[Brian,
Tuesday September 1, 2009 at 4:38pm]
Masters of Venice and Cities Initial Thoughts
- The economic engine works perfectly well
- That being said, it's gamey. (Prices goes up when you buy or sell at the Mercato? Shops raise how much they'll pay after they just bought some goods? And shops pay twice what the asking price down at the docks?)
- You really do need the cheat sheet.
- I like this, and suspect it will suffer from the standard Caylus/Puerto Rico/Indonesia/etc flaw in that a new player will just get crushed by an experienced player. That's the sign of a good game that will be hard pressed to reach 20 plays.
- Masters of Venice also suffers from the "Struggle of Nations" problem where your first turn presents you with a tough option (in this case an auction) before you have an idea of what anything is worth. As compared to a game like Puerto Rico, where your choices expand during the game.
Apparently Take it Easy smooth talked Carcassonne into having a few drinks and now, several years later, we have Cities. Cute kid.
Now why does the price go up no matter what happens at the Mercato? Well, any transaction (buy or sell) that goes on there, the shops will hear about, and will generate more interest from them.....so um...the money they are willing to spend on those resources goes up.
That's my story, and yes, I'm sticking to it.