And what might that new game be, which I so cleverly teased about in the blog title? That game is Hacienda. New to me, at least. I played it for the first time at June's Game Day event, and after 3 more plays this week, I think it's time to mention it here. I loved this game after the first time, and it only has become more endearing every play since.
For those who haven't played this gem, in short, it's a resource management and territory claim game played on a hex-board marked by varied terrain and interspersed markets. Players are competing for access to these markets as a source of income and victory points, as well as purchasing water tiles and grouping their lands to acquire other bonuses over the course of the game.
What makes this game unique, is that the victory points are totaled twice. Once at the midpoint of the game, and again at the end. So, a strong start can make-or-break you in Hacienda.
After these first few plays, my initial reaction as far as strategy is concerned, is that market access is king in this game. The score multiplier that goes along with market access is huge for points, especially if it's doubled by getting early access before the first scoring is done. Purchasing water and haciendas seem to be best served as late-game actions, as the early game should be focused on using your precious three actions either claiming territory and/or making money to purchase resources.
We have yet to try any of the variants that came with the game, but with a double-sided board and two pages of variants to try, I look forward to playing Hacienda with our group for a long while.
Toodles for now,
-Andrew
Monday, August 31, 2009
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Game Day Quick Hits
This past Saturday was an event appropriately entitled "Game Day" at a local gaming shop. Held once every two months, this was the 24th installment. It's always something I look forward to it, and my friend Mark all but single-handedly puts it together, bringing his personal game collection from home for use by the public for the day, gathering food & drinks for the group, and putting together a raffle among other tasks to perpetuate this event.
Now, when I say 'personal game collection,' know that this is no ordinary collection. Mark fills an entire wall of shelves with games, and I've no doubt that he owns and brings in excess of 300 games. I try to do what I can to help by arriving early and helping to bring in games & food, stay late to clean up when I can, and I set up a Facebook event for it each time.
This Game Day was abbreviated for me, but I still got to try a variety of new games, which I'll briefly review.
After setting up, Mark and I played Fits, a new Reiner Knizia (of Settlers of Catan fame, among others) game which plays like a mixture of Tetris and Blokus sans the interaction, with some twists. Players have an identical batch of pieces which they slide into their personal, slanted, Tetris-like grid one at a time, depending on what matching card is flipped from the deck. Fits is played over four rounds. In round one, each individual space on the grid is marked with a green dot, which obviously won't show when covered by your pieces. Players in round one try to cover these dots as best they can, and get points for completely covered rows and lose points for uncovered dots. Rounds progress with different objectives. For example, in round 2 instead of scoring for complete rows, some of the green spaces are replaced by a number value from 1-3, and if that spot is visible at the end of the round, a player gets that many points. Overall, Fits was a solid but not spectacular puzzle game. There is no difference between playing solitaire or with 4 players, as players don't interact at all. Since a game is quick (about 15 minutes), I didn't mind the lack of interaction that much.
The next game played was another game between Mark and I. We played Ra: The Dice Game (RTDG). It is a simplified version of Ra, which shaves some time off from the original, but also shaves off the best part of the original. Generally to me, converting something into a dice game is a downgrade, because it adds an element of luck that wasn't present before. However, the difference between drawing tiles in Ra and rolling dice in RTDG isn't very significant. The real loss is the lack of auctions in RTDG, which were a huge part of why I personally enjoyed the first. While there is some interaction in the form of rolling a disaster which only affects your opponent, it's still much less than existed in the original. As a result, I won't be adding Ra: The Dice Game to my wishlist.
Some of my friends showed up in time for the next game, and we played a five-player game of Small World. I'd been meaning to try this one for a while, as it's highly rated on Boardgamegeek.com. Small World is an example of a game that you will truely understand the second time around, but I enjoyed the potential of what I saw in the first. At the beginning of the game, the player going first chooses from a list of 5 game races attached to randomized bonus abilities for that race. If the player passes on the first in the list, they must spend one point on it to get to the second, and another to get to the third, etc. Then, that player puts a number of race tokens on the board claiming territory which is ultimately converted to victory points. As the game implies, the game board is too small to accommodate everybody appropriately, so the game quickly becomes a territory struggle. I enjoyed this game, because it seems to have lots of replay value, with the races and abilities always being randomized, there are hundreds of combinations of possibilities for ways the game could play out. However, there is some learning curve as it is a significant disadvantage to those who don't know the specifics of what the races and abilities all do, and how they interact with each other. I would recommend this to anyone seeking a better version of Risk.
