Valerie Putman:  Great Lakes Games—Essen games played

This weekend I’m at a gaming event in Auburn, IN.  The goal of this event, for me, is always to play as many of the new Essen releases as possible.  I’ve listed the ones I’ve played so far (by the time this posts) from most to least favorite. 

Dominion Call me biased.  Call me a shill.  I don’t care.  I played this again this weekend (still getting used to playing with real cards instead of the prototype) and I still LOVE it.

Diamonds Club There are a lot of unique mechanisms (disguised at first by a few that seem like they will make the game “Goa light”) in this set collection game.  Players spend coins to take actions laid out on a grid.  Taking actions next to previously claimed actions will increase the cost.  Some of the actions will allow you to collect gems.  Others will improve your scoring or efficiency in specific areas.  Your goal is to fill your garden with ornaments (bought with gems), animals, and trees.  When one player completes their garden, all players score the value of their gardens to determine who is the most bedazzled.  While it seemed to be a bit on the lighter side than Goa, this is the game that had me thinking in the middle of the night of things I could have done differently.

Duck Dealer This one was neck and neck with Diamonds Club for second place.  Duck Dealer is an engine development (snowball) game—big surprise from Splotter!  In Duck Dealer you are far more likely to be using technologies developed by other players—so it is a LOT less multi-player solitaire than their other offerings.  Another interesting aspect is that most turns will be lightening short—you will simply collect the blue, yellow, and red action disks provided by your spacecraft.  But when you’re ready, you will take a turn using those disks (and keeping no more than 4 disks when the turn is over).  There are only 24 of these turns available—then the game ends.  You might have taken many small turns throughout the game and someone else might have taken only a few mega turns.  Trying to mentally plan the big turn is a ton of fun (if perhaps a bit brain burning).

Comuni Players build their communities and build up walls to fend off invasions.  Based on the Essen buzz I thought it was going to feel like Leonardo da Vinci, but I didn’t really see the similarities.  In fact, I have a hard time thinking of a good comparison game—which means it adds something new to the game collection.  I’m not sure if this will have lasting replay value, but I look forward to several more tries.

Le Havre I actually liked my first playing with 2-players better than my second playing with 4.  There were some turns when you only got to take one main action between end-of-round feeding and there was a lot of competition over the food sources.  I think I could improve my food engine, of course—so hopefully the next time I play with more than 2 I’ll again feel like I’m accomplishing something instead of spinning my wheels.

Via Romano This was my second play of this game of building roads to Rome.  For me, this falls into the really nice niche of shorter games that deliver the full board game experience (along with Portabello Market, Illium, and Aquedukt).  People who don’t like “filler boardgames” will likely find this too fluffy.

Steel Driver This train/stock game still adds something new to the genre—so train gamers rejoice.  Players bid for stock and then use their winning bids to extend the companies’ track networks.  This can earn you immediate financial rewards (which are victory points) but also connect the network up to markets that provide goods collected in the final round.  The majority stock holder controls the goods collection in that final round.  This is important when multiple companies connect to the same market—since there is only one cube available at each market.  Each company then earns rewards for each set of different goods collected (triangle scoring)—and pays this value out for each stock owned in the company (not just to the majority stock holder).  Same, but different—like a train game should be.

Imagination I had high hopes for this one based on the Essen preview and for me, it delivered.  This also falls into a category of games that I rate very highly but won’t appeal to everyone—speed puzzle games.  A card is flipped over with a number of red, blue, yellow, and green dots.  There are lines bisecting the grid and you have to race to claim one of the lines.  Once everyone does, you take turns lining a mirror up along your chosen axis and then you score pointes based on the number of dots you see on the card and in the mirror.  This was my second time playing and it’s a winner in my book.

Sylla Ystari has a history of solid gamer games.  Some (Caylus) I like better than others (Ys), but overall, I’ve been happy to move this line to “buy” without having to try first.  Ystari still falls into that category for me, but Sylla won’t be my favorite of their line.  It was good, but I think I liked Amyitis better.  I’ll have to play a few more times to make up my mind.

Planet Steam I was hoping for a cool Steam Punk game, but instead I got a perfectly fine economic engine game.  Nothing special, but nothing wrong with it either.

Cavum I’m going to have to play this one again.  I played a fairly attack heavy strategy (dynamite other people’s tunnels, place stations to block Prospector line, etc), which might have been a bit frustrating to some of the other players.  Dale played a city scoring strategy and won by a landslide.  I’m just not sure how the different options match up and whether or not it would typically be as mean a game as we played (or not because you don’t win that way).  But if you don’t like games where people have the option of blowing your stuff up and totally screwing with your long term plans, then I’d stay away from this one.

Mehr Oder Weniger This is another game in the speed/puzzle category.  Players turn over cards and race to count the shapes and colors present as instructed by the cards.  We played twice and that might be enough for a lifetime, but I feel like I already got my 6 Euro worth from the game.

Well, I’ll save the bottom of the list for next week….

Fluch der Mumie
Bloom
Byzanz
Lungarno
Ghost Stories
Space Alert
Boss Kito

I’d rather be gaming,
Valerie Putman

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