A bit more Space Empire, and a game day

I played a few more games of Space Empires solitaire, and I enjoy it. I’ve tweaked the system to feel slightly more intelligent and smooth out the bumps, the APs get less resources, but also tend to waste less (by fighting hopeless battles) and their growth is ‘on board’ which means it can be trimmed down. While TaoLing was at camp I left the board setup and managed to get in a half-dozen games … most of which were full evening affairs.

Now that TaoLing is back I took a day off to run back-to-school errands in the morning and we had a game day in the afternoon. A fair number of Puzzle Strike games (getting close to 50!), a few games of Dominion, some Mottainai, some Splendor, and even a bit of Pandante. (I think I’m going to take Pandante to my poker night this weekend and play a few hands — not for money — to see if there’s any interest).

In other news, I’ve realized that I’m not playing most of my collection, even though I’ve trimmed it down fairly aggressively this decade. So, more games are marked ‘for trade’. I may hold a geeklist auction later this year, but I’m open to trades/sales whenever. I did just break down and  buy the Brittania expansion of Sansa at Channukah.  So I knocked that off my “want in trade list.”

I suspect game days with the Taoling are going to slowly drift into memory — they may never end entirely, but the teenage years wait for no parent. I’ve been watching the Solitaire Games on Your Table threads for ideas as to which games I may try next…at least, until the Mage Knight urge rises.

Mottainai Strategy

After another burst of (2p) Mottainai I’m starting to see some patterns and harmonies. As my review of Mottainai noted, my chief complaint is that the game ends right after it starts; but that’s a pretty good problem to have. Mottainai plays like Pringles, a game, then a game, then a game…

Mottainai’s similarities with Glory to Rome tripped me up for quite a while. I noticed the subtle differences, but didn’t really grok the implications until recently.

Because of similarities in nomenclature, I’m just going to use Mottainai’s terms. I considered translating to G2R, but that would be a bewildering mess.

FIRST: You release your card at the start of your turn — In Glory, you lead/follow and then the cards immediately go at the end of each turn. So — in G2R — if you play a great role the next player will play Monk and then grab it as a helper for the rest of the game.  Experienced G2R players avoid playing a great role and use sheninigans like playing groups of three roles as a wild on the turn prior, just to get you the first shot at them.

In Mottainai tasks release on your next turn, so you don’t have to worry about that.

Related — when it’s your turn to lead you can decline to play a task, which lets you pray for a card. (You can still use the other player’s tasks to craft/pray). In G2R, skipping your turn is a mixed blessing. You fill up your handsize, but you don’t get control. You miss the chance to pick a role that others may not be able to follow.

In Mottainai, following is free — everyone can use your tasks (barring some buildings).

So I figured declining to play a task was fine. You don’t control tempo as much, but nobody can leach.

But you can punish a player who consistently skips by grabbing cards from the floor into your craftbench or helpers. Normally whatever role you select your opponent could take the task he played his prior turn. But no task last turn means nothing to grab, so they have to pray. (Or craft, but crafting stone instead of using a Monk requires a stone building in hand and a stone on the craftbench, and crafting clay instead of  using a Potter (laborer) requires two clay).

SECOND — Having cards in the craftbench is even better than in G2R. In Glory, you can either use materials in your bench to finish works or sell for VP. You can do the latter in Mottainai, but sales aren’t necessarily VP. To earn VP, you must cover the sale. Having the most of one material earns you the variable backorder points for cards in hand (instead of 3VP). But once you have something in the stockpile, it isn’t used up. If you have a clothe on your craftbench, then anytime someone plays tailor you can use the action or finish any grey work. Powerfully flexible. Having two clay or metal on the bench means you can craft instead of Potter or Smith. Again, flexible. If that doesn’t end the game, then you can craft to move a good or two into sales.

THIRD — Tempo! In general, you want to put your buildings on the sales gallery, to cover your sales. These are worth more points at the end. Also, splitting your works means you can’t control the end of the game. In general, you want to end it. There’s one exception (see below), so splitting works just to double the efficiency of a helper isn’t a great deal. You can always slap down 3-4 works on the sales side then start on the other gallery. (The exception? If you need a long game, you may as well start doubling helpers now).

FOURTH — Helpers aren’t as critical as clients in G2R. You still want them, but because you can have any number (not limited be influence). Grabbing a mediocre helper isn’t a problem. And because you pray by using a helper (or task), the more the merrier. Even multiple tailors may let you craft a cloth work, then tailor, then pray for a sixth card. Yes, you have to discard the sixth card at the start of your turn, but….

FIFTH — Extra hand size (even though discarded before you can use it) is amazing. You may turn your enemies Smith into a metal work. There are only 10 metal cards out of 54, so the odds of getting three metal out of five random cards are only 3% or so. But getting up to a seven card hand nearly triples the odds. And — more importantly — you’ll be well placed to handle whatever your opponent does. Beware of playing an action that the opponent can craft on (particularly with multiple helpers) or beware the smith if your opponent has a full hand.

Incidentally, the exception about ending the game? Backorders. Like many Chudyk games, the game ends right away, nothing else, when it triggers. Which means if your opponent has a 7+ card hand, they all count for backorders. If they aren’t winning anything, fine, but if they are … particularly with a single ‘3’ card sale, you could be in for a nasty surprise.

