inconsequential ruminations

I spent Saturday at my friend Michael’s house. There were five of us for three games. It was a beautiful sunny day, so I felt bad about staying indoors, but the company, games and food were good, so I’m not complaining.

Pirate’s Cove
I have wanted to play this ever since Bruno Faidutti made this one of his games of the year. It’s probably the best looking game I have ever played. It’s a light and fun. There is some skill, but it comes from playing the games a few times, rather than deep thought. The secret action selection reminds me of Citadels. Maybe that’s why Bruno likes it so much? If I only bought games for my friends and not myself, I’d buy it like a shot. However I buy games primarily for me, so I’ll just advise them to buy it instead.

Mare Nostrum
I can understand why people were so disappointed with this. When we set it up I felt very optimistic. It has beautifully illustrated cards and board, with quality wood pieces. The first few turns matched this impression. The game flows nicely and there is resource gathering and political manoeuvring. The theme matches the gameplay, although of course it’s historically inaccurate.
Unfortunately, due to our inexperience we played for over three and a half hours without a winner. The problem is that it’s difficult to achieve the victory conditions. If you do not understand how to take advantage of trading or other players pounce continually on the leading player, it gets very difficult to win.
Eventually one player even gave up on winning and did not play optimal moves, so the game would end quicker.
Rather than play for another half an hour, we decided on the winner, because although two of us were assured to reach the victory conditions next turn, the winner would be the person who built first. A third player would have decided this, the political leader, and he told us whom he would vote for. This was a disappointing end to a frustrating game.

Merchants of Amsterdam
After all the tension of Mare Nostrum, it was my choice of game and I felt we needed something a bit less adversarial to lighten the mood. When I got back into gaming, in 2000, there was quite a bit written about this, but since then it has faded away. It’s a standard auction/area majorities game, but with the twist that it is a Dutch auction. This means that the auction starts high and a clock counts down the price. The first player to press the top of the clock pays the price on the clock. In the end the winner won by bidding consistently lower than the rest of us. This goes against my typical experience of auction games where the winner is the person who bids high at the start of the game and reaps large rewards later. I found this a satisfying change. It’s a fun, uninspiring, well-balanced game. It’s let down by very bland components. I’m glad I tried it, but I will not buy it.

Michael lent me four games, which removes most of my lust for buying new ones:

• Traders of Genoa: I have read mixed reports about this one, although its standard deviation on the Geek is 1:36, which is pretty low.
• Showmanager: Apparently this is a classic, but I want to be sure before buying it on eBay, or the Atlantic Star remake.
• Princes of the Renaissance: Another game with mixed reports. It might be too long for my group. (Why is that plain woman showing her breast on the box front? I am not a prude, but I dislike sexual imagery in games.)
• Maya: I have only heard good about this one, but no one has raved about it.