I trotted out two new titles Monday night. The first candidate -- Garden Gnome Society, a strange duck indeed. Players breed gnomes, hoping to get a new grand champion ... Gnomes are rated by hat color, from worthless Grey to the glorious Gold. Auctions form the core – a player can declare that they want to mate one of their gnomes (and perhaps attach some conditions, such as “only to a red-hatted gnome”). Each player then uses chits to list their ‘asking price’ (aka Stud Fee), and the active player lists the most they’ll pay. Lowest price wins, assuming it’s less than (or equal to) the active player’s maximum. Assuming a deal gets made, the two gnomes are placed in their love shack (I swear I am not making this up). At the end of the turn a deck of cards determines the quality of your bouncing baby gnome.
Alternately, a player can offer their pets’ services. That player lists a minimum price and all other players pick how much they are willing to pay. Basically the same auction, just reversed.
There are other actions you can take – sending gnomes to work the garden, entering them in competitions, selling them, trading up. Players go around the table until all gnomes have acted. And you have some random events. If someone breeds a golden gnome (or triples their starting money), then the game ends.
Cute idea; but auction, auction, auction. Our game took 6-7 rounds, with at least five auctions per round. All used the same format, for the same goods. Compare this to the great auction games. Modern Art uses different auction formats, for values of hard-to-pin down quality. Ra only has a single auction, but the value of the goods varies depending on what you’ve currently got. (Ditto Medici). The luck of breeding (and competitions) is high, and granular. Breed a red gnome and you could get a near-worthless brown or a near-perfect green. (In theory, the game could end on the second round). The alternate victory condition (money) could spice it up, but money is tight.
I keep thinking I’ve missed something: a rule or nuance. (On the other hand, maybe not). Garden Gnome Society feels incomplete and repetitive. Plodding, even. If I’ve got the rules right, then more differentiation may have helped. (Even something as simple as male and female gnomes would constrain breeding. Why not remove auctions and allow straight deal making?) I longed for a ‘take that’ aspect, but that would increase the length. I’m going to try this again, but I’m not optimistic.
I also (finally) played Candamir, my accidental acquisition. In this entry into the Settler’s ludography, you control a single character. You wander around the countryside collecting resources and ingredients. A bunch of destination tiles are put (face down) on the board. You can examined two of them, then pick one to head for (which may be one you didn’t look at). Then you get a deck of wilderness cards. These say things like “You can go North or South with no problem. If you go East you find some herbs. If you go west you have to fight a wolf.” You move, resolve an encounter. If you are at your destination, you claim it. Sometimes these are cards (ore, pelt, wood). The number of cards you can turn over depends on your stamina, which goes up to four.
Each player also has ratings in four areas (charisma, archery, fighting, & strength). These are used on the wilderness cards (if you move to a wolf, you’ll need to make an archery test). Finally, each character has two special skills ... some characters get extra moves in certain regions (the forester gets an extra move in the forest), others can trade with the bank at 2:1 (instead of the standard 3:1), or find ‘hidden’ herbs (on some adventure cards).
The destination tiles also award ‘experience’ which lets you raise your ratings, and you might get an item, which boosts them even further. Once you get back to the village, you can spend resources to buy the VP items ... but demands change. One villager may want a sword (costing a lumber and two ore). But once he has a sword he needs a chest, then a window for his hut. You can also spend ingredients (herbs, honey, mushrooms) to brew potions. These don’t earn VP directly, but are useful. [The mead potion lets you throw a party, which leaves everyone with more VP than you hung over and lose a point. A nice touch.] And each villager offers a different reward for getting them things (in addition to the VP). Three of them are “longest road” deals. The first player to get 3VP from Candamir gets a VP. One villager just gives out extra potions.
Finally, some wilderness cards cause you to find an adventure. There are always three adventures face up, and here you have to test your characteristics. Success is worth a resource (or experience) and you get to keep the card. Again, the cards act like “most soldiers” in the base game. Whoever gets 3 cards gets the “Hero” victory point, which only moves if someone exceeds it.
As always, it’s a race to 10 VP.
I haven’t mentioned trading. It exists, but it’s not nearly as critical as the base game. On the other hand, you can trade resources, items, potions and ingredients, which gives flexibility. In our first game, trading didn’t happen often, but perhaps that was a mistake.
Candamir, despite being set on Catan, differs significantly from Settlers. It’s easy to call it inferior – Settlers is the 800 lb Gorilla of Euros, still beating its chest to this day. Candamir moves in a new direction. It’s more of a ‘second order’ game. You don't interact directly with your opponents often, you are really just racing to fulfill tasks. The timing of trades matters, but this isn’t primarily about trading. You have to get a feel for the adventure deck, and time the VP purchases (to avoid hangovers, and not give other players opportunities).
Right now its novel, I may play occasionally, but its not gripping. I worry that playing with four will just add time with little extra joy, but who knows? I don’t see me playing this often.
[Note – I was playing with the ‘revised’ tile set. I’m told that the basic tile set left people too resource poor and drags the game out. Since I have examined both sets, I can easily agree. Play with the new tile set.]
Kevin W.