It's a space game - great!
It's a deck-building game - overdone!
Card games are awesome because they are pretty inexpensive to make. They also have to be innovative to stick out, but familiar enough that you don't feel like you're learning all of the rules by heart...it could flow!
I wish it had been better named. Eminent Domain exists as a specific phrase in the US system, where the state can take over property if it's in the best interests of...well, whatever. The game has NOTHING to do with it.
It was produced as a Kickstarter game for 2-4 players, and the second (larger?) printing is in stores now. You can still pick up some of the promos from the manufacturer - I found a store on ebay. $5 gets you 9 planets.
The game's premise is that as you go in a direction, your deck evolves in that direction as well. Research a lot? You'll get more research cards in your deck, thus pushing you to research more, because that's what you'll be drawing.
You start off with a basic deck - 2 Produce/Consume cards (which have almost no value in the beginning), 2 Colonize cards, 1 Military card, 2 Research cards, 2 Survey cards, and 1 Politics card (which gets changed into one of those previous types early.)
Each card in your deck has an Action listed on it, as well as one or two symbols from the basic cards. You get to play one as an Action to start your turn, and then take one of those five basic cards from the stock as a Role. So for example, you could play Survey, where its Action is "Draw 2 cards". You can also play Survey as your Role, taking the card from the center. To boost that Role, you can also discard cards from your hand to expand what Survey does for you...in this case, look at more possible planets.
Your turn ends, discarding all of the cards you picked up this turn, discard any number of cards from your hand, then draw to your hand limit. (Or just discard down to your hand limit.)
To add some interaction, the game also adds this: whatever your Role you chose for your turn, players can either do the same Role (with slightly less options) or draw an extra card. In a 2-player game, there isn't much to it...multiplayer adds some more choices.
Research is pretty awesome. As in, super great. When you buy a research card, you put it into your hand...helping you set up for next turn. At higher research levels, you can even buy cards that are worth extra VP.
In general, for your first several games, I'd recommend going either Military or Colonize for your method of taking over planets. Simplify your deck by getting rid of the ones you don't plan on using, as well as getting rid of Produce/Consume cards in the early game...you can get them again later. Plan on surveying up to 4-5 planets, and researching cards that give you some extra kick. Producing/consuming goods is complex, and difficult to manage when you have survey/research/colonize cards in your way as well.
Victory points come from consuming goods, settling planets, and adding special research cards worth VP to your deck. The game ends as a stack or two is gone, or when the VP chips are out.
Overall, it's a fair game. There are bits that don't feel like they flow for me...maybe it's just that I haven't played the same similar games to this. We've played by incorrect rules a couple of times (the designer haunts BGG, so there's a good chance to find an answer)...but I'll say this - if you answer someone's question regarding their confusion about the rules - IT ISN'T THEIR FAULT.
[design rant] As a designer or developer for a game, you have insight into the choices that went into the process of the game. YOU know that colonize was broken, and that you went back to the rulebook and changed one sentence to reflect a new difference between colonize and other cards. Saying something like "I wrote a concise and accurate rulebook, thus I didn't need to explain x" doesn't fly. You don't get to brush off their concern as if they're a lesser being. (And this wasn't even a question I asked on the 'geek.) This is a pet peeve of mine - you, the reader, don't need to embrace it.
After 15-20 games, I still feel like I haven't figured out the game. Somewhat refreshing, but irritating - I don't feel like I am playing the game well. (The Utopian planets from the promos are...really useful to the game overall. Much better flow.)
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Game Review: Lords of Waterdeep
We've been playing several new games lately, but the current one I'll be chatting about today is...Lords of Waterdeep.
It's a worker-placement game for 2-5 players put out by Wizards of the Coast. Yes - Wizards makes a non-roleplaying game, and it's a Euro-worker placement game. Two tastes that go...great together?
When I've been teaching this game, I've been offering several ways of learning. First, story. Second, mechanics. It's more about how your fellow players learn, opposed to being only one way to see the game.
The overall story is that you and your fellow players are Lords of Waterdeep. In the roleplaying game, the identities are hidden...in this game, it's basically a hidden bonus to make the end-game more exciting. You take a color for your agents - they've taken 5 different guild-like groups from the world...it doesn't have an impact on the game...just flavor.
Depending on the number of players, you start with 2-4 agents. There are 8 turns - each turn, the starting player places a single agent (worker) into a space...no one else can go there. It goes clockwise, with players continuing to place agents until they run out, at which point you collect the workers up again to play again next round.
