February 7, 2012

Participants: Laurie, Jon, Ellis, Abraham, Ofer

We had pre=arranged to play Age of Industry again.

Age of Industry

Abraham 28, Laurie 23, Ofer 21, Jon 20, Ellis 14

We played on New England again. Last time I played with heavy rails and iron production with the occasional ship, port, and cotton. This time I thought I would try the coal since the opportunity presented itself. This was not a good move (Ellis also tried it, and as you can see we both came in last).

New England’s map is biased against coal. That’s the first problem. The second problem is that the point gain is too minimal; even level three coal buildings only provide 3 points on completion. This would change if there were coal shortages, and you might suck up the money from the coal shortage and net an additional point or even two. But not on this board. We only develop iron shortages. Unless we’re group-thinking too much.

The best point givers are third level ships and crates. But crates are a big problem (again, on this board), because you have to ensure that they get delivered by the end of the game. If you work toward this carefully then you can do ok, which is what Abraham did (maybe unintentionally until mid-game).

It’s a clear mathematical progression toward victory: spend X/5 points to net Y/5 points. Not too difficult, except that a) other players are blocking you, b) you’re subject to the mercy of the cards you pick, and c) the end game. It’s the last that is most frustrating. The game’s end can be rushed; on its own this is not a bad thing for this game, not as bad as it is in other games; it has been problematic for Ellis and Abraham who, in both of our five player games, struggled with the timing changes from having previously played four player game. Abraham overcame this problem, as you can see.  No, the real problem with this is that a king-making issue arises at the end, as it did in our game.

Mid-game, anything you build will pay out, eventually. Yes, earlier is generally better than later, but not much better. End game, however, a building may not pay out at all, and this can often be at the whim of a third player who chooses which building belonging to two other players will pay out, thereby swinging the score by 3 or 4 points. In a game that plays to 20 something points, this guarantees a change in scoring position.

This could be avoided. You could have all buildings pay out at end game; even half payment would be useful. Another solution would be for buildings that are built over to also score for players: this opens up new strategic paths, and generally increases the end game scores, making the non-payout from buildings less of a problem at end game, percentage wise. Still another solution would be to force which port you use, the same way that you force with coal and iron source you use, with ties going to turn order (thus removing the king-making element and turning it into a planning element).

Even with that little problem, the game is still fun math and route planning and feels satisfying while not taking too long.

Finca

Abraham 62+, Laurie 62, Ofer 42

Ellis and I left and these guys played a short game of Finca.