6 janvier 2008
7
06
/01
/janvier
/2008
18:22
Well, it has been quite a while, but I finally had a break from school for a few weeks, and in that space of time I played a tonne of Age of Steam, including two plays of my new Soviet Union prototype.
The quick run through of the non-Soviet stuff:
The new Ted Alspach 1 and 2 player maps
Ted is an odd designer, I like a lot of his early stuff, but I find that most of his recent releases are a little plain. The 1 and 2 player scales are, to say the least, challenging ones though, and I was pleased to try out his 4 new offerings.
The two solo maps, Barbados and Puerto Rico, both are serviceable though unspectacular. Puerto Rico is the more challenging map, especially on the high difficulty level because you need to use up half of your overall ships just delivering useless cubes. I think both of the maps suffer from predictable track building patterns and sameyness though. I anticipate getting a total of 5-10 plays on each before they collect dust. Not bad, but nothing exciting.
The two, 2 player maps are a study in contradictions. Jamaica is easily the worst 2 player map I've played...the thing is so restrictive that players only have about 3 track building rounds before they can't place any more tiles profitably. The patterns are scant, and I just didn't think that the map worked very well.
The St. Lucia map, however, is easily my favourite 2 player map, miles beyond Austria, which is my second favourite. St. Lucia's goods scheme makes for interesting, and different track building decisions and track is often abandoned, and complex tiles are often used to different ends. This is the only 2 player map that I have ever been actively excited about playing again, an excellent design.
Steam Brothers: Mexico
I've had this map around for a while, and I finally got it onto the table. Most of the Steam Brothers stuff is saved for my gaming with less experienced groups, as I find the rules changes too gentle and the maps too expansive for the most part. Mexico's new rule, Nationalization, is an interesting one though, so I had some high hopes for this one.
In terms of play, the role, whereby a player's link is appropriated by the government, and they are paid out money equal to its building cost is not as evil as I anticipated. The fact that anyone can run over it for income essentially means that rather than tightening the system up, the role actually softens it because you can build to exited out areas if you simply take the role. Losing your track to the role didn't seem all that bad either.
The map thus is a solid middle of the road one, and doesn't come close to challenging China as the best Steam Brothers map.
I will cover the first Soviet Union play in my next entry...
The quick run through of the non-Soviet stuff:
The new Ted Alspach 1 and 2 player maps
Ted is an odd designer, I like a lot of his early stuff, but I find that most of his recent releases are a little plain. The 1 and 2 player scales are, to say the least, challenging ones though, and I was pleased to try out his 4 new offerings.
The two solo maps, Barbados and Puerto Rico, both are serviceable though unspectacular. Puerto Rico is the more challenging map, especially on the high difficulty level because you need to use up half of your overall ships just delivering useless cubes. I think both of the maps suffer from predictable track building patterns and sameyness though. I anticipate getting a total of 5-10 plays on each before they collect dust. Not bad, but nothing exciting.
The two, 2 player maps are a study in contradictions. Jamaica is easily the worst 2 player map I've played...the thing is so restrictive that players only have about 3 track building rounds before they can't place any more tiles profitably. The patterns are scant, and I just didn't think that the map worked very well.
The St. Lucia map, however, is easily my favourite 2 player map, miles beyond Austria, which is my second favourite. St. Lucia's goods scheme makes for interesting, and different track building decisions and track is often abandoned, and complex tiles are often used to different ends. This is the only 2 player map that I have ever been actively excited about playing again, an excellent design.
Steam Brothers: Mexico
I've had this map around for a while, and I finally got it onto the table. Most of the Steam Brothers stuff is saved for my gaming with less experienced groups, as I find the rules changes too gentle and the maps too expansive for the most part. Mexico's new rule, Nationalization, is an interesting one though, so I had some high hopes for this one.
In terms of play, the role, whereby a player's link is appropriated by the government, and they are paid out money equal to its building cost is not as evil as I anticipated. The fact that anyone can run over it for income essentially means that rather than tightening the system up, the role actually softens it because you can build to exited out areas if you simply take the role. Losing your track to the role didn't seem all that bad either.
The map thus is a solid middle of the road one, and doesn't come close to challenging China as the best Steam Brothers map.
I will cover the first Soviet Union play in my next entry...
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