Orlando, Florida
March 1 – 4, 2001
Dragon’s Gold was actually one of my favorite new games that I played at Gulf Games VII. This came as quite a surprise to me since most of Bruno’s games fall flat for me because they are far too chaotic for my tastes.
I’ve always had an appreciation for Sackon’s KK&K, but a couple things always bugged me about the game. First, it is fairly easy to track people’s money, and the game can break down if players do this. Second, the precious nature of cards encourages people to hold off to the last minute before playing a card to screw up the deal. Therefore, the game can potentially drag as people go through an excruciating negotiation, just to have it foiled at the last moment… over and over again for several iterations. It gets annoying after a while.
Dragon’s Gold “fixes” both my complaints about KK&K. With multiple colors of treasures in play and treasures getting stolen, there is absolutely no way to track what various players’ holdings are. Also, the timed deals keep the game moving at a brisk pace. Unfortunately, Dragon’s Gold also introduces some silly and chaotic elements through the spell cards. Although this detracts from the game for me, I still find it overall to be a fun game — this is the only one from Gulf Games that is on my must-buy list. (Of course, Traumfabrik and Carcassonne are excellent, but although these were new to many attendees, I had already played these games several times before Gulf Games so I’m not counting these).
The other new game I particularly enjoyed was Doge. This was getting pretty neutral ratings from most people, but I liked it, perhaps because the game I played of it was particularly exciting. Although I shot off to an early lead, Ty made a tremendous comeback; we went into the final round neck and neck and the game eventually ended in a tie. My adrenaline was really pumping all through the last couple of rounds when I saw that Ty was probably going to overtake me.
Most people seemed to be comparing Doge to San Marco, because the boards are similar. San Marco didn’t do much for me. Although the “pie cutting” was intellectually interesting, I did not feel emotionally engaged in the game. There was a fair amount of downtime, and the game just sort of plodded along, with a few cubes getting added here and there, and an occasional scoring. At no point did I feel excited or tense about the proceedings. The game also seemed to offer much more short-term “tactics” than long-term “strategy”, and I prefer games that have more of a balance of the two. For what it’s worth, I’ve never really liked El Grande either.
M was another game that didn’t excite me. Any game in which I don’t feel that I can plan even one move ahead is going to be unsatisfying to me. Short-term optimization is fun, but I really like to balance that with some sort of long view. M did not offer any long-term planning options that I could see.
Evo was a game that I did like, but our 5-player game took too long (probably 2+ hours). I wouldn’t be likely to play the game again unless it could be condensed to about 75 minutes. Also, I was turned off by the dice-rolling for combat. I wish the game had utilized a different mechanism for combat.
I’m glad I got a chance to play Troia. In this game, Greg and I were neck-and-neck, and I beat him out on the last point. The game does a great job of conveying its theme. I liked the feeling of “digging” through the pile for the right tiles, but I found it unpleasantly mentally taxing to scrutinize the pieces for the topographic lines that just barely distinguish the pieces from one another. To be competitive, you really have to look closely at the pieces, but unfortunately, this bogs the game down somewhat. It would have been nice if the pieces were much easier to distinguish. Overall, with its pluses and minuses, I’d rate the game as just a little better than average.
The Ricochet Robot / Bongo / Icarus tournament was a total blast. Thanks to Eddie for organizing it. I had never played Icarus before that I recall, but I liked it quite a bit, and seemed to have a knack for it.
The only game that made me miserable was Murder in the Abbey. I generally like deduction games, but in this one, the information flowed far too slowly, and the game just seemed interminable.
A wonderful event! Thanks everyone for all the great games.