Great to see female characters (and wearing proper clothing, wow well done to the designers). And the artwork overall looks so nice. I've gone over my Kickstarter funds for this month, so I'll be hoping this one comes to regular retail, so I can nab a copy at some point in the future. It just looks so nice. Thanks for another informative review guys. Great to see an actual review of a KS game, as opposed to the usual fence sitting paid previews we generally see. Bravo.
The reference to Terra Mystica is intriguing but also concerning. I usually play 2p and that was a game that definitely got a lot of heat for not being so great at 2. So, how does this scale to 2? Love the player powers, market, etc. This looks like it avoids that by forcing you to spread out and that scoring multiple settlements means you will bump into each other. Not sure.
Not to discredit the review but I found Terra Mystica to be mediocre at best. Boyfriend hated it even more: 3 games and hit rock bottom 1/10 for him so look alike won't cut it. In his words "Disconnected mechanics, adventitious player interaction, serious turn-order and balance issues." Can't blame him, games of TM seem to be won just by race selection. One 4-5 player session, I came on top really sick, barely sitting at the table just to play my turn. Do you feel player powers are more balanced here? Too many good games, not enough time and money anyway.
Besides our #1, I don't have the same top ten as my loved one either. :) From the clans of caledonia KS page : "Clans of Caledonia has a unique blend of mechanisms and includes elements of engine-building games (e.g. Terra Mystica) and economic mechanisms such as a dynamic market (e.g. Navegador) and export contracts (e.g. Voyages of Marco Polo)." Much later: "Nonetheless I am aware that other games with variable player powers ended up being perceived by players as much less balanced than the creators predicted. In order to mitigate this risk, I included a Clan auction variant that ensures nearly 100% fairness." Not explicit but reading between the lines and reputation of said games... I know Mina from Mina’s fresh cardboard also uses a VP auction system when she plays TM but I always feel that kind of auction system just puts a broken game on crutches. Disclaimer, I didn't play those games with any expansions. As said before, Hyperborea uneven player powers make it devolve into a useless attempt to king make someone else but interaction between players at least allows to try to rectify it. TM and Voyages, I just sit and watch someone win with no-one able to do anything about it. When it’s me, those victories seem so handed that I don’t get the feeling of gratification you talk about and when I lose, it still feels cheap but also frustrating. We could auction the thing (designers and playtesters job) but there would be no way of knowing the real value of this compared to that without breaking our teeth. Imo, CitOW and TKR do variable player powers to perfection (not even taking into account direct player interaction) although all those gears, cards and moving parts make it easier to do so by just tweaking some. A very interesting design comes from vanilla Tzolkin where, as you know, you kinda create your own starting player power... Well, it's more of a different starting position. Of course you got to balance those tiles but it seems more fair and easy to do. Wonder why we don't see that more often, such a neat and elegant idea. Variable player powers with direct interaction give the players a fix to lack of balance but in a multiplayer solitaire, it's more of a risky business to throw our money at.
