I have searched the forums and haven’t found a reference to …
Coimbra. It was quite popular during last years Spiel I seem to remember but now my fave online shop has had it for sale at less than half the catalog price and I keep seeing it there and wonder: is it any good then?
They also have Orleans Stories on sale but while I haven’t played Orleans I was able to find people disappointed enough with Stories that I am able to overlook that one but please feel free to give your opinion on that one as well.
Its just mostly bad games get put on such sales but sometimes sometimes there is something there or a shop just overstocked… so what is it?
Ps I didnt put the game in the title in hopes to establish a regular thread for these questions because I keep having them and don’t know what other thread to add to.
For me Coimbra’s a middle of the road 6.5/10. One of those games that I can see why it’s the perfect game for someone else (possibly newer to the hobby?), but not for me.
For a light/medium euro it ticks all the boxes, but it just isn’t satisfying. It has an issue that if someone is left to collect the purple dice they can run rings around everyone else with the pilgrimage - easy to avoid, but I hate having to tell people these sorts of things pre-game. Tell people a certain cog of the game is OP, and it already puts people into a certain mindset for the game.
For people who don’t like heavier games, I can see why it’d be a hit. The drafting is fun and the light worker placement/action selection mixed with running up tracks has a strong engine building feel to it. I’d just usually prefer to play something else a bit meatier. Maybe that’s just the way with a lot of lighter euros though - by using half the mechanisms it feels like half the game. It runs fine, but the competition element isn’t there for me. I don’t feel like I’ve accomplished much during the game other than pushed some levers.
It’s still on my shelf, but I think I’ll get my fill and then sell it on. I’m running out of space, so need to start culling the games that are just fine. Not regretting buying it, but not a keeper long-term. As a buy cheap, get your money’s worth, then sell on for a small loss, I’d recommend it.
For people who don’t like medium/heavy euros, I’d definitely say give it a shot. It fits quite a bit into a light ruleset. It feels like an entry level game for playing around with balancing progress in discreet mechanisms. It has a very clear cause and effect to it for sure. The benefit of the tracks is that it’s very clear how each player focused their efforts and how they can change their strategy next game.
I do hope I’ve got enough light/medium euros to fill a few game nights. BGG rates complexity above 3.3, slightly higher than Castles of Burgundy… is that an apt comparison? I am kind of thinking these are in the same group of games I would pull out for the same kind of people
That can be good but if everything is on the same straight emotional line it can get a bit boring.
Combining what you said, I guess I’d play it if someone wanted to bring it to the table but I don’t need to have it on my shelves.
I, too, am tracking L99 Games’ plan to bring Sakura Arms to more markets. The only thing I’ve ever heard about it is from SVWAG which, based on my understanding, Bigney feels that it has enough merit to overcome the “anime girl” problem (though he seems somewhat biased on the subject depending on his history with particular instances; e.g. if you introduced a brand new game to him today with an art style that objectifies women, he would be far more critical about it than if he were to discuss the same hypothetical game that came out 10 years ago)
Sure. I don’t want to derail this thread into “is (depiction X) generally acceptable”; what I’m after is “is this particular game good enough to make it worth overcoming my moderate but not complete discomfort with the art”. There are some games I would simply never buy because of the art, and I don’t care how good their gameplay is.
I’ve never played CoB, but from looks I’d guess so
The positives are it’s a very regimented turn structure. Everyone does a, then everyone does b etc. The steps are even listed as a,b,c… on the player aid. Each round has exactly the same structure, but you can do more stuff because of abilities and being further along the track, so the repetition helps greatly. You can easily do a demo round to show how each stage works.
Challenges:
The dice has multiple functions, with number used for bidding and colour used to using the relevant action dictated by the track. New players can struggle to understand the multi-use dice. Turn structure helps this though “right now we will just concentrate on the number… Now we will just look at the colour”.
Each player needs to be able to understand their engine. By the end there will be quite a few different abilities in front of a player. Nowhere near the likes of Terraforming Mars, but maybe 6-8 maximum by the last round. If you need to repeatedly aid players through this the game will slow to a crawl. There is some iconography, but shouldn’t be too overwhelming unless the player concentrates on collecting them exclusively (which is a bad strategy!).
Both of those are a matter of how experienced a player is with modern gaming in general. Not out of the league of a non-gamer, but may take a few rounds to grasp. If someone is used to the basics of drafting, bidding, action selection and passive abilities, it’s a breeze.
