The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Endeavor, Robber Knights.
First play for both games, and I review them both.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Two-Player (Power Grid) Factory Manager
Power Grid: Factory Manager is the latest game from Friedman Friess, a green-haired, goofy, and goofy-looking guy who creates really good board games. Most of his games have two "F"s in their German name, and most of his box covers have a substantial amount of green in them, like his hair.
FM is in the same "world" as Power Grid, his most successful game, although its mechanics have little to do with PG. The artwork and detailing are the same, and there is a plant market with lower valued plants available before higher valued ones. But that's where the similarity ends. No route connections, no buying fuel, no running out the fuel supply, and no auto-balancing mechanism for "last place".
Instead, you have a factory with 14 spaces for machines, 9 workers, and money. Each machine adds or reduces to the energy your factory requires to run, adds or reduces the workers your factory requires to run, or adds to the amount you produce or the amount you can store. Two spaces are allocated to certain types of machines, leaving 12 for your general machines, robots, and storage equipment. And 2 of those 10 spaces cost money to build (like Bohnanza, once you build them, they stick around and you don't have to pay for them again).
Your income at the end of each round is the lesser of your production and storage values x 10, minus your energy cost x the price of energy, which rises sporadically over the game's five turns. It starts at an insignificant 1, but could reach 8 by turn five, in theory.
You have available to you each turn the number of workers that are not busy operating your machines. You bid with these workers for turn order: lower turn order means first crack at plants, but less monetary reduction of the plants' costs. Then, in turn order, you drop as many plants from the supply stacks into the market as you have workers (less the ones you used to bid), and each other player does the same, with the last player able to optionally add a few more plants if he or she wants (not in a two-player game).
Then, in turn order, you buy whatever plants you can afford from the market, but no more than one plant per space you have available in your factory, and no more than the number of workers you didn't use for bidding. If you have no space left in your factory, you can clear away a location at the cost of another worker. First player does all of his buying before second player, and so on, and so - barring lack of money - buys all the good plants. Last player generally gets crap to choose from, and pays much less for it.
After all this, you get all of your workers back, reassign as many as you need to run your plants, leaving you with however many are left. You can also buy up to two additional workers at 7 bucks each, which can be used as regular workers for all things. They go away in the next round at this same point, though you can then buy them again.
Any items in the market go back on top of the supply stacks. This means that crap buildings that even the last player didn't want get put back onto the stack and are the first ones out of the gate again on the next round. Power Grid had a mechanism of getting rid of these wastes of space, but Factory Manager leaves these in, apparently deliberately. I'm not sure why. I think PG's idea was better. I found this annoying in FM, but perhaps it's not such a problem in a four or five player game. I will have to see.
You then collect income. The game is limited to five rounds, which is somewhat surprising for this type of game, but seems to be about right. The winner is the one with the most money.
In our game, I had the most money at the end of turn four, and couldn't do anything useful in turn five, so I did nothing and saved my money. Nadine did tons of stuff in turn five, shooting ahead in every area, but costing her a lot of money. As a result, even though income is doubled in turn five, I was still far ahead at the end.
It's a lot of juggling numbers. Add this and that and that, subtract this and that and that, factor in the money and workers required. Unlike PG, it didn't provide much tension as a two-player game, but that may be because we didn't know to block each other for turn order enough. Going first in the turn order is a huge advantage, but only if you have enough workers to do something with it. I suspect that multi-player is where the game shines.
FM is in the same "world" as Power Grid, his most successful game, although its mechanics have little to do with PG. The artwork and detailing are the same, and there is a plant market with lower valued plants available before higher valued ones. But that's where the similarity ends. No route connections, no buying fuel, no running out the fuel supply, and no auto-balancing mechanism for "last place".
Instead, you have a factory with 14 spaces for machines, 9 workers, and money. Each machine adds or reduces to the energy your factory requires to run, adds or reduces the workers your factory requires to run, or adds to the amount you produce or the amount you can store. Two spaces are allocated to certain types of machines, leaving 12 for your general machines, robots, and storage equipment. And 2 of those 10 spaces cost money to build (like Bohnanza, once you build them, they stick around and you don't have to pay for them again).
Your income at the end of each round is the lesser of your production and storage values x 10, minus your energy cost x the price of energy, which rises sporadically over the game's five turns. It starts at an insignificant 1, but could reach 8 by turn five, in theory.
