Macao, the Continued Revival

My initial review of Macao was about 3 years ago. I wasn't sure that I liked it - the unknown deck of buildings and people, the fickleness of the dice...since then, we've played dozens of games.

And I still don't know if I like the game. How's that for strange?

It's still what I consider a "light" game. It has issues if players bog down themselves/others/the game with analysis. There's no clean method of choosing cubes, except for taking the unintuitive step outside the mechanics to write down the cubes you take. Players who are delaying can change their decisions based on early choosers, and early choosers look awkward when they realize a better arrangement...mostly when other people have started making choices.

The randomness of the dice can be mitigated by the 6 "dark tokens" aka wild cards. There are buildings and people that can sometimes offer some flexibility, but it's not common and/or not easy to build....er..."activate".

The buildings/people stack is random, and has a huge effect on the game - if you are in the position to draft the card you need. And if you aren't going earlier in the turn order, you risk other people co-opting your strategy, drafting it "because they have the cubes for it", or in a more competitive game....defensively drafting it so you (or others) don't get it. If you defensively draft too often, it'll burn you. Depending on your group and number of players, it can vary a lot.

I wouldn't mind doing a variant where each player gets to secretly view 10 cards at the start of the game, and discard 2. You still wouldn't know *when* it shows up, as far as which turn - you might not be in first, it might show up in the final turn, etc. Definitely adding some skill and longer strategy to the game...a lot of Macao is short-term thinking.

Overall, it gets play because it's quick to teach, with elegant rules. And someday I'll be able to decide if it's good. ;)