inconsequential ruminations

A minimalist blog, with a pretentious title, about strategy games.

Essen Angst

with 2 comments

I am distraught I am not going to Essen. I have never been and was planning to go, but the baby finished that dream for this year. The list of people I would have liked to meet is too long to itemise. Listening to Mark Johnson’s Essen Anticipation podcast made it even worse.

I have decided to try to steer clear of the Essen hype this year. It is very hit and miss. I learnt my lesson after playing Railroad Dice. This year I will let the usual filters sift the chaff for me before I get too excited.

There’s always next year…

Written by Iain

October 12th, 2005 at 9:03 am

Posted in boardgames

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2 Responses to 'Essen Angst'

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  1. What’s the story behind your Railroad Dice comment? I have been thinking on and off about trying to find a copy.

    monty

    14 Oct 05 at 13:03

  2. I wrote about it in my old blog, before the shaky blogging software href=”http://www.blosxom.com/” rel=”nofollow”>shaky blogging software href=”http://www.blosxom.com/” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.blosxom.com/ died a horrible death. Here is what I wrote:

    I just finished a game of Railroad Dice href=”http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=8192” rel=”nofollow”>Railroad Dice href=”http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=8192” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewitem.php3?gameid=8192 at FWTWR href=”http://www.fwtwr.com/fwtwr/rr_dice/over/353game.htm” rel=”nofollow”>FWTWR href=”http://www.fwtwr.com/fwtwr/rr_dice/over/353game.htm” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.fwtwr.com/fwtwr/rr_dice/over/353game.htm.
    I came last, which may have coloured my opinion, but I have to say that I did not enjoy it at all. It seemed like it was trying too hard to be different. There’s quite a bit of buzz about this one at the moment, but all I can say is to be wary of the hype. Maybe it’s the games rarity, only 300 sold at the 2003 Essen games fair that is helping to popularise it?
    The basic idea of the game is of players accumulating shares in companies and trying to build linked company train stations on two ends of a single length of track. The currency and track are all composed of dice with six different custom faces: 2 curved tracks, 2 straights, 1 option to buy company shares and 1 wild ? face. You get bonus dice for building enough tracks to start a new terrain tile, and for building stations.
    My main problem with it is how little connection there is between the theme and the mechanics of the game. It just did not feel at all like running a railroad. I don’t understand the number of railroad games out there, but at least I can empathise with the fun of playing with a train set in the context of a board game. Railroad Dice had none of that fun. It felt very abstract to me. I suppose playing PBEM with plain pastel graphics didn’t help, but I have seen the components href=”http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/34134” rel=”nofollow”>components href=”http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/34134” rel=”nofollow”>http://www.boardgamegeek.com/image/34134 on the BoardGameGeek page and they do not seem to have more flavour.

    Iain

    14 Oct 05 at 13:17

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