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[bozzball]

I've been thinking about the suitability of various games for forum playing, and it seems like PR would work very well: No hidden information, and very little in the way of randomness (only which plantation tiles arrive at the end of the Settler phase).

The issue is that I would quite like to play. The game can be pretty much self-moderating apart from the plantation tiles. Are people uncomfortable with me playing and also randomly generating the plantation tiles?

Randomized play order:
 1. Glooble:   1 doubloons, 1 indigo (0/1), 1 sugar (1/1), 1 quarry (0/1)
  1 Small Sugar mill (1VP, 1/1)
  1 Small Indigo Plant (1VP, 0/1)
 2. Bozzball:  0 doubloons, 1 indigo (0/1), 1 corn (1/1), 1 coffee (1/1)
  1 Small Market (1 VP, 0/1)
  1 Coffee Roaster (3 VP, 1/1)
 3. Governor Jack Rudd:  1 doubloons, 1 indigo (1/1), 1 coffee (1/1), 1 corn (0/1)
  1 Small Indigo Plant (1 VP, 1/1)
  1 University (3 VP, 1/1)
 4. Qvist:  3VP, 3 doubloons, 3 corn (3/3), 1 indigo (0/1)
  1 Hacienda (1VP, 1/1)
  1 Small Indigo Plant (0VP, 1/1)
 5. Liopoil:  4 doubloons, 1 corn (1/1), 1 tobacco (1/1), 1 quarry (1/1)
  1 Construction Hut (1VP, 1/1)

122 Victory Point Chips left

? Colonists on the ship
89 Colonists left

Trading House: Corn / Indigo / Empty / Empty

Plantations available:
 * 1 Corn
 * 2 Sugar
 * 2 Indigo
 * 1 Coffee

Plantations left:
 * 5 Corn
 * 4 Sugar
 * 8 Indigo
 * 8 Tobacco
 * 6 Coffee
 * 6 Quarries

Plantations Discard:
* 4 Sugar

Ships:
 6 - Empty
 7 - Empty
 8 - 2 Corn

Buildings available:
At most 1 quarry:
 1 x Small Indigo Plant (1 VP, 1 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 3 x Small Sugar Mill   (1 VP, 2 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 1 x Small Market       (1 VP, 1 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 1 x Hacienda           (1 VP, 2 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 1 x Construction Hut   (1 VP, 2 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 2 x Small Warehouse    (1 VP, 3 cost, 0/1 colonists)

At most 2 quarries:
 3 x Indigo Plant       (2 VP, 3 cost, 0/3 colonists)
 3 x Sugar Mill         (2 VP, 4 cost, 0/3 colonists)
 2 x Hospice            (2 VP, 4 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 2 x Office             (2 VP, 5 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 2 x Large Market       (2 VP, 5 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 2 x Large Warehouse    (2 VP, 6 cost, 0/1 colonists)

At most 3 quarries:
 2 x Tobacco Storage    (3 VP, 5 cost, 0/3 colonists)
 1 x Coffee Roaster     (3 VP, 6 cost, 0/2 colonists)
 2 x Factory            (3 VP, 7 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 1 x University         (3 VP, 7 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 2 x Harbour            (3 VP, 8 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 2 x Wharf              (3 VP, 9 cost, 0/1 colonists)

At most 4 quarries:
 1 x Guild Hall         (4 VP, 10 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 1 x Residence          (4 VP, 10 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 1 x Fortress           (4 VP, 10 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 1 x Customs House      (4 VP, 10 cost, 0/1 colonists)
 1 x City Hall          (4 VP, 10 cost, 0/1 colonists)

Roles:
 Settler (0) - Available
 Mayor (0) - Available
 Builder (1) - Jack Rudd
 Craftsman (1) - Available
 Trader (0) - Available
 Captain (2) - Qvist
 Prospector (0) - Available
 Prospector (0) - Available

[Qvist]

Hey, I'll join Puerto Rico, if you join Shadows of Camelot 

And, btw: Go and post in Pandemic II.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

I would play (having never seen it).  My GF and I are trying to decide what game to buy for Christmas (besides the Pandemic expansion), so I'd like to see this one.

[bozzball]

At some point I'll add rules and a link to a google document or something.

[Qvist]

I was just kidding, of course I'm /in

[Galzria]

I would play (having never seen it).  My GF and I are trying to decide what game to buy for Christmas (besides the Pandemic expansion), so I'd like to see this one.

If you don't have, and haven't been following, you should peek in at one of the Through the Ages games. Of all the games I'm in right now, it's hands down the one that I wish would go faster (and we're already setting a blindingly fast pace). It's probably not QUITE as strong with 2 people as compared to 4, but I'm sure it hold up well enough. Most articles I read are written from a 2 player vantage point, so...

As for Puerto Rico here... SO MANY GAMES! I want to /in, I really do. But I don't know for how long my sanity can hold out. Fun game for sure - not my favorite. I always found there to be a broken win strategy - although it it WAS dependent on the cards you were dealt and could find. Still, I'll /tag to follow, and maybe if I'm not in 1001 games next time I'll /in.

Speaking of games, Bozz, go confirm Witches Brew!

[Watno]

Umm, you are not dealt cards in Puerto Rico.

@bozzball I think you probably mean university and factory costs switched, right?

