4264: They Disappear Into The Palms
I should write something up while I remember.
The only free gaming night was, oddly enough, Father's Day, so we headed to Casa del los Zorros and tried a dubious game. How dubious? THE FIRST TURN took us AN HOUR. =|
I mean, I read the reviews that said it took some finagling to figure out the rules but then the game's fun, but... holy carp, we could've played a LOT of Dominion in the time it took to finish that one game =/ We have this idea that we're supposed to write our own rules for clarity, once we reach a consensus on the questionable parts.
First item: There were no score markers as described [and illustrated!] in the manual. Not even in the "'final' final version" manual taking into account BGG feedback--the "7th revision" looks suspiciously similar to the one in the box [and includes the score markers the company is fully aware of having not included physically].
Second item: Oversimplification of goals--it is rather unclear what does what until actually going through the motions, which I will try to summarize here.
GOAL: Get the most points [derp!].
GET POINTS FROM
+ surrounding a city with the most trains [in event of tie, point value is shared]
+ building a building
+ building a pyramid for a city you control [risky if any tracks are not "full" as pyramids may be claimed by someone else adding trains]
+ another player shipping fruit using a track with your trains on it
+ using the role that redeems points after placing trains
GET MONEY FROM
+ shipping fruit
+ another player shipping fruit TO BUILD A BUILDING, using a track with your trains on it
AT THE START OF EACH TURN
+ completely refresh [discard and redraw] auction and city cards
+ give start marker to player who went last in auction phase [Power Grid]
+ auction for choice of roles [Power Grid/Factory Manager]
+ choose roles [Puerto Rico]
+ determine turn order by value of role card [Power Grid-ish]
FOR YOUR TURN YOU
+ take an auction card [or two, if possessing the "take two auction cards" role]
+ choose two [may do the same twice]:
- take city cards, replenishing to four at the end of your turn OR
- place trains [Ticket to Ride] OR
- build building [Builder, Puerto Rico] OR
- ship fruit [Captain?, Puerto Rico] OR
- produce fruit [Craftsman, Puerto Rico] OR
- build pyramid [temple, Tikal]
Third item: Rule clarification... I'm still not really sure what the auction rules want us to do. I'm assuming that anyone who passes doesn't have to pay, so THEORETICALLY no one would have to pay to play, as it were? That is, the person starting the auction can pass, thereby claiming the "last place" slot in the turn order, then the next person can pass and take the second-to-last place, etc. until the only person left in the auction doesn't have to pay in order to get first place.
If there are bids: Whoever bids highest pays the full bid amount, as does the second-highest bidder [not passer]. If there are more than two bids, anyone else who made a bid pays half of their bid (rounded up). Anyone who passed does not pay. [I was confused by the official rule wording and ended up matching the high bid though I wanted to pass, which would've changed my available money, though that was ultimately a non-issue.]
This is kinda what I figure on my own--anyone else can chime in if I happened to miss something. I went kinda quickly over all of this 'cause I haven't had a lot of spare time this week, between everything else I've been neglecting =p but it's a game with lots of arbitrary rules and values and things that kinda sorta make sense but are a pain to remember [though the "don't count the corners when adding points" oversight is irritating--WHY make arbitrary gaps in the score track when the corners work perfectly well as spaces AAGH].
Anyway, metalfox won both the test game and the subsequent round of Innovation--though not without a fight, and at least I actually managed to succeed in earning TWO of the alternate Achievements for my trouble =p [my one goal when playing the game since discovering the Fluxx-like "arbitrary win" cards]
...
I don't really have a lot else to say. Work's... work. I feel like anything I'd have to say about that should be a whole other post, though, considering =p
The only free gaming night was, oddly enough, Father's Day, so we headed to Casa del los Zorros and tried a dubious game. How dubious? THE FIRST TURN took us AN HOUR. =|
I mean, I read the reviews that said it took some finagling to figure out the rules but then the game's fun, but... holy carp, we could've played a LOT of Dominion in the time it took to finish that one game =/ We have this idea that we're supposed to write our own rules for clarity, once we reach a consensus on the questionable parts.
First item: There were no score markers as described [and illustrated!] in the manual. Not even in the "'final' final version" manual taking into account BGG feedback--the "7th revision" looks suspiciously similar to the one in the box [and includes the score markers the company is fully aware of having not included physically].
Second item: Oversimplification of goals--it is rather unclear what does what until actually going through the motions, which I will try to summarize here.
GOAL: Get the most points [derp!].
GET POINTS FROM
+ surrounding a city with the most trains [in event of tie, point value is shared]
+ building a building
+ building a pyramid for a city you control [risky if any tracks are not "full" as pyramids may be claimed by someone else adding trains]
+ another player shipping fruit using a track with your trains on it
+ using the role that redeems points after placing trains
GET MONEY FROM
+ shipping fruit
+ another player shipping fruit TO BUILD A BUILDING, using a track with your trains on it
AT THE START OF EACH TURN
+ completely refresh [discard and redraw] auction and city cards
+ give start marker to player who went last in auction phase [Power Grid]
+ auction for choice of roles [Power Grid/Factory Manager]
+ choose roles [Puerto Rico]
+ determine turn order by value of role card [Power Grid-ish]
FOR YOUR TURN YOU
+ take an auction card [or two, if possessing the "take two auction cards" role]
+ choose two [may do the same twice]:
- take city cards, replenishing to four at the end of your turn OR
- place trains [Ticket to Ride] OR
- build building [Builder, Puerto Rico] OR
- ship fruit [Captain?, Puerto Rico] OR
- produce fruit [Craftsman, Puerto Rico] OR
- build pyramid [temple, Tikal]
Third item: Rule clarification... I'm still not really sure what the auction rules want us to do. I'm assuming that anyone who passes doesn't have to pay, so THEORETICALLY no one would have to pay to play, as it were? That is, the person starting the auction can pass, thereby claiming the "last place" slot in the turn order, then the next person can pass and take the second-to-last place, etc. until the only person left in the auction doesn't have to pay in order to get first place.
If there are bids: Whoever bids highest pays the full bid amount, as does the second-highest bidder [not passer]. If there are more than two bids, anyone else who made a bid pays half of their bid (rounded up). Anyone who passed does not pay. [I was confused by the official rule wording and ended up matching the high bid though I wanted to pass, which would've changed my available money, though that was ultimately a non-issue.]
This is kinda what I figure on my own--anyone else can chime in if I happened to miss something. I went kinda quickly over all of this 'cause I haven't had a lot of spare time this week, between everything else I've been neglecting =p but it's a game with lots of arbitrary rules and values and things that kinda sorta make sense but are a pain to remember [though the "don't count the corners when adding points" oversight is irritating--WHY make arbitrary gaps in the score track when the corners work perfectly well as spaces AAGH].
Anyway, metalfox won both the test game and the subsequent round of Innovation--though not without a fight, and at least I actually managed to succeed in earning TWO of the alternate Achievements for my trouble =p [my one goal when playing the game since discovering the Fluxx-like "arbitrary win" cards]
...
I don't really have a lot else to say. Work's... work. I feel like anything I'd have to say about that should be a whole other post, though, considering =p