El Caballero, San Juan.
Thursday, October 6th, 2005After a long break, yesterday’s games night was almost ruined by El Caballero, but was rescued by San Juan.
I have heard lots of mixed reports about this one ever since I started gaming again. Even though it has an average standard deviation at the Geek, 1.43, it seems to inspire only love or indifference. In the end Derk selling it on BoardGameSpeak swung me and so I won it and Volle Hütte for €25 from German eBay.
I wish I had kept my money. The main problem is the rules translation. It is an unintuitive game, but the translator did not translate any of the examples in the rules. Either because of this or holes in the rules, it is hard to tell, far too many questions came up during play. For example:
- If a castillo-protected caballero is returned to your court, what strength does it have?
- To play a governor, when is a region enclosed?
- If you play a caballero to the board, does it come out of the supply and is the same amount deducted from your court? Or do both amounts come from your court?
These are basic questions, but the rules did not cover them explicitly. I am sure good examples would have cleared them up, but they were in German. I loath rules ambiguities, and I have been spoiled by how clean most €urogames are, so this was hard to take.
This is hardly the fault of Kramer and Ulrich, but even if someone generous reworked the rules or produced an FAQ, I still think it would be mediocre. As I said before, it is unintuitive, far too much for an abstract game. The tiles are also pretty ugly. It also loses a point because the box is so much bigger than needed.
I cannot remember who said it, but I was originally attracted by the phrase “Carcassonne on steroids”. That maybe so, but it is a muscle-bound bodybuilder rather than a Tour de France rider.
Rating 3/10 and that is not too harsh.
I still believe someone can make an awesome gamers’ game with the map tiles and area majorities concept. Carcassonne is close, but too simple for me. Maybe Carcassonne the City or Carcassonne the Discovery are the answers? Nothing else springs to mind. I will have to try them out.
We almost abandoned the evening in disgust, but luckily my friend Duncan suggested San Juan. It was the perfect antidote: fast, interactive, but skilful and innovative. I am relieved it plays at least as well with three as with two.
Rating upgraded to 9/10.