The agents run around Waterdeep - picking up different assortments of adventurers (orange for fighters, black for rogues, purple for wizards, white for clerics)...as well as gathering money, quests, and Intrigue cards (aka chance cards). You can also purchase more buildings, so that there are more places to go in the game - the person who purchased the building gets some kind of perk when a different player puts an agent there.
The game is fine for 2 players - the intrigue cards are less powerful, but the flow is still good. The more players you add, the more value the intrigue cards have. (Do X, and everyone else does Y. When it just sabotages one player, not very tough. 4 others? quite good.)
It's not to say there aren't issues. Buildings are pretty good. Getting something from the bank every time another player uses your building is nice. One of the 11 different Lords you can draw gives you 6 bonus points for every building you control at game end...in a 2-player game, it's always a blowout. Even in 3-player, it was really good. The bonuses at the end of the game for the other Lords...lets say, Khelben Blackstaff. He gets 4 bonus points for each Arcana and Warfare sub-type quests he finishes. In practical terms, it's not that big of a difference. If you have the most points before counting bonuses, you'll probably keep your edge.
Recommended changes to balance your experience:
In 2-player, we drop the Mistress of the Buildings...whatever her name actually is. The person who draws her gets a bonus 2 points, and draws another Lord. We're thinking about dropping her bonus to 4-per-building for more than 2 players. We're also considering raising the bonuses for doing the quests that your Lord favors...6 bonus points per quest! This makes the game a lot more interesting - if you think Alice is getting bonuses for Skullduggery and Commerce, it's worth a little more effort to block her from getting them.
My girlfriend and I have probably played about 20 games of 2-player, and another 3-4 as 3-player games. 4-player...played once, I can kind of imagine 5 players. The game itself takes us 45 minutes, with the 4-player game being 75 minutes with 3 new players.
It's a worker-placement game for 2-5 players put out by Wizards of the Coast. Yes - Wizards makes a non-roleplaying game, and it's a Euro-worker placement game. Two tastes that go...great together?
When I've been teaching this game, I've been offering several ways of learning. First, story. Second, mechanics. It's more about how your fellow players learn, opposed to being only one way to see the game.
The overall story is that you and your fellow players are Lords of Waterdeep. In the roleplaying game, the identities are hidden...in this game, it's basically a hidden bonus to make the end-game more exciting. You take a color for your agents - they've taken 5 different guild-like groups from the world...it doesn't have an impact on the game...just flavor.
Depending on the number of players, you start with 2-4 agents. There are 8 turns - each turn, the starting player places a single agent (worker) into a space...no one else can go there. It goes clockwise, with players continuing to place agents until they run out, at which point you collect the workers up again to play again next round.
The agents run around Waterdeep - picking up different assortments of adventurers (orange for fighters, black for rogues, purple for wizards, white for clerics)...as well as gathering money, quests, and Intrigue cards (aka chance cards). You can also purchase more buildings, so that there are more places to go in the game - the person who purchased the building gets some kind of perk when a different player puts an agent there.
The game is fine for 2 players - the intrigue cards are less powerful, but the flow is still good. The more players you add, the more value the intrigue cards have. (Do X, and everyone else does Y. When it just sabotages one player, not very tough. 4 others? quite good.)
It's not to say there aren't issues. Buildings are pretty good. Getting something from the bank every time another player uses your building is nice. One of the 11 different Lords you can draw gives you 6 bonus points for every building you control at game end...in a 2-player game, it's always a blowout. Even in 3-player, it was really good. The bonuses at the end of the game for the other Lords...lets say, Khelben Blackstaff. He gets 4 bonus points for each Arcana and Warfare sub-type quests he finishes. In practical terms, it's not that big of a difference. If you have the most points before counting bonuses, you'll probably keep your edge.
Recommended changes to balance your experience:
In 2-player, we drop the Mistress of the Buildings...whatever her name actually is. The person who draws her gets a bonus 2 points, and draws another Lord. We're thinking about dropping her bonus to 4-per-building for more than 2 players. We're also considering raising the bonuses for doing the quests that your Lord favors...6 bonus points per quest! This makes the game a lot more interesting - if you think Alice is getting bonuses for Skullduggery and Commerce, it's worth a little more effort to block her from getting them.
My girlfriend and I have probably played about 20 games of 2-player, and another 3-4 as 3-player games. 4-player...played once, I can kind of imagine 5 players. The game itself takes us 45 minutes, with the 4-player game being 75 minutes with 3 new players.
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