inconsequential ruminations

I’ve finished a couple of PBW games recently.

Wallenstein
This was a particularly interesting experience. PBW gives you the opportunity to feel Wallenstein’s mechanics, without the distraction of the attractive pieces and the dice tower. Now I can safely say that Wallenstein a simple cross between Risk and El Grande, with secret actions. The lovely pieces and dice tower tend to distract from this, although in an enjoyable way.
Like most very political games, it’s a mistake to be ahead in the mid-game. The leader and second place players at half-way were hammered.
Wallenstein has lost some of it’s initial shine with me, but I’ll still buy it as soon as I can scrape some spare cash together.

StreetSoccer
This is a nice little game, but I don’t feel any desire to buy it. It would be a nice gateway game for a football fan, so long as they were not looking for something too heavy. There certainly seems to be quite a lot of genuine skill involved, as the designer, Corné van Moorsel, is one of the top rated players.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2004 at 12:16 and is filed under boardgames.