More thoughts later, if I have any.

Mottainai Review

At the Gathering, I heard rumblings of a new Carl Chudyk (yes!) game that streamlined Glory to Rome (yes, yes!). Still, I didn’t play it. It was a prototype, and I don’t really do that anymore. And despite my admiration for the designer, I’ve found a fair number of his works to be noble failures. Still, a $15 price point made this an easy purchase.

“A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

Most of G2R is here. You have sales (the vault), helpers (clients), craft bench (stockpile), buildings, the floor (pool). The deck is only 1/3rd the size, though, but each card is unique. A nice touch. The style on the card is minimalistic, but rather charming. I find that the aesthetic design rather matches the theme of craftsmen at a Buddhist Temple. (I happened to like G2Rs garish colours, but let’s not call it great art).

What is gone? Well, the lead-follow mechanism. If you lead, everyone will get to use that task, on their turn. Having each player’s turn be isolated speeds the game up considerably. The removal of Jacks also speeds things up, because one of the key decisions in G2R is when to spend your Jack following. None of that here. If your opponent leads a Monk, you’ll get a Monk action on your turn. You can use it to either:

1. Take the Monk action — Equivalent to Patron,
2. Pray — Draw a card (that you can use next turn),
3. Craft — Build a building from hand that matches the Monk material (stone) displaying additional materials from hand.  Correction — For crafting you need to have (but not spend) supplies from your craft bench (Stockpile in G2R).
   

If your opponent played a Smith instead, you could take the Smith action (Architect Again, I had this backwards. Smith is like Craftsman, you show but do not spend cards from hand), Pray, or craft a metal building, since Smiths are on Metal, not stone. Additionally, instead of adding materials one at a time, you need them all at build time, but the building itself counts as 1 material and the other 0-2 must simply be displayed, they aren’t consumed by building.

Buildings are placed in one of two wings, one side makes your clients better, the other side enables some materials in your sales (value) to score. Basically each building in the appropriate wing turns on a number of helpers/sales as its value (but if you have more, then all of them are ‘turned off’). Helpers that are turned on get two actions instead of one. Sales that are not turned on are worthless, except for backorders, which are the equivalent of the 3 point chip for most sales.

The game ends when one player gets five buildings in either wing.

What’s removed? There’s no influence limit or foundations.

A big difference is how passing (praying) works. You no longer draw back up to your hand limit, you just draw a card. So in G2R, spending 4-5 cards and then passing was a great way. Here, if you play down to 0-1 cards, you may spend  a lot of time drawing back up, and the game may be over. To make up for that, the tailor action lets you discard cards and then draw until you have five. But you don’t get the drawn cards until the end of your turn.

This, I should add, is a wonderful mechanism. You have to discard down to hand max at the start of your turn, but by then you should have had time to examine your hand and come up with a plan. A simple rule to speed things up.

Right now my biggest complaint against Mottainai reverses the comment by the Emperor to Mozart in Amadeus:

Too few notes (– Me)

In Glory to Rome, you need to start six buildings (per player) to end it. But you can start a few more (out of town sites) and players naturally want to finish buildings because of the points they give and to increase influence. Because 5 buildings in a wing ends it and players will often want to put them into sales (to increase score) and buildings take no time to complete, the number of turns in Mottainai is lower. A player with a smith client can easily drop two paper buildings (which cost no support) in a single action, and that’s 40% of the way to completion. If you gain a small lead and get the correct hand, you can lock it in. The 15-30 minutes per game listed on the box seems high. I don’t think I’ve had one go past 20. (On the other hand, as I play more often, you begin to recognize these situations and try to make sure that you are ahead if the other player threatens that).

A common complaint against Race for the Galaxy is that it ends just when it’s getting good. I never felt that way then, but I do here. I’ve had games where it felt like whoever went out first wins (as with G2R, the game ends instantly). Perhaps that’s just new-ness talking, but there you have it. We’ll see if the feeling continues.

I’ll also note that I’ve exclusively played the 2 player game. Perhaps I should play the extended game (6th building), but I’ll try a few more of the standard game.

So, right now Mottainai is at least a noble failure and appears great. But just as Civilization does not compress, I suspect that Glory to Rome’s greatness could be stored in that hideous clamshell, but not Mottainai’s smaller box.

Rating — Suggest, but we’ll see.

PS — I am much more pleased that I should be that the I am the first result for googling “Civilization does not compress,” and if this is just the result of local cookies I don’t want to hear about it.

Mottainai

It speaks well of Mottainai (or poorly of me) that I — a player with 75 plays of Glory 2 Rome — consistently lose Mottainai to someone who has never played G2R, despite the fact the games are similar. It’s one of those things where a few small changes ripple out, and my instincts are all wrong.

That, or the Straw card is too powerful (the TaoLing keeps getting it, I need to read it myself, and see if he’s playing it correctly….)

Chudyk’s games are always good for 10-20 plays, even the ones I don’t like. An interesting designer. Given that, Mottainai mini was an easy buy at $15. (I’m told the deluxe game with 4-5 players, isn’t nearly so good.) So far my impression is that the game feels a touch too short, it’s difficult to sell and cover if the other player just focuses on slamming down 5 buildings (especially those with point bonuses). But losing piques my interest.