More minor game content

Indonesia— Still good. For some reason when playing (or writing about it) I keep thinking that companies can merge multiple times per round, which isn’t true.

Acquire — Still good, although when one opponent merges company A and B early on when his count is “zero in A and none in B” it gets a bit random.

18Mag — Played two 2x games and a few solitaire games. Noted 1846 evangelist Eric Brosius calls this a “Graft-oriented” 18xx. The minor companies last throughout the game, and the major companies do not run trains, but supply services like selling trains, clearing land, placing stations, or running trains for extra value, but they all require payments to the majors (which then pay out dividends). So it’s …. odd. But there are parts I like (I hope that more titles use the double-sided track to stop arbitrary “oh we’ve run out of the right-handed version of this tile, so its gone, even though 3 left handed versions exist” which always bugged me about 1830). I don’t think the graft-like mechanisms destroy the game, but do wish it were a bit … less. I can tolerate it in small doses. And the two player game is a small dose, running at 90 minutes or so. Even with that, I’d like to try this with more (and I also need to play my copy of 1848 and I’d prioritize getting that to the table). This isn’t a great 18xx, I’m indifferent-plus, but I don’t regret spending the money to try it and I’d like to get a few more plays out of it.

The Resistance — Still OK, and reminds me that I want to try Scape Goat.

I do not understand Mottainai to the level of the Taoling, who now seems to win 80%+ of our games. But I still like it.

I played Carcassone for the first time in a decade, and it holds up. I’m not sure I’d suggest it often, but I’m glad to play it.