First play: Nations....

Through The Ages was quite the hit last year with our group of friends.  As a deep and complex civ-building game, it may be the best.  But it's also a dry, EXTREMELY long game with tons of accounting and ridiculous amounts of downtime while you wait for other people to take their turns.  Which is probably why most of us now just play the online email version of the game - all the accounting is done for you and you can take as long as you need to figure out your turn.

Last night I was able to join in a 3-player game of Nations, a new civ game which many have likened to a quicker, simpler Through The Ages.  And the description is apt, although I would argue Nations is a different enough game to stand on its own merits.  It definitely feels different in terms of play as the rules are much simpler and the play is way more dynamic and interesting since players take one action at a time and then the next player gets to go.  Rarely was I stewing for more than a couple seconds on my choices and I still felt very involved throughout the duration and managed to win handily.

But what really stuck out with me about Nations compared to TTA had to do with the military aspects of both games.  In TTA, one of the positives and also one of the negatives are the wars that people can launch against each other.  They are a necessary and important part of the design to keep play balance and stop runaway leaders but they can also serve to pretty much eliminate someone in hour 4 of 5.  In Nations, there are wars and they can definitely damage opponents but they'll never knock you out completely and you can very easily mitigate the risk yourself, at a cost.  It's cleverly done and removes the brutality of a nasty game of TTA.

I've only had one play so far but I can see very easily Nations replacing Through The Ages, mainly thanks to game length (under 3 hours with rules last night) and teachability.  Okay, it has a bit more randomness and it's not as nasty, but it's more interactive and I'd say a more enjoyable experience.... except when the can of Coke spilled all over the event cards!

I suppose I'll always have my play-by-email TTA....

First Play: Copycat....

The hobby gaming obsession has exploded so much so over the past decade that many games have come out with themes and mechanics that reflect humourously on hobby gaming itself.  And there's so many of us suckers now that these games are even finding a market - The Boardgamegeek Game and Cleopatra's Caboose are prime examples.  Copycat, by the brilliant and weird Friedemann Friese of Power Grid and Black Friday fame, is another prime example of this.  Friese decided he wanted to steal mechanics from the top-rated games on BGG and put 'em together to create something new.  Of course, this is a not-so-subtle commentary on the endless variations of modern game mechanics that we're seeing over and over - worker placement, deck-building, you name it.  So Copycat steals the worker-placement/action card reveal from Agricola, the deck-building and coins for buying from Dominion, increasing values of unused actions from Puerto Rico, and the sliding card row from Through the Ages as well as tossing a few more clever ideas into the mix.

Red cards are useless, you know, like licenses and degrees and stuff

And I daresay that my first play of this was rather magnificent!  Once the fog had lifted from trying to parse yet another confusing Friese and Rio Grande ruleset, we really started to get into the game.  Not knowing what I was doing and not knowing that money would be really hard to come by later, I tried my classic "Chapel" strategy from Dominion of burning down my deck and then building it back up.  Unfortunately I used more actions burning my deck then building it and so had to play catch up in the end game.  But man was this fun.  Long-term strategy from the deck-building and deep challenging tactical play every round from the action spaces and the cards on hand.  And a devious decision every round for turn order - which card to give up from a hand of only 5?  Delicious.  I'm looking forward to my next play of this, I must say, and seriously considering owning a copy myself.  Highly recommended, especially if Agricola and Dominion float your boat.

And you don't have to feed your family!!!!

Action spaces and "campaign workers"

UPDATE:  2-player game is way too easy.  Fun but devoid of tension.  4-player is excellent and illustrates the many ways to scoop points.  But for length of play I think 3 players is just right. 

First Play: Through The Ages...

Played my first game of TTA a few nights ago and including the rules explanation it took us about 5 hours.  Yes, that's right.  For a 2-player game.  I knew this going in, however, and had read a 37-page quick start guide beforehand (I know, I'm really selling the game, eh?)

The daunting score tracks

And I haven't yet decided what I think.  I knew it would be epic so I had set aside an entire evening.  However, I had read that this was one of the greatest civilization building games ever.  Um, no.  It is in fact an utterly soulless Euro game of action point allowance, card selection, and resource management.  Sure there are leaders and wars and armies and...   blah, blah, blah.  This is about as dry an exercise as they come.  The awful artwork on the cards serve only to add a splash colour to a very tight game of cube-pushing, tableau-building, and accounting, accounting, accounting.

My third wonder

But I enjoyed it.  While it was my turn, that is.  When it was not my turn, I made dinner, did dishes, and folded laundry.  Seriously.  Never will I ever play this with 3 people.  Oh man.  And I wonder truly whether there are other games that do this just as good but in a much shorter timespan.  Resource management: Agricola.  Action points: Tikal.  Tableau-building: Saint Petersburg.  Simple, card-based battle: Tempus.  Excessive amounts of accounting: Black Friday. The big question is whether I should play one game with all these aspects combined when I can play all the shorter games in the same amount of time.  Well, I definitely want to play the game again and find out.  I guess that says something.

My tableau near the end of the game.  Tie game!