I played Corleone’s Empire last night and I really liked it. It’s funny how sometimes it takes you a while to understand the types of games you like, but apparently I am a big fan of worker placement/dudes on a map games.
The mechanics are solid. It plays a little like Lords of Waterdeep with random buildings. I like you can mess with other players and kill off their dudes. The rule book is a little wonky and was hard to follow, so we ended up watching a “Watch it Played” video that worked out well.
I hadn’t played in a while, so I took on Sweden level 1 against the might of the Earth Spirit. It ended with the island covered in Swedes, but a last second incarnation of my spiritual might terrified the Euros off the island. Awesome. Imagining my massive Earth Avatar looming over the would be conquerors of the Dahan puts a big smile on my face :)
Had fun with a couple plays of Black Orchestra, but I’m worried that the replay value would get thin pretty quickly. Anyone with long term experience with the game like @tomchick who could clarify?
One thing that’s weird is that the special text on each space is supposed to be covered up by an item tile and you’re not supposed to be able to use or know the ability until you’ve explored the space and taken the item there. But the location texts are the same every game so there’s really no point to covering them because you’ll memorize them. Would’ve made a lot more sense if they had ability tiles that you randomized throughout the spaces every game.
Some of the conspirators seems ridiculously more useful than others. The one that gives you 3 free Dossier cards per turn is crazy broken, while the one that spends actions to raise motivations of other conspirators in his space is useless for a 2 player game.
So, uh, what a difference the 2nd Edition Robinson Crusoe game (and especially its rules) makes! Wow.
I originally owned the Zman Games copy of RC, but sold it to a friend after struggling to even grok the basic gameplay here, with rules that were–as Tom’s review on the front page suggests–horribly written.
I had heard from others however that Portal Games’ 2nd edition essentially “patched” the original to make a coherent, interesting, and fun (if still brutally difficult) game experience. I’m fine with brutally difficult. Thematically, the island should kill you! I just want to know why I died and to know I died while playing the game correctly.
And the new edition (which we played twice over the weekend) is terrific for that. The rules make sense, and reveal a game that actually is far more mechanically streamlined and direct than I had expected it to be. We had a lot of fun, failing at the Castaways scenario the first time, winning it the second. I’m going to try to carve out a few hours during the week this week to play another scenario solo.
Although @Brooksi really liked it, his review suggests replayability is not a strong point. But I haven’t played it myself.
I’ve been tempted by the Second Edition, because I love the idea of a desert island survival game that’s brutally difficult. And I like the gameplay mechanic where your decisions seed the deck of event cards. I probably would have bought the Second Edition by now, but… I tried the designer’s latest game, The First Martian and I think it’s pretty bad. Dry, tedious, none of the potential flavoring of Robinson Crusoe. It relies heavily on a companion app. Also, the rules are a mess again. So that’s made it easier to pass on the Second Edition.
But keep me posted after you’ve spent some solitaire time with Robinson Crusoe. I’ll be curious what you think.
Finally got around to playing it this weekend. I really like it, and it is a brain burner. The spirits are deliciously asymmetrical, and the different difficulty levels on the adversaries gives me the impression that the game has real potential to stay in the rotation.
I like Robinsoen Crusoe second edition. Enough to make me buy First Martians on its strengths. A decision I now deeply regret (dry as Mars, that game is)…
Played a 4 player game of Rising Sun. I love how much a difference the card sets make. This particular game was all about low honor. Lose honor to get great stuff. I was not able to collect a large set from battles mostly because what I needed did come out, but I was able to use Turtle Clan’s ability and having highest honor to rack up 18 points on the last round with 2 harvest tiles!
I’ve played both Robinson Crusoe, 2nd edition and First Martians. RC is a great game. One of my favorites. You really do feel as though you are on an island and it is out to get you, but your decisions can make the difference. I never played any edition prior to the current one, so I cannot compare them.
First Martians, though…Tom is too kind in his description. Seriously. Extremely fiddly. An app that should have made perfect sense thematically that does nothing but get in the way. All kinds of translation/grammatical issues both in the app and the cards. And the campaigns, that everyone says “oh the scenarios aren’t good, but TRY THE CAMPAIGNS”…yeah…HATED the first one…HATED IT. Then, in the 2nd one, when the Victory Conditions changed early on…changed so that I had two separate, mandatory, yet mutually exclusive conditions…I finally said “That’s enough, I’m done”. Boxed it and set on my shelf…never to leave again. I won’t even sell it because I wouldn’t do that to another human being.
Just played Lords of Waterdeep for the first time. Seemed pretty good, but I’m still a novice with worker placement games. I own Voyages of Marco Polo and MP: Energy Empire, but so far only played Energy Empire, and that only once.
I had a good time with Waterdeep, though I think I liked Energy Empire a bit more. Hard to articulate why after just a single game with each.
Waterdeep is pretty well liked around here though, right? I know I’ve heard it mentioned for ages, but I didn’t pay attention since I hadn’t played it for myself yet.
Lords of Waterdeep is my favorite game besides Godfather, both very very thematic. Lords of Waterdeep (with the expansion) has more legs, but Godfather has more interesting choices to make. Haven’t tried Energy empire yet, have to check that one out.
If you like Lords of Waterdeep, check out Champions of Midgard. It is a similar type of fantasy/adventure themed worker placement game. Lords of Waterdeep is mostly pretty abstract in its mechanics, but in Midgard you’re actually building up an army and rolling dice to attack monsters. I went to a board game con with a bunch of friends over the weekend and it was one of the big hits with our group.
The Godfather, mentioned above, is also a great worker placement game with a more aggressive PvP bent.
I appreciate Energy Empire more as well despite the theme of Waterdeep being a bit more appealing for me.
Waterdeep lacks dramatic moments and build-up I’m looking for. In Energy Empire, your turns get progressively bigger and more grand as you get more buildings set up. There’s also a really nice pacing to big moves where you often need to take a few small moves in between. When you pull off a huge turn using a ton of energy and workers in a single turn, it’s extremely satisfying.
I think Waterdeep is a much more even experience. Finishing quests is a little exciting, but nothing really punches in a dramatic way in that game. I think it lacks drama. The dice and combat in Champions of Midgard seems like a clever way to combat it. I also prefer The Godfather for its dramatic shoot-outs and crazy ally abilities. I still like Energy Empire the most. Its build-up is so exciting. I can’t wait for my next turn. And I love how the theme is executed throughout.
Russian Railroads is my personal favorite worker placement game. It also has an extremely dramatic engine build-up (with players shooting into the 400 point range in most games). I like it most because I think it best manages limiting options in a very strategic way. You’ll want to find a strategy that isn’t competing with any other players to succeed. So you have to watch everyone carefully, understand what they’re going for, and tailor your strategy to stay out of their way. I find it the most interesting execution of the worker placement blocking tension.
