Review by Doug Garrett of Garrett’s Games and Geekiness Podcast
Designer: Stephan Feld
Artists: Julien Delval and Harald Lieske
Publisher: Alea
Players: 2-4
Ages: 12+
Time: 30-90 minutes (more like 120 with 4 & new players)
Times Played: 6 (2 with 2, 2 with 3, 2 with 4)
I am on record as a game player who tends to look upon dice with a high degree of suspicion. The phrase many employ is “dice hate me” and I have to agree. Games that rely on dice often get mired in painful luck-driven aspects and last far too long given their randomness. So what am I doing reviewing a dice-based game that lists as its game length 30-90 minutes, but often goes longer than that? And will I lose credibility when, unlike some crankier Opinionated Gamers, I say that I enjoy Stephan Feld’s latest Alea release? Let’s hope not, but you can be the judge.
The game is made up of a central board onto which a multitude of small hex tiles are placed each round. (I’m using terminology I would use to describe the game, as the rules awkwardly invoke the word ‘phase’ to describe what I’m calling a round). Twenty-five square Goods tiles are also selected from the game’s 42 available, and placed into stacks of 5 that correspond to each of the five rounds. Each player then receives three Goods from those remaining, along with a player mat (more on this momentarily), one coin (or Silverling), 1-4 workers depending on turn order, a castle (dark green hex) for an initial starting tile, and dice and playing pieces in his/her color.
The individual player mats establish a player’s ‘estate’ and work as a repository for the hex and Goods tiles one acquires over the course of the game. Thirty-seven hexes are grouped together to make one’s estate on the right side of the mat. The hexes are multi-colored and match (or match for the most part – more on this later) the colors of the various hexes available on the main board. There are four #1 mats in the box, but every mat is 2-sided; there are nine different configurations of the hexes available in the game, and these vary markedly. This variety expands the game’s possibilities as different boards require different strategies for scoring. Each of the colored hexes has a corresponding die face within it. One’s initial goods are grouped by color in the three holding spaces in the upper left of the player mat, and there are spots to hold money and used dice, as well as player aid information about the wide variety of hex tile actions.
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Goodbye to an Ideal Gamer
By: Kris Hall
The Appalachian Gamers are saying good-bye to Charlie Davis who is getting married and moving away. And while I have nothing but best wishes for Charlie, I can’t help but feel that our gaming group is going to miss his presence. To me, Charlie Davis is the kind of gamer we all want in our groups, and that–if we have any class–we all want to be.
Charlie’s first virtue is that he is friendly. He is as cordial to the latest newcomer as he is to his oldest friends. In fact, if I were to judge solely from Charlie’s behavior, I would have a hard time figuring out who were his old friends and who were mere acquaintances. Charlie manages to be welcoming to newcomers without glad-handing or much altering his behavior. He just seems to genuinely enjoy meeting new people. And it doesn’t matter the age of newcomer; he will talk to young kids as readily as an experienced gamer. Continue reading →
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