Following Up ...
Regarding Qwirkle ... it may have one more level of expertise than I thought. You can set up plays to block Qwirkles ("Bingos" in scrabble, earning a bonus for long plays) and tile tracking plays a role, but as it is (to my mind) a filler I doubt I'll ever make the effort during play to do much beyond score as many points as possible.
Our second game of small world had a high variance between scores, so that's good. I still feel that the same criticism of Vinci (you just pound on the leader) is still there in Small World (you just pound on the perceived leader). In a strong group, the difference diminishes. To whit, in this game I lost 6 provinces to Berserking Ratmen (Aaiiiee) on the final turn, and lost by ... 2 points. So, kudos on proper assessment of the leader board to all involved. I like that this is smaller and faster, but think its a bit too small. I'd like a few more races/abilities. I'd like a game to have maybe 3-4 civs per player. Also, you definitely want a starting auction for player order, I think. There are some brutal combinations and many mediocre ones.
Finally played a four player Le Havre. I liked the new buildings (The arts center and storehouse) that aren't used in the 2-3 player games. I keep seeing arguments about how there are multiple loan paths to victory, and all I can say is that I've yet to encounter it. Yeterdays game had me get up to 8 loans quickly, take a ninth loan reluctantly (and get mildly hosed because an entry fee kept me from getting a 10th loan when I really wanted it), and then earn ~90 Florins from two shipments (mainly Coke and steel) to pay everything off. I think I need to emphasize to new players that you want to build powerful buildings, valuable goods and ships, and feeding your people is definitely your lowest priority. I'm ready for more variability .... in addition to buildings, maybe a mini-deck of "How the world works" cards that change a rule (before setup). Off the top of my head — roll a d6:
- Urban Renaissance — Flip up two special buildings at the start of the game.
- Poor Urban Planning — Deal the buildings into three piles as normal, but only partially sort. Make sure that buildings 1-10 are first, 11-20 and next, and 21-30 are last, but do not sort inside those groups.
- Credit Crunch — At the start of the game, roll a d6 and set it on the loan number. Any loan taken beyond that only provides 3 Fl instead of 4 Fl.
- Credit Crisis — Interest payments equal 1/2 the number of loans you have, rounded up. [Perhaps this should be 1/3rd].
- Dark Ages — After dealing out the standard buildings, randomly remove one building from the middle stack. It just won't be built. [Do not remove Brickworks, but anything else is fair game]
- Financing Burden — Any player with 2+ loans is considered to have one less "(Marketplace triggering building)" symbol. Any player with 4+ loans is considered to have one less "Fishing" symbol. Any player with 6+ loans is considered to have one less "Hammer" symbol. These effects are cumulative. [Numbers may not go negative].
You get the idea. Just tweak a base rule for some variability. Obviously hitting loans is an easy idea.
I'm also ready to tweak a few buildings:
- Cokery — No money for conversion.
- Tannery — Increase limit to 8.
- Brickworks — No reprocessing brick to brick.
(The cokery is my effective fix to the colliery, as well). I think this is justified because Coke ships for huge amounts and triples your energy. Getting 20 Coal, converting to Coke, and shipping 18 of it (using 2 to pay costs) still gets you 90 Fl, down from 110 Fl. But if you'd only shipped 9 of it, you'd get 45 Fl, down from 65 Fl.
I increase the Tannery because converting Hides to Leather doesn't give you food (like the Smokehouse or Bakery), all it does is give you a shippable good. This way you can get enough leather to support 2-3 ships at once.