I think I'm out of this one, availability will be limited over christmas/new year.

I agree with Galz on TTA, as soon as I'm done with my move, I can't wait to do the next one. It's a long game though.

[Schneau]

This is a great game, but I won't have time to play it.

[Galzria]

Umm, you are not dealt cards in Puerto Rico.

@bozzball I think you probably mean university and factory costs switched, right?

I think I'm out of this one, availability will be limited over christmas/new year.

I agree with Galz on TTA, as soon as I'm done with my move, I can't wait to do the next one. It's a long game though.

You're right of course. I was thinking San Juan. Hey, it was almost 5:30 AM I posted, and I haven't had any coffee yet!

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

I'm watching the BGA video right now, and this looks really great, but would move too slowly at a forum pace to hold my interest.  Coupled with Christmas, ZM7, moderating ZM8, Pandemic 3, etc, I think it would be too much, so reluctantly, I'm out.

On a positive note, I think I may go out and buy this today.

[bozzball]

Speaking of games, Bozz, go confirm Witches Brew!

?

The most recent response is from me

[bozzball]

@bozzball I think you probably mean university and factory costs switched, right?

Yes. Will edit.

[Galzria]

Speaking of games, Bozz, go confirm Witches Brew!

?

The most recent response is from me

Weird. It didn't tag for me as new reply. Carry on!

[cayvie]

this game...

is hard

[Insomniac]

this game...

is hard

This game is awesome.

[cayvie]

this game...

is hard

This game is awesome.

i prefer a little more chance in my games. but it's pretty good!

[eHalcyon]

I'm interested in learning the game.  I read the rules before and I even looked at some guides, but it was pretty overwhelming.  I doubt PBF is the best way to learn.

Not to mention, I know that this is a game where a noob becomes a kingmaker.

[Insomniac]

@eHalc I'm actually a bit overcommited to games right now so I probably won't be playing here, I'm willing to help you learn we can set up a quicktopic. That is of course assuming no one minds if I help him learn.

[eHalcyon]

I don't think I am joining anyway.  Too many things to do!  But I appreciate the offer.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

this game...

is hard

This game is WAY hard.  I played 4 times today on BGA, my GF (who has also never played) beat me 54 to 53, 57 to 56, 78 to 45, and 66 to 44.

If you aren't a fan of critical path analysis, you will likely not enjoy this game.

[Schneau]

this game...

is hard

This game is WAY hard.  I played 4 times today on BGA, my GF (who has also never played) beat me 54 to 53, 57 to 56, 78 to 45, and 66 to 44.

If you aren't a fan of critical path analysis, you will likely not enjoy this game.

In my experience this is definitely not true. My mom and wife both love this game, and are much more humanities people than math people. We've played it hundreds of times, and still enjoy every game.

Also, those are really high scores in my experience. Though, I don't know how you played with 2 players, since IIRC it only plays 3 to 5.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

this game...

is hard

This game is WAY hard.  I played 4 times today on BGA, my GF (who has also never played) beat me 54 to 53, 57 to 56, 78 to 45, and 66 to 44.

If you aren't a fan of critical path analysis, you will likely not enjoy this game.

In my experience this is definitely not true. My mom and wife both love this game, and are much more humanities people than math people. We've played it hundreds of times, and still enjoy every game.

Also, those are really high scores in my experience. Though, I don't know how you played with 2 players, since IIRC it only plays 3 to 5.

Board game arena will let you play with just two people, and we didn't want to bog down anyone else while we learned. I had watched the introductory video by Scott Nicholson that's embedded on the game's homepage, and towards the end he mentions that it can be really frustrating to play with people that have wildly differing levels of experience, so we took that to heart.  Don't know how different it would have been with 3 or more players, but I probably would have liked it even less, as the down time would have increased.

And I may not mean the same thing by critical path analysis that you do. It's definitely a game where you have to remember what order to take things in ('build order' to use a Starcraft expression, though that's not quite what I mean).  I constantly found myself making good decisions at a macro level that I then found couldn't be implemented because I had forgotten something at a micro level that needed to have occurred first. So maybe I'm talking about the difference between strategy and tactics, but that's not quite it either.  It was very frustrating.

I haven't let it go yet, but I didn't go out and buy it today, like I did the days I discovered Dominion and Pandemic.

[Schneau]

I really doubt the game works as well with 2 players as it does with 3 or 4. So, if you primarily want to play with 2, I would avoid it anyway.

That said, once you get used to the game, it's a lot of fun and can be very enjoyable.

[SwitchedFromStarcraft]

I will shift to a minimum of 3 players then, to see if things change.  Thanks for that tip.  I can also see that being conversant with all of the buildings would help a great deal, and that is just a matter of time in service.  As I said, I'm not going to give up on it yet. Four games is not a representative sample, especially when I felt like I made more mistakes in the last two games than in the first two.

What is your recommendation between the specific choices of 3p and 4p and 5p? If you feel like elaborating, are there advantages and disadvantages at each of those player populations?

[Schneau]

I find it works well with 3, 4, or 5, as long as the players are familiar enough with the game to not take forever. Adding Prospector(s) changes the way the games play a bit, as does having more people taking more roles every turn. Anyway, I'd recommend it with any number 3-5. It's been in my top 5 favorite games for at least the last 5 years.