I'm looking forward to trying this one out. I've just found it available in a local retailer, and spent a Christmas voucher on it. I'm sad though; I've had the Dice Tower promos for this for ages and hadn't realised, until just opening my nice new copy, that the card size has been changed significantly, and my lovely promos won't work with the game! Oh well!!! Thanks again for the review!
I love variable market economic games, but they tend to be on the heavier side so I can't teach my non gamer family them. Then that just leaves hubby & I playing, which 2 players doesn't really work with stock games. Really excited about this one. Has all the things I love, but with a lighter flair. And the cute animal art makes the game more approachable than most stock games. Happy to hear good things about it :)
“It could be any theme” applies to virtually every game. In 90% of games you could change the theme without severely affecting any mechanisms. Theme in games is almost always mostly aesthetic, even in games that are touted as thematic
Yes, but in some games you feel that the theme is more naturally tied with a theme then this one. Or how to explain it... put more through and through the game. With this one, its just the picutres on the cards. The commodities are normal human commodities, nothing give you that feel. + The only place where you have the animals, are not even the workers or smth, its called "Railroads".
Nailed it with this review. I just bought it and played it twice in a row... and wanted to play it a third time cuz I was like "Ohh.. if I had just done THAT... " Good pick. Easy to teach the rules but difficult to master because the players themselves change how things play out each time. Great game, great review!
Agreed with a lot of the comments. Which games theme REALLY matters? Aquatica, for instance has nothing to do with water at the end of the day. You buy cards, add them to your tableau, use them up, score them. The characters are fun but meaningless in terms of underwater theme. Look at the cover of Aquatica, it looks amazingly thematic. There’s ships, there’s a giant monster in the background, but then you play the game and you’re essentially spending resources to acquire locations so you can score them.
I just got a copy of this from Amazon and was very disappointed to see that all of the wooden components are now cardboard chits as is the first player token. Big bummer.
I just got this game for Christmas 2022. My resources are cardboard, the first player marker is very thin, and there are no missing cards. Did the game get downgraded?
@@forbiddengames3223 I must be late to the game because I can't find an edition with coins anywhere. Does the box you sell on your web store contain wooden meeples and coins? The pictures and game description don't provide any of that information.
To my dismay, the newer printing of this game comes with cardboard resources and first player token...somewhat disappointing. Good game though. Great review, thanks Tom.
Is this the Kickstarter version? Seems like all the aspects of the components Tom likes such as the shaped wood, card size and money quality are stretch goals... is this going to be the retail quality too?
@@andrewbeutel8044 The only major differences between the Kickstarter and retail version will be metal coins and later editions, probably won't have the giant Raccoon meeple. Most of everything else will stay the same.
This is the 'Premium Limited Edition' (our first print run), which will be available at retail while supplies last. We printed 3,500 units over the Kickstarter quantity, so you should be able to get it no problem. It should last at retail for the first few months.
You know how people used to type 'first' for first comment? I just got first view! Even Tom hasn't watched his own stuff yet. Games seems good though. Wish I could get more than three people in Taiwan to sit down and play a game.
Have to disagree with tom this time round.... this is a game obviously that have not been player test thoroughly.... Some of the building is imba, and you can quickly finish this game without any auction as people just rush for land. Infact in board game geek people are complaining about this and most people have to come up with their own house rule to ensure a good game play. When players have to come up with their own house rule to make the game player better, it means the designer has failed in his job.
Lol, auctioning is a much smarter thing to do. If the players around you only want to buy land and you do the auctions, you will win hands down. Easily.
@@roosterchains I've played it many times. Maybe you missed how many VPs a pair, trio, or 4 stack of one type of rail road is worth. It is significantly more valuable than land. If the group you were playing with only cared about the land then you guys didn't know what you were doing.