You have available to you each turn the number of workers that are not busy operating your machines. You bid with these workers for turn order: lower turn order means first crack at plants, but less monetary reduction of the plants' costs. Then, in turn order, you drop as many plants from the supply stacks into the market as you have workers (less the ones you used to bid), and each other player does the same, with the last player able to optionally add a few more plants if he or she wants (not in a two-player game).
Then, in turn order, you buy whatever plants you can afford from the market, but no more than one plant per space you have available in your factory, and no more than the number of workers you didn't use for bidding. If you have no space left in your factory, you can clear away a location at the cost of another worker. First player does all of his buying before second player, and so on, and so - barring lack of money - buys all the good plants. Last player generally gets crap to choose from, and pays much less for it.
After all this, you get all of your workers back, reassign as many as you need to run your plants, leaving you with however many are left. You can also buy up to two additional workers at 7 bucks each, which can be used as regular workers for all things. They go away in the next round at this same point, though you can then buy them again.
Any items in the market go back on top of the supply stacks. This means that crap buildings that even the last player didn't want get put back onto the stack and are the first ones out of the gate again on the next round. Power Grid had a mechanism of getting rid of these wastes of space, but Factory Manager leaves these in, apparently deliberately. I'm not sure why. I think PG's idea was better. I found this annoying in FM, but perhaps it's not such a problem in a four or five player game. I will have to see.
You then collect income. The game is limited to five rounds, which is somewhat surprising for this type of game, but seems to be about right. The winner is the one with the most money.
In our game, I had the most money at the end of turn four, and couldn't do anything useful in turn five, so I did nothing and saved my money. Nadine did tons of stuff in turn five, shooting ahead in every area, but costing her a lot of money. As a result, even though income is doubled in turn five, I was still far ahead at the end.
It's a lot of juggling numbers. Add this and that and that, subtract this and that and that, factor in the money and workers required. Unlike PG, it didn't provide much tension as a two-player game, but that may be because we didn't know to block each other for turn order enough. Going first in the turn order is a huge advantage, but only if you have enough workers to do something with it. I suspect that multi-player is where the game shines.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Session Report, in which I finally get to play Homesteaders and I love it
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Dominion/Intrigue/Seaside x 2, Homesteaders, Le Havre, Tribune, Saikoro, Bridge x 2.
I finally get to play Homesteaders and I love it. Binyamin plays Le Havre, and David plays Tribune, and they don't love them. But others do.
And I still love Saikoro, too.
Another Antigone
I'm off to see Tal in Another Antigone tonight, the latest JEST production. It's cool that JEST is trying out plays that are not simply the same stuff rehashed from year to year. However, I think it's hurting their box office as a result: the masses would prefer to see yet another production of Annie rather than take a chance on a play by a well-respected but modern playwrite.
Go see it.
I finally get to play Homesteaders and I love it. Binyamin plays Le Havre, and David plays Tribune, and they don't love them. But others do.
And I still love Saikoro, too.
Another Antigone
I'm off to see Tal in Another Antigone tonight, the latest JEST production. It's cool that JEST is trying out plays that are not simply the same stuff rehashed from year to year. However, I think it's hurting their box office as a result: the masses would prefer to see yet another production of Annie rather than take a chance on a play by a well-respected but modern playwrite.
Go see it.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Too Many Games in the Game Queue, For Once
I got twenty new games during my last trip to the US (returned Nov 30), and I've only played five of them so far. And I want to play those five many more times.
Some people "work through" their game list, then throw the new games onto the shelf and play the next new games. I'm not like that. I like playing new games, but I also like to play good games many times.
Unfortunately, after playing some "good" games several times, you realize that the game is flawed, or that it is solvable, or that it is "played out" (sometimes the latter is true only if you play with the same group each time). Hence why I also got rid of twenty games on my last trip to the US.
So for the first time in a while, I really don't need any new games round here. But a few weeks ago I won games worth up to $50 from a holiday Sophistigames contest. Damn. Now I have to buy more games.
Some people "work through" their game list, then throw the new games onto the shelf and play the next new games. I'm not like that. I like playing new games, but I also like to play good games many times.
Unfortunately, after playing some "good" games several times, you realize that the game is flawed, or that it is solvable, or that it is "played out" (sometimes the latter is true only if you play with the same group each time). Hence why I also got rid of twenty games on my last trip to the US.
