Archipelago - Exploiting paradise one wooden cube at a time

I’m surprised we never had a dedicated thread to this game(if we have my apologies. I couldn’t find it). Considering its depth and intricate systems it’s still worth talking about.

Well, it’s still worth talking about for me anyway. I never got as much play as I wanted with Archipelago. That’s common for a guy that likes Eklund, Wallace, Feld and a bunch of other designers of such rich and at times intimidating games. I am determined to change that with Archipelago though and I drafted my fiancée into a game over the weekend.

Two players really isn’t the way to experience this. I was mostly just using that game to get the rhythm down. Reminding myself when to tally the unhappy workers, resolve crisis, and fiddle with evolution cards. I was also reminding myself of what a wonderfully detailed game it is.

For those who haven’t played or seen it my apologies. Archipelago is an exploration and exploitation game about colonialism in places like French Polynesia or other similar locals. It marries a lot of euro game concepts together in a expertly crafted product.

You can tell straight away there’s a lot of stuff to it. Physically it’s intimidating with all the bits and boards. Hey! Look, not one but two markets. But it all works well together and once you take it around the block and get used to it the game drives like a Ferrari(Do they really drive that well? I haven’t… never-mind). When a player has settled down, stopped screaming and has started to put together a strategy they’ll see nice little opportunities. If you notice that the fish crisis is going to come up again and you’ve got a lot of boats out. Why not go fishing and build or use a port. That way as long as you were going to have to spend a fish resource you might as well have sold it to the market first. You’ve turned crisis mitigation into business as usual. Sure you won’t always know what is coming up. But that’s just one of countless ways the systems compliment each other. They really do. Games will often have multiple systems working in concert but Archipelago manages to get a veritable orchestra in perfect tune.

Well I just wanted to bring this one up again and I haven’t even really begun to touch on all this game has.

Tom M

I think I’ve played it about 5 times at this point. It’s a very interesting experience and I also feel like I haven’t played it enough to peg it down. It’s so hard to get to the table. You need at least 3 players, a big chunk of time, and preferably all experienced players because it’s a time consuming and exhausting game to explain (not to mention that everyone’s first game will be filled entirely with just trying to grapple what’s happening in it).

As much as I like it, the scoring really doesn’t work for me. I love the sudden and often surprising way the game ends (big fan of games where it’s unclear when it will end). But the scoring afterwards feels pretty frustrating. In our medium length game, we can usually get about 50% certain of what the game scoring conditions are, but it still feels a bit like a crapshoot and you can often fall behind in a scoring condition such that you’ll never be able to catch up on it. As such, we’ve run into situations where one or two players no longer feel like they’re in the running for winning and don’t have any path to get back on track.

I think this is one of the very rare games I’ve played where the experience of just playing the game outshines the competition, so whether the competition works isn’t entirely important. Even if you’re not going to win, just the process of buying cards and exploiting the environment and markets as much as possible is pretty interesting. Developing the narrative of your people and how they interact with the archipelago is quite neat. If you’re doing really bad you can always push the game towards the mutual lose condition anyway which can give a pretty big econ boost and force other players to sacrifice actions to save the Archipelago from rebellion.

I don’t know when I’ll get a chance to play again, but looking forward to it.

Agreed this is hard to get to the table as often as I’d like. I got the solo expansion cards and used it as a way to keep myself familiar with the mechanics between full games. Even the solo games can be engaging in that “developing the narrative of your people” way that porous describes, although since each of the (numerous) solo scenarios basically determine your victory condition and the whole tilt of the game (trading, religion, development cards, etc.), I do end up missing the process of adapting to different victory conditions–and the victory conditions you are guessing the other players have.

Personally when I played this I really wasn’t a fan of how it tried to square the circle with making it a semi-cooperative game. From what I gather most people that seem to love this game enjoy it from a more roleplaying perspective or something, but I mostly enjoy tabletop games for the competition so it didn’t really work for me at all.

Definitely has some interesting systems though. I just wish they were worked into a game I liked.

I think Republic of Rome did semi-coop better because there actually is a mechanism to win the game when someone tanks it(rebellion).

I think the semi cooperative aspect of the game is brilliantly implemented. It makes it into a cost you have to pay in order to continue playing, in a way. A tax that everyone has to plan around.

Really wish I had more friends living nearby that enjoy this game as much as I do.

I don’t think of it as semi cooperative as much as Archipelago, and to a greater extent Republic of Rome, are mostly competitive. Hepcat is right that there is a tax that the players collectively have to pay to not all lose. An apparently behind player, or a player making a good argument as to why they’re apparently behind can leverage that to make the tax a little more progressive, apparent winners paying more. Careful not to leverage so much as to get too much blowback and ire from your fellow players though.

Tom M

I’ve probably gotten this to the table maybe 20 times, often through bullying, cajoling, wheedling, bribery, extortion, or some combination thereof. It’s probably my favorite boardgame.

One of the many things I love about Archipelago is how different every play sessions is. In any given game, you don’t know what systems are going to be important, or what tools will be available, or what victory conditions will determine the win. Because of the way the scoring works and the way the evolution cards come into play, one game might be all about building churches, whereas another is all about pineapple farming, and yet another is all about managing the domestic market, and still yet another is a dance of death right at the edge of a native insurrection, and yet another is about money, and yet another is about something crazy like that lottery card. There’s a delicious uncertainty about what’s going to happen anytime we’re unpacking the box for another game, and it lasts from the first turn up until the moment someone flips has “game end” condition and the scoring begins.

In that regard, it reminds me of A Study in Emerald (which cards for which agents/assets will come into play?), City of Remnants (what buildings will form the economic engine?), Troyes (which role cards will be used on each building?), Pax Porfiriana (you might go an entire game with nary a cattle ranch!), and a few other games. Is that an established mechanic? Where the systems in play and the tools you’ll use are variable from game to game? What would you call that?

-Tom

I don’t know what to call it but a lot of games embrace that chaos. To different effects. Even Eclipse belongs on that list. Sure you can get radically unfair sectors and the techs you want might come out just in time to be gobbled up by someone else. Oh yea and Nations too, or Through the Ages if your one of those people ;) I’m ok with that chaos. Making the best of a situation is a great way to challenge skill. As long as there isn’t so much chaos that it keeps the game system itself from working. I think Archipelago does a great job of that. Eclipse, A Study in Emerald and Nations get picked on for being in that too chaotic to work category although I think they do and are good games. And hey there’s still Greenland to play.

Tom M

For me, that’s when the fun begins. :)