Next, and last for me, we played a five-player game of Citadels. I loved this game - it was very elegant in its presentation and quick to play, yet provided lots of decision making and interaction between the players. At the start of the game, a hand of building cards is dealt to each player. One player is assigned as King, and begins the first round. The King chooses from a deck of 8 roles (6 in a 5-player game, one is discarded randomly face up, and one is chosen to be discarded face down by the King) and passes the deck clockwise for each other player to choose a role. The last player has a choice between two, and discards the one not chosen face down. The roles from 1-8 are Assassin, Thief, Magician, King, Bishop, Merchant, Architect, and Warlord. The turn begins with the Assassin (if present) and continues numerically to the Warlord. On a turn, a player plays his role card, and performs any action associated with it. Then, they can take two coins OR draw a new building card, and then play a card by paying its cost in coins. Players can receive bonus coins, build more buildings, steal from others, make a player lose a turn, switch hands with someone, and more depending on their role in the game. The next round begins with whoever chose the king role, and play continues until a player has played 8 buildings. The value of the buildings played determines the winner. This is a great buy for a game, and we've already got a copy on the way. Easy to learn and play, with some solid strategy aspects.
-Andrew
Now, when I say 'personal game collection,' know that this is no ordinary collection. Mark fills an entire wall of shelves with games, and I've no doubt that he owns and brings in excess of 300 games. I try to do what I can to help by arriving early and helping to bring in games & food, stay late to clean up when I can, and I set up a Facebook event for it each time.
This Game Day was abbreviated for me, but I still got to try a variety of new games, which I'll briefly review.
After setting up, Mark and I played Fits, a new Reiner Knizia (of Settlers of Catan fame, among others) game which plays like a mixture of Tetris and Blokus sans the interaction, with some twists. Players have an identical batch of pieces which they slide into their personal, slanted, Tetris-like grid one at a time, depending on what matching card is flipped from the deck. Fits is played over four rounds. In round one, each individual space on the grid is marked with a green dot, which obviously won't show when covered by your pieces. Players in round one try to cover these dots as best they can, and get points for completely covered rows and lose points for uncovered dots. Rounds progress with different objectives. For example, in round 2 instead of scoring for complete rows, some of the green spaces are replaced by a number value from 1-3, and if that spot is visible at the end of the round, a player gets that many points. Overall, Fits was a solid but not spectacular puzzle game. There is no difference between playing solitaire or with 4 players, as players don't interact at all. Since a game is quick (about 15 minutes), I didn't mind the lack of interaction that much.
The next game played was another game between Mark and I. We played Ra: The Dice Game (RTDG). It is a simplified version of Ra, which shaves some time off from the original, but also shaves off the best part of the original. Generally to me, converting something into a dice game is a downgrade, because it adds an element of luck that wasn't present before. However, the difference between drawing tiles in Ra and rolling dice in RTDG isn't very significant. The real loss is the lack of auctions in RTDG, which were a huge part of why I personally enjoyed the first. While there is some interaction in the form of rolling a disaster which only affects your opponent, it's still much less than existed in the original. As a result, I won't be adding Ra: The Dice Game to my wishlist.
Some of my friends showed up in time for the next game, and we played a five-player game of Small World. I'd been meaning to try this one for a while, as it's highly rated on Boardgamegeek.com. Small World is an example of a game that you will truely understand the second time around, but I enjoyed the potential of what I saw in the first. At the beginning of the game, the player going first chooses from a list of 5 game races attached to randomized bonus abilities for that race. If the player passes on the first in the list, they must spend one point on it to get to the second, and another to get to the third, etc. Then, that player puts a number of race tokens on the board claiming territory which is ultimately converted to victory points. As the game implies, the game board is too small to accommodate everybody appropriately, so the game quickly becomes a territory struggle. I enjoyed this game, because it seems to have lots of replay value, with the races and abilities always being randomized, there are hundreds of combinations of possibilities for ways the game could play out. However, there is some learning curve as it is a significant disadvantage to those who don't know the specifics of what the races and abilities all do, and how they interact with each other. I would recommend this to anyone seeking a better version of Risk.
