Wallace-a-thon: After the Flood

Played a first game of After the Flood today. I was not disappointed. I'd written that it looked to me like a more Warfrog sort of game with a lot of intricate, connected systems, and that was indeed the case. It wasn't as much of a brain burner as Brass or Byzantium, but there were a lot of things to think about and I think we all felt like we could play it better in a later game.

Basically, there are two major systems. On the one hand you have workers that you send out to try and gather and trade resources. On the other hand you have empires that you take control of each turn which rampage across the map and which can upset worker usage. Though the two sides of things feel a bit separate, they also create a tension between them.

I was surprised that the armies were as major a part of the game as they are, but they aren't the be-all and the end-all. I went heavy on armies throughout the game and lost by a couple of points to a player who did some work with armies (as everyone will), but paid much more attention to resources and trading them up.

(The game was very close; I don't remember the exact scores, but they were something like 114-111-111.)

I was also surprised by how tight the resources are. I wasn't expecting that when I read the rules, but you have a pretty limited set of resources to use each turn (about 4-8 I'd think) and you don't get any more, so you have to decide what to use for armies, what to use for worker placement and what to convert to victory points. I felt like I'd backed myself into a corner more than once, which means the game is pleasantly tight.

The game had some of the typical Wallace touches. It centers around a variety of actions that you can take each round of play. There's not exactly an economic system, but the system of resources and trades is pretty intricate. The ability to command different armies reminded me a tiny bit of Byzantium initially, but after playing it, I'd really say that element is more Vinci or History of the World.

I'll be writing a full review of the game after I've gotten to play it one more time (which will be slightly tricky, as it's a 3-player only game).

Race for the Galaxy: A Mini-Review ; The Gathering Storm: A Mini-Review

Race for the Galaxy is perhaps the game that I've played the most without ever reviewing it. So, despite the fact that this post is largely carrying coals to Newcastle, since everyone serious about German games has undoubtedly played Race for the Galaxy sometime in the last year+, I'm going to write about it.

I think of Race for the Galaxy as the middle game in the San Juan trilogy. These are role-selection card games where you build structures (buildings, developments, and/or planets, depending on the game) by paying for them with other cards from your hand. San Juan was the innovative originator of the genre while Glory to Rome was its much more complex second member.

Despite being the third release I call Race for the Galaxy the middle member because of its middle complexity. I also think that it's found the sweet spot, as San Juan can be a little simple and Glory to Rome a little complex.

I like the game system that you see in all of these games. They organically force tough decisions constantly because you have to throw out many cards that you might want to play in order to pay for other buildings. That also creates an interesting situation where you don't see many cards in many games, making the game feel like it has a lot more variability. Up to at least my 8th or 9th game of Race for the Galaxy I was still seeing cards that I'd never seen before.

Race for the Galaxy is particularly interesting because it's perhaps the shortest of these three games. The comparison to San Juan is arguable, but it's definitely speedier than the average game of Glory to Rome. Aaron Lawn thus talks about it as being a leading member of a brand new short but deep style of gaming. Having now played what he considers the second member of that style, Dominion, I'd tend to agree that these games are something different--a real step up from the fillers of yesteryear.

The other thing that really appeals to me about Race for the Galaxy is its theming. It's full of beautiful, evocative artwork. I goggled over it quite a bit on my first game, and still enjoy it when I play.

If I were rating Race for the Galaxy at RPGnet I'd give it top grades for Style and Substance. If I were rating it at BGG, I'd give it a "10".

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We played Race for the Galaxy at my new-game/review group this Thursday, with the occasion being the release of its first supplement, The Gathering Storm.

The supplement was shamefully delayed. It took a year to produce this, despite the fact that it was planned when the original game was released, about a year ago. It was almost to the point where they would have killed Race for the Galaxy as a game system because of new games like Dominion passing it up in the game-mind-gestalt if it weren't put out, y'know, yesterday. I don't know if the author or Rio Grande was to blame, but it wasn't smart. In any case, it's finally out, and maybe we'll see the next supplement in 2010, by which time truly no one will care.

Despite my beef about the production schedule, The Gathering Storm is quite a good supplement. Perhaps not the best expansion ever, but it does some nice things.

The best thing is the inclusion of cards for a fifth player. With its simultaneous play, there isn't any reason that Race can't support at least five; I'm glad it now can.

The second best thing is the inclusion of new Victory Point tiles which give points to players who reach certain conditions first (such as the first player to discard cards or the first player to get out one of each color of production planet) or to players who have the most of something at the end of the game (such as the most military power or the most developments). It adds some badly needed interactivity to the game, and also gives you some new goals you can move toward.

There's also some new cards, and they're a nice addition, because they add yet more variability and color to the game.

Generally, a must-buy for any one who owns Race for the Galaxy, a suggestion I make without reservation.