So for the first time in a while, I really don't need any new games round here. But a few weeks ago I won games worth up to $50 from a holiday Sophistigames contest. Damn. Now I have to buy more games.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Rachel Off to America again
This time, I'll be visiting her in about six weeks, which is somewhat better than last time. I'll be away from Israel US Feb 18 to Mar 16, leaving me only two weeks until Pesach after I return. So cleaning will have to start already. I'm already starting to look at what chometz I have to use up.
I'll be in Oxford, OH again for the first two weeks so I'll try again to hit game nights in Oxford, Cincinnati, and this time also Columbus. The third week I may be in Chicago or New York, and the last weekend and few days in the New York area. On Sunday night, March 14, I'll be attending my high school's 25th reunion.
Why? A good question, considering that I hated roughly 1/3 of the kids in my high school class, was indifferent to another 3/5, and only liked the remaining five people. The ones I hated made life so awful that I get upset thinking about them to this day. I think that I hope to find that some of these people are now decent people; I anticipate this having a therapeutic effect on me, somehow. If they're still horrible people, I will at least be able to face them now with the proper self-assurance, scorn, and pity that they deserved then, which may also be therapeutic.
I actually look forward to meeting the ones I was indifferent to, though they may not realize how much of a coup this is for me. For example, while they were discussing where to arrange this reunion, one of them suggested "reliving that great pool party" they had at the end of high school, a party about which I was not invited to, or even knew about until now. Today, all the ones I've communicated with online now seem to be nice people, who won't mind that I'm (still) a geek.
And as for the ones I actually liked, at least one of them will be there ...
I lent Trias to my neighbor's kids who were looking for something they haven't already played for four players and not too hard to learn (they've already played Settlers, T&E, and Carcassonne, and I thought Dominion would be hard to learn on ones own).
Yehuda
I'll be in Oxford, OH again for the first two weeks so I'll try again to hit game nights in Oxford, Cincinnati, and this time also Columbus. The third week I may be in Chicago or New York, and the last weekend and few days in the New York area. On Sunday night, March 14, I'll be attending my high school's 25th reunion.
Why? A good question, considering that I hated roughly 1/3 of the kids in my high school class, was indifferent to another 3/5, and only liked the remaining five people. The ones I hated made life so awful that I get upset thinking about them to this day. I think that I hope to find that some of these people are now decent people; I anticipate this having a therapeutic effect on me, somehow. If they're still horrible people, I will at least be able to face them now with the proper self-assurance, scorn, and pity that they deserved then, which may also be therapeutic.
I actually look forward to meeting the ones I was indifferent to, though they may not realize how much of a coup this is for me. For example, while they were discussing where to arrange this reunion, one of them suggested "reliving that great pool party" they had at the end of high school, a party about which I was not invited to, or even knew about until now. Today, all the ones I've communicated with online now seem to be nice people, who won't mind that I'm (still) a geek.
And as for the ones I actually liked, at least one of them will be there ...
I lent Trias to my neighbor's kids who were looking for something they haven't already played for four players and not too hard to learn (they've already played Settlers, T&E, and Carcassonne, and I thought Dominion would be hard to learn on ones own).
Yehuda
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Session Report, in which I play Dvonn again after a long hiatus
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Tribune, Dominion/Intrigue/Seaside, Dvonn, Phoenicia.
Ben came after a long hiatus, and I got to play more Dominion and also Dvonn again. Good games played.
My blog(s) are receiving only light attention as I'm working some work projects as well as a behind-the-scenes game industry project.
Ben came after a long hiatus, and I got to play more Dominion and also Dvonn again. Good games played.
My blog(s) are receiving only light attention as I'm working some work projects as well as a behind-the-scenes game industry project.
Friday, January 1, 2010
Session Report, hosted at Abraham's house
The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: Jamaica x 2, Stone Age, Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm.
I had a wedding, so Abraham hosted and reported the session.
Also last week, I played two games of Puerto Rico with Rachel, and won both of them. They were each close, though the second one was decided fairly early on.
I also played a game of Gin Rummy with Tal, which she won. I won the first hand, and then she toasted me on several hands with some well-timed knocks and a Gin.
I'll be having some friends and gamers over for a shabbat lunch ...
I had a wedding, so Abraham hosted and reported the session.
Also last week, I played two games of Puerto Rico with Rachel, and won both of them. They were each close, though the second one was decided fairly early on.
I also played a game of Gin Rummy with Tal, which she won. I won the first hand, and then she toasted me on several hands with some well-timed knocks and a Gin.
I'll be having some friends and gamers over for a shabbat lunch ...
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