I tried Eric Lang’s The Godfather this weekend. It… is totally a Lang game. So, the novel mechanism this time is a combination of area control and worker placement. The board is divided into “turfs.” Each turf has at least one “business” in it. Each business has two rewards, a “front door” reward which is usually greater, and a “back door reward.” Now, players will have 2 types of workers, thugs and family members. A thug you can place right on top of a business and get the front door reward. However, there are spots on the map between two or more turfs. This is where you can place family members and get ALL back door rewards from all adjacent turf businesses. When the round is over, a player with the most figures in a turf (and family members are in all adjacent turfs) gets a control marker there. Now, if any opposing thugs go to a business, you get the front door benefit as well… though you will probably loose control going into next round.
Mostly players are trying to get resources such as guns or liquor or dirty money to complete job cards. Completing a job typically gives a money reward and an ability reward. Those ability can be helpful to you, such as taking another action, or they can really mess with other opponents. The latter is why I don’t think I liked the game, or most Lang games I’ve played. Also, the free actions you can get from control gives the game a “leach” off of other players aspect to it, which I’ve not enjoyed in games like Concordia.
There is more going on. Money is VP, but only if you “bank it.” Banking it is an action you take on the board, or can be a reward for certain jobs. There is also an auction for “help” in between rounds using banked money. End of each round has a hand limit, etc. I don’t watch many movies, and the Godfather trilogy is in that long list of movies I haven’t seen so I can’t tell you how well it represents the theme. Honestly, it felt more Al Capone Chicago turf wars the New York Mafioso, but that is a subtle difference. I suppose if you liked Blood Rage, area control, and worker placement you will like this one.
Also played for the first time: Clank in Space. The guy teaching was a little slow on rules, but overall I think it learned enough from the first Clank to be the better game. It is a bit more complicated, with the needing to place to hack cubes on the board in two different modules, but this is ultimately better than the “be second most aggressive player” of the first game. Plus, the game is more openly a parody of famous science fiction properties. I don’t think anyone who disliked the original will be won over by this one, nor did I like it enough to buy it for myself, but a solid game I enjoyed.
Blood Rage is one of my favorite games and after 5 plays I think The Godfather is totally forgettable, so I disagree. I’m not a fan of the “take-that” nature of a lot of the job actions, but I think if they were actually exciting and dramatic moments it might’ve been acceptable. Instead, a car-bomb goes off that puts two thugs and a family member in the Hudson and all the affected players go “eh”. I don’t feel particularly excited about anyone’s actions in The Godfather, even my own. I found it really disappointing, the first Eric Lang game I’ve played that totally fell flat for me.
I played Blood Rage again this weekend and although I taught the game to 3 new players I still managed to come in 3rd out of 4. There’s a lot of things I find compelling about the game and yet I completely suck at it. OTOH, I don’t seem to be able to stop. Blood Rage, I wish I could quit you.
My wife achieved her personal goal Fri night as the Scoundrel and was the first of the 4 of us to retire in Gloomhaven. Jealous!! She’ll start her new character next time though she’ll drop down to level 2 (from 4) due to the town’s prosperity level. I’ve had a lot of fun as the Tinkerer but I’ll be ready to move on to something else when my time comes.
Mondo edition of The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31 will go on sale in a few minutes, it’s a limited edition run of the game. I’m intrigued but probably not $120 intrigued.
Three of my gaming buddies own Gloomhaven. None have yet played it. We have just lined up a regular 4 player group night with the intention to play through legacy games we don’t get to play with our normal, drop in drop out mixed numbers gaming group.
Having watched the Rahdo Runs Through of Gloomhaven, I have not been so keen or excited to play a game in . . . . . memory! I don’t have any time or inclination to play a full on role playing game but wow, the setting reminds me of my first ever CRPG and pen and paper D&D setting - Pool of Radiance. City in the middle of hostile borderland territory, a group of heroes as the hope for the city to survive and thrive . . . .
Curses though, we cannot get started until the boss of one of our gamers returns from climbing Everest. Damn you, big mountain!
The guy kind of used his Kickstarter updates like an online journal. He probably would have been better off keeping his updates a more concise and less frequent. Having said that, even for a second printing, his delivery is still pretty close to the estimate. It’s not years off or anything.
I am still waiting for my stickers, but that’s not him.
I wonder if they fixed the campaign book or the map tiles. I’m never able to assemble the maps exactly like they are in the book. They’re always slightly off.
Supposedly there have been a bunch of fixes to that stuff but I can’t compare and contrast until my updated materials arrive, and they’re quite understandably the lowest priority for shipping.
Just put a pre-order down with my local store for a copy of Fallout the Board Game (which looks like a blast), Twilight Imperium 4th Edition (I have never owned a TI game), and Gloomhaven, which the guy showed two copies being shipped to him from his distributor, and one of them is now ear marked for me. I’m super excited for all of them!
