I picked up steam as an excuse to finally guilt my friends into playing a train game with me. Railrood Tycoon sat, lovingly sorted and baggied, for months without a single play. Finally Steam came and promised to be less daunting and easy to track. Having never actually gotten to _play_ RRT, i couldn't tell you if this was a fair assessment.
Still, steam was fairly straightforward, and aside from a few misunderstandings about what the actual benefit the "upgrade engine" card provided and a late start making rules comprehension a little slow, we all declared we would play again.
All of us being train-game novices, we had a fairly low-scoring game and didn't manage to pull out all of the goods from the extra goods spaces on the side of the board. After reading a review/comparison on BGG, it seems that's quite unusual. I'm ok with this, though, because it means we have plenty more strategy to unlock if we ever manage to play again.
I've been quite enjoying Dominion: Intrigue. Where are you that you had it available? My local gaming group has a bunch of the Dominion playtesters, so we've had it for a bit, but I was under the impression that its not really for sale except in certain very limited venues, like Origins.
I bought Dominion: Intrigue from Games Paradise in Sydney, Australia. I haven't gotten to play it yet.
Played two games of Steam with novices; I really like the basic game, which gets rid of a lot of nastiness and possibly some wonky mechanics.
Railroad Tycoon I really enjoy, as it has a more "epic" feel to it than Steam. That said, I'm not too fond of the original map and prefer to play with the Rails of Europe map.
Ah, I forgot you were Australian. Intrigue isn't available in the US yet, except at conventions attended by Rio Grande, and from people who know people. Apparently they're rushing to get it into stores, since the entire thing got leaked on the internet anyways and their release schedule got trashed.
I picked up steam as an excuse to finally guilt my friends into playing a train game with me. Railrood Tycoon sat, lovingly sorted and baggied, for months without a single play. Finally Steam came and promised to be less daunting and easy to track. Having never actually gotten to _play_ RRT, i couldn't tell you if this was a fair assessment.
The most daunting aspects of RRT are the box and board sizes.
Despite the numerous components, there's nearly no tracking of anything involved. Whatever you have to track takes the form of physical components which are either lying on the board or don't exist. The only exception is the number of a player's shares which he has to count when income is calculated.
D:I should be in my hands on Tuesday, along with Lost Cities the Board Game, which I played recently and enjoyed a lot more than I thought I would.
Reef Encounter is an interesting game, I played it once last year. It's pretty heavy, but I like it.
I love RRT, but I've never bought it due to the size of it. I heard a rumor that it would be reprinted with a smaller board, but I think it was just that.
Last edited by Agamon; 16th July 2009 at 10:22 PM..
I love RRT, but I've never bought it due to the size of it. I heard a rumor that it would be reprinted with a smaller board, but I think it was just that.
Rails of Europe, which I has, uses a smaller board (expanding the basic RRT game) and is very good.
Nice! Yeah, I've played RoE at a con. It too is fun, but you need RRT to play, so I never picked it up either.
And now that I think of it, I heard there was going to be a reissue of Saint Petersburg and that it would come with the (translated) expansion. Any word on that, Merric? I like the game, but have held off on buying it because of that.
Played BSG for the first time last night. Holy cow, that was fun. Gonna have to pick that up, too.
And I have yet to meet someone that doesn't enjoy Small World.
Steam and D:I made an appearance at the club last night, but they had just been picked up and were still in shrink, so maybe next week.
Last edited by Agamon; 17th July 2009 at 04:51 PM..
And now that I think of it, I heard there was going to be a reissue of Saint Petersburg and that it would come with the (translated) expansion. Any word on that, Merric? I like the game, but have held off on buying it because of that.
i've played small world twice so far and managed to come in last both times (well, the second time i tied for last). I think my problem is i'm too conservative about when i send my first race into decline.
I just saw that Steam is out. I am going to buy it within August. I haven't played RT. I was thinking of it but I saw that the Steam was on the road to be published.
Check also the "Stone age". It seems a first class game.
I just saw that Steam is out. I am going to buy it within August. I haven't played RT. I was thinking of it but I saw that the Steam was on the road to be published.
Check also the "Stone age". It seems a first class game.
I've got both. Steam is fantastic. I actually think the basic game may be better than the full game! The replenishment mechanic is brilliant.
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