Next, and last for me, we played a five-player game of Citadels. I loved this game - it was very elegant in its presentation and quick to play, yet provided lots of decision making and interaction between the players. At the start of the game, a hand of building cards is dealt to each player. One player is assigned as King, and begins the first round. The King chooses from a deck of 8 roles (6 in a 5-player game, one is discarded randomly face up, and one is chosen to be discarded face down by the King) and passes the deck clockwise for each other player to choose a role. The last player has a choice between two, and discards the one not chosen face down. The roles from 1-8 are Assassin, Thief, Magician, King, Bishop, Merchant, Architect, and Warlord. The turn begins with the Assassin (if present) and continues numerically to the Warlord. On a turn, a player plays his role card, and performs any action associated with it. Then, they can take two coins OR draw a new building card, and then play a card by paying its cost in coins. Players can receive bonus coins, build more buildings, steal from others, make a player lose a turn, switch hands with someone, and more depending on their role in the game. The next round begins with whoever chose the king role, and play continues until a player has played 8 buildings. The value of the buildings played determines the winner. This is a great buy for a game, and we've already got a copy on the way. Easy to learn and play, with some solid strategy aspects.
-Andrew
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Getting Stoned
Stone Age that is! HA! Yeah, I know, that was a stretch. Forgive me please.
I've described Stone Age to friends as a good jumping off point from Settlers of Catan to the "next level" of gaming. One thing I love to do is teach new games to people, but if a person is a complete gaming newbie, I'm not going to try to overwhelm them with something like Power Grid right away. I think Settlers is a good starting point, and that from there, Stone Age is an easy transition.
We had only four show up for our gaming night last night, which opened up some underplayed options for games to rehash. I pulled the old Stone Age out of my trunk, and after a minor refresher course for the gang, we dove in. Here's my mini-review of a game that we don't play enough.
Stone Age: A Mini-Review of a Game That We Don't Play Enough
Game Summary
Stone Age is a 2-4 player game where players start with a tribe of five meeples, and take turns placing their meeples in different locations on the Stone Age map. Each location gives a different benefit, and some locations have limited space and can only be done by one player each round. The starting player for each round rotates.
The locations are: Farm (Increase food track by 1, making it easier to feed your meeples), Tool (Gain a tool making resource rolls easier), Hut (Increase population by 1), Hunt (Roll/2 for Food), Wood (Roll/3 for Wood), Brick (Roll/4 for Brick), Stone (Roll/5 for Stone), Gold (Roll/6 for Gold), Cards (1-4 Resources, immediate benefit and end game score benefit), and Buildings (Costs resources, immediate score benefit).
All locations can only be claimed by one player, save the resources. Up to seven meeples can be played on the Wood, Brick, Stone, and Gold locations, and any number of meeples can hunt.
As in most games, most points at the end of the game wins. The game ends when one stack of buildings is exhausted, or the deck of cards is exhausted.
Strategies
With a number of different ways to gain points comes a number of different ways to win. Primarily, players can either focus on end game bonuses via collecting cards (n^2 points for relic/picure cards, other multiplier bonuses for buildings, population, food track and tools), or on collecting resources and purchasing buildings for points.
The trick is to find a balance that works for your tribe, between taking the food track space, increasing population, and gathering resources. All while not needing to commit too many meeples over the course of the game to hunting to keep your population fed (An unfed population results in the loss of 10 victory points each turn).
The other trick is to get a little lucky on your rolls and buildings/cards flipped when it becomes your turn to play first. A well-timed flip of a 1-7 building or a x2/x3 end game multiplier card can be game swinging.
What's Worked for Me
The last couple of games I've played, I have not increased my population at all over the course of the game. I've noticed that players that do boost their tribe numbers have to worry far too much about farming and increasing the food track to benefit from other things that ultimately score better for them in the end.
Tools are extremely important, as they eliminate rolling waste, and allow a player to attempt taking multiple types of goods with little meeple placement commitment.
Also important early are the Dice Roll cards, which give the potential of getting a food track +1 or an additional tool. Good rolling for these cards can give a huge boost to a player, with the advantage going to whoever buys the card.
My first placement early game is generally food track, then tool or the 1-resource card depending on what it is. I would food track until I am only spending 1-2 food per turn to feed the population, which is only boosting it up by 3 - something very easily attainable.
When going for late game points, I try focus on one particular bonus that seems to be not as sought-after by the other players. Also, it is always important to stake a claim in buildings when you can, especially the 1-7 building, if only to prevent others from taking them.
Why I Don't Mind the Luck
Stone Age is a refreshing mixture of luck and decision making. Yes, you will get the occasional terrible roll and not get the stone you needed to buy your building. But, you could have likely ensured getting that stone by committing more meeples to it. Or by investing in tools earlier, or by choosing it instead of a gold on a card roll.
