Games Club wrapup

[avram]

I picked up a copy of Loco at the Compleat Strategist in the afternoon. We played two games of it, one with four players and one with three, and for some reason it didn’t seem as much fun as Quandary, even though I’m pretty sure the mechanics are identical. Maybe the components (Quandary has really nice tiles) do matter.

I won Puerto Rico for the first time, with 49 points, beating out bigscary by just one point. I’d started off strongly, then foundered for much of the game unable to ship anything during captain phases. I pulled ahead by getting a buttload of money and being able to buy the two large buildings that yielded the best bonus points for my situation.

Nicht Die Bohn is marketed as yet another Bohnanza spin-off, though it really isn’t. The reviewer got it right who said “This is not a game where you have a huge amount of control, but it is one that often offers plenty of scope for group malice”. There’s a lot of second-guessing involved.

We finished off with a couple of quite intense games of Call My Bluff, then walked down to Big Nick’s and introduced one of the newbies to the pure creamy liquid ecstasy that is garlic soup.

Comments

Puerto Rico Expansion

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

Have you tried Rio Grande's expansion rules for Puerto Rico?

If the aqueduct gets into play, you'll need to think hard about shutting out the players who have it during Captain phases, I didn't and got shut out quickly. The forest units are handy if you want to keep someone who's building a coffee roaster or tobacco barn from supplying those from the plantations. Since you choose between original and new buildings at the start of the game, be prepared, you may not have a wharf as an option to get around blocked boats during the Captain phase.

Re: Puerto Rico Expansion

[avram]

We’ve played with the new buildings a few times, but last night it was just original pieces.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

If you've got a lot of money and your shipping is getting tangled up and not going anywhere, buy a wharf. That's what they're there for. If you can use one in two different shipping phases, you'll probably make more VPs off of it than off of a bonus building (which generally earn 7 bonus VP).

Also, Nicht die Bohn is not marketed as a Bohnanza spin-off, at least not by the publisher. It doesn't use the same art or logotype, and Bohnanza is mentioned nowhere on the packaging.

[avram]

By the time I realized that I needed one, and had money to buy it, they were already gone. I’d spent my money on a university, which wound up being a damn good choice, wouldn’t have won without it.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

The last time I tried a shipping-heavy strategy, I set out to buy a Wharf as quickly as possible. (This was in a five-player game, where the ships are particularly likely to be inaccessible.) It was, not coincidentally, the first game I won in a long, long time.

The university presumably won you the game because it allowed you to instantly activate the two large buildings you bought, thus bringing you lots of bonus VPs, right?

[avram]

Yup. And several other buildings I’d bought after the university. I think it was the fourth or fifth building I bought, and I filled my city.