spectre
Arcane
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2008
- Messages
- 5,439
Mini-review:
In my opinion, it's one of the best board games to play with "regular" people. Friends, family, girlfriends, boyfriends.
The basic rules are very easy to pick up.
For those who haven't had the pleasure, the game is about picking up a random tile and use it to build a map consisting of cities, fields, roads, abbeys, etc. The end result looks similar to this, only less tidy:
You have a limited number of followers or "dudes" which you place on the tiles as you lay them to claim certain map features as your own. Say, you lay a tile with a road, you place your dude on it and claim the road as your own.
Then, you add additional tiles to your road until it has a proper end and beginning. Once it's done, you get points depending on how long a road you built and you get your "dude" back so that he can be reused.
The game's strength is in its customizability. There's a shitload of add-ons for it (more than 10 I think), and each adds new tiles, new "dudes", new features and new rules. Some are very simple and easy to learn (for example, they only add a few more tiles to lay), others are fairly complex (like the dragon which literally wreaks havoc to the board).
The game is meant for 2 to 5 players. Personally, it's more fun with 2-3 people. With 5 players, it's really difficult to get any long term construction done, although it depends of which add-ons you choose. Some work well for two players, others are good for 5. You can actually make the game as simple or as complex as you like. You can easily control the length of the game by adjusting the number of tiles. Or, you can introduce the more specialized follower types to increase the number of choices for each player each turn.
Basically, the game is about choosing a random tile and deciding where to place it, and where to invest your limited pool of followers for maxiumum score. Since the board is totally random, no two games are ever the same. The add-ons introduce many new rules to screw other players over.
Overall, I am impressed with the way the game is designed. It's elegant, convenient and simple to learn and has the right mix of stuff to please almost everyone. Some guys will dig the map-building aspect of the game, others will enjoy screwing other players' plans, others will enjoy dicking about with the catapult.
All in all, a must-have for any board game fan. You can get a big box (base game + 5 add-ons) edition for as low as 60$, which is really good bang for yoru buck. Got mine a year agon and I'm still not bored with it. Heck, I haven't played with all the add-ons yet.
In my opinion, it's one of the best board games to play with "regular" people. Friends, family, girlfriends, boyfriends.
The basic rules are very easy to pick up.
For those who haven't had the pleasure, the game is about picking up a random tile and use it to build a map consisting of cities, fields, roads, abbeys, etc. The end result looks similar to this, only less tidy:
You have a limited number of followers or "dudes" which you place on the tiles as you lay them to claim certain map features as your own. Say, you lay a tile with a road, you place your dude on it and claim the road as your own.
Then, you add additional tiles to your road until it has a proper end and beginning. Once it's done, you get points depending on how long a road you built and you get your "dude" back so that he can be reused.
The game's strength is in its customizability. There's a shitload of add-ons for it (more than 10 I think), and each adds new tiles, new "dudes", new features and new rules. Some are very simple and easy to learn (for example, they only add a few more tiles to lay), others are fairly complex (like the dragon which literally wreaks havoc to the board).
The game is meant for 2 to 5 players. Personally, it's more fun with 2-3 people. With 5 players, it's really difficult to get any long term construction done, although it depends of which add-ons you choose. Some work well for two players, others are good for 5. You can actually make the game as simple or as complex as you like. You can easily control the length of the game by adjusting the number of tiles. Or, you can introduce the more specialized follower types to increase the number of choices for each player each turn.
Basically, the game is about choosing a random tile and deciding where to place it, and where to invest your limited pool of followers for maxiumum score. Since the board is totally random, no two games are ever the same. The add-ons introduce many new rules to screw other players over.
Overall, I am impressed with the way the game is designed. It's elegant, convenient and simple to learn and has the right mix of stuff to please almost everyone. Some guys will dig the map-building aspect of the game, others will enjoy screwing other players' plans, others will enjoy dicking about with the catapult.
All in all, a must-have for any board game fan. You can get a big box (base game + 5 add-ons) edition for as low as 60$, which is really good bang for yoru buck. Got mine a year agon and I'm still not bored with it. Heck, I haven't played with all the add-ons yet.