I enjoy what I call "weighted luck" in this game, because you can make your own luck based on the decisions you make. Sometimes, it's beneficial to play against the odds in hopes of a huge payoff. But if you do this, you know it's less likely to succeed.
The most important thing in Stone Age is to be flexible in your strategy early on, then once you've committed, focus on it hard. The end game tends to be a free-for-all building and card point grab, so be prepared for it. Diversify resources and grab some tools.
We should play this more often.
-Andrew
I've described Stone Age to friends as a good jumping off point from Settlers of Catan to the "next level" of gaming. One thing I love to do is teach new games to people, but if a person is a complete gaming newbie, I'm not going to try to overwhelm them with something like Power Grid right away. I think Settlers is a good starting point, and that from there, Stone Age is an easy transition.
We had only four show up for our gaming night last night, which opened up some underplayed options for games to rehash. I pulled the old Stone Age out of my trunk, and after a minor refresher course for the gang, we dove in. Here's my mini-review of a game that we don't play enough.
Stone Age: A Mini-Review of a Game That We Don't Play Enough
Game Summary
Stone Age is a 2-4 player game where players start with a tribe of five meeples, and take turns placing their meeples in different locations on the Stone Age map. Each location gives a different benefit, and some locations have limited space and can only be done by one player each round. The starting player for each round rotates.
The locations are: Farm (Increase food track by 1, making it easier to feed your meeples), Tool (Gain a tool making resource rolls easier), Hut (Increase population by 1), Hunt (Roll/2 for Food), Wood (Roll/3 for Wood), Brick (Roll/4 for Brick), Stone (Roll/5 for Stone), Gold (Roll/6 for Gold), Cards (1-4 Resources, immediate benefit and end game score benefit), and Buildings (Costs resources, immediate score benefit).
All locations can only be claimed by one player, save the resources. Up to seven meeples can be played on the Wood, Brick, Stone, and Gold locations, and any number of meeples can hunt.
As in most games, most points at the end of the game wins. The game ends when one stack of buildings is exhausted, or the deck of cards is exhausted.
Strategies
With a number of different ways to gain points comes a number of different ways to win. Primarily, players can either focus on end game bonuses via collecting cards (n^2 points for relic/picure cards, other multiplier bonuses for buildings, population, food track and tools), or on collecting resources and purchasing buildings for points.
The trick is to find a balance that works for your tribe, between taking the food track space, increasing population, and gathering resources. All while not needing to commit too many meeples over the course of the game to hunting to keep your population fed (An unfed population results in the loss of 10 victory points each turn).
The other trick is to get a little lucky on your rolls and buildings/cards flipped when it becomes your turn to play first. A well-timed flip of a 1-7 building or a x2/x3 end game multiplier card can be game swinging.
What's Worked for Me
The last couple of games I've played, I have not increased my population at all over the course of the game. I've noticed that players that do boost their tribe numbers have to worry far too much about farming and increasing the food track to benefit from other things that ultimately score better for them in the end.
Tools are extremely important, as they eliminate rolling waste, and allow a player to attempt taking multiple types of goods with little meeple placement commitment.
Also important early are the Dice Roll cards, which give the potential of getting a food track +1 or an additional tool. Good rolling for these cards can give a huge boost to a player, with the advantage going to whoever buys the card.
My first placement early game is generally food track, then tool or the 1-resource card depending on what it is. I would food track until I am only spending 1-2 food per turn to feed the population, which is only boosting it up by 3 - something very easily attainable.
When going for late game points, I try focus on one particular bonus that seems to be not as sought-after by the other players. Also, it is always important to stake a claim in buildings when you can, especially the 1-7 building, if only to prevent others from taking them.
Why I Don't Mind the Luck
Stone Age is a refreshing mixture of luck and decision making. Yes, you will get the occasional terrible roll and not get the stone you needed to buy your building. But, you could have likely ensured getting that stone by committing more meeples to it. Or by investing in tools earlier, or by choosing it instead of a gold on a card roll.
I enjoy what I call "weighted luck" in this game, because you can make your own luck based on the decisions you make. Sometimes, it's beneficial to play against the odds in hopes of a huge payoff. But if you do this, you know it's less likely to succeed.
The most important thing in Stone Age is to be flexible in your strategy early on, then once you've committed, focus on it hard. The end game tends to be a free-for-all building and card point grab, so be prepared for it. Diversify resources and grab some tools.
We should play this more often.
-Andrew
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