My take on Coimbra was “Why are so many reviewers talking about this? It looks forgettable”. I don’t mean to come off sounding like a know-it-all… but…?
Yeeeaah, but I think that for a lot of euros. A majority of euros - almost by definition - are a bunch of mechanics slammed together. No way of knowing what works and what doesn’t without playing.
In description, Great Western Trail is no more interesting than Coimbra, and I certainly dismissed it for the longest time, but in play it just has that magic.
Yep. It’s pretty and it’s just fine. It’s like a deluxified Carcassonne including an arbitrary set collection with the cards and also score points based on where you face your miniature. Ergo, I’ll just play Carcassonne instead.
Anyone ever played viticulture and/or the Tuscany expansion and know if it is any good? I really like the theme (Tuscany and wine) and just want to know if the game is actually as good as it is rated on bgg.
I was convinced that Viticulture would be an ideal addition to my collection. My partner likes wine and loves recipe/contact fulfillment games. My partner and I had a chance to play it with some friends who adore the game.
I really bounced off if it due to my frustration with the random card draw. You are asked by the game to start long-term-planning on turn 1, but there’s no guarantee you can get the cards you need. Literally the middle 1/3 of the game I played was me drawing cards repeatedly trying to get anything that I could work with, and the last 1/3 of the game was me trying to scramble to make the cards I drew work.
The game rewards knowing the probabilities.
The owner of the game played it a lot solo and it definitely showed; his knowledge of the deck allowed him to nearly double the score of me and my partner.
Normally, I like tactical games (games where long term strategy will help but it’s more important to deal with the here-and-now), but I felt as though the game structure didn’t allow for enough maneuvering to make it work.
I have it both on paper and as app.
I bought it for similar reasons as @pillbox for theme and because we don’t own that many worker placement games. I played once or twice with my partner and once a two handed solo. Its nice enough to play and has a few interesting mechanisms but it is also frustrating if you don’t get your strategy running quickly and someone else is.
I had read the essential edition included all the best from previous expansions… i have since added one of the expansion decks…
I wanted to play it with friends on TTS having bought the DLC but it is so confusing because that one has the Tuscany expansion included and I had a tough time figuring out how to get the game I owned to the virtual table. After that teaching my friends a new game in virtual seemed to daunting and we played Wingspan instead.
I haven’t played a lot so take my comments with a grain of salt. I am keeping the game for now. But if there was a RL undo button I probably wouldn’t buy it again. If you can test it out on TTS or as app (I lost badly against the AI) before investing more money. It’s probably on BGA or Tabletopia as well … all Stonemaier games are…
Ps the plastic insert that comes with this is no good. How does Stonemaier fail so bad at this when their materials are otherwise so good? I am not enamored of what they did with Wingspan either and don’t own any more of their games but 2 is a trend, right?
Pps and i completely agree about bad luck in draw of the contracts can throw a wrench. It is possible to mitigate this a bit with the winter visitors but still too much luck of the draw. As often key is to just have the most workers.
Curious to hear others’ comments on Viticulture too. I ordered the Essential Edition earlier this week so hope to have my first playthrough with it by next weekend. I have Cyclades on order as well - assuming the delivery company manage to find my postal address properly this time around.
I’ve played the Essential Edition once and wasn’t impressed.
However it wasn’t a great circumstance to try a new game; it was one of our first times going to a game group and in general they weren’t too welcoming to our kids (who aren’t little and know their way around some pretty heavy games).
Anyway, I just found it a bit meh. It was ok. I found the ageing counters impossible to pick up. I’d play it again with people who’s company I enjoyed. I was very surprised by how high it is on BGG.
A thread per game would make so much more sense to me. Can we just have that instead? If there isn’t an existing thread for the game, post a new one. If a thread already exists, add to that discussion. Then the conversations about each game are nicely self-contained.
This kind of thread (the one we’re in now) makes sense to me for “What did you last play/sell/buy/crowd-fund”, but for any discussion about very specific games, the title of the game needs to be in the subject. Few things are so likely to make me ignore a thread entirely as a question with an ellipsis which prevents me from having any idea what the question actually is.
To put it another way: I’ve played and have opinions about many games. I have not played and therefore do not have opinions about the vast majority of games. I really don’t wish to check every reply to a thread just on the offchance that the game being asked about will be one of the ones I’ve played. Post explicitly about something I’m familiar with, OTOH, and I’m definitely clicking that link.
