As for Mission Red Planet, I feel it has the misfortune to fall into that category of games-that-are-good-but-not-all-that-great. It seemed to me like an attempt to cleverly combine El Grande with Citadels, and, well, let's just say I'd rather own those games than Mission Red Planet. It's OK: it is not a bad game. However, if you really want top value for your money, go and purchase the current "anniversary" edition of El Grande that includes all the expansions.
Here is a list of games that anyone who plays more than a few german-style games must have in their collection, in pretty much this order:
- Puerto Rico
- El Grande
- Settlers of Catan (with perhaps the Seafarer's expansion)
- Princes of Florence
- One of Ra, Medici, or Modern Art
- One of Power Grid (+ expansion boards), Railroad Tycoon (+ RRT Europe), Age Of Steam (+ several expansions)
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I agree with the rest of the list, though, and would probably throw in Tigris and Euphrates and Ticket to Ride as well.
Aside: Nobody wants to play American Megafauna with me. :(
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Never heard of it before but it looks fun. Stomp the mammals!
(*assuming an opportunity arises)
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- A Rail Game: one of Ticket To Ride, Union Pacific, RRT (+ Europe), Power Grid (+ expansions), Age Of Steam (+ expansions), or 18xx (that's a whole new argument, and they're not german-style games, really).
As for El Grande -- is it area majority you object to? If not, can you think of a better exemplar of that sort of game? I cannot, really. (I can think of ones I enjoy more, but I cannot think of a better fundamental example.)
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So I take your point about examples of core German board game design. I just wouldn't actually play El Grande that often. The same is true of Settlers of Catan, a game I have gone off after many plays unlike Puerto Rico.