Wallace-a-thon: Age of Steam & Tempus
May. 21st, 2009 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shannon_aI finished up my Wallace-a-thon with the ending of 2008, but I've since played two of the games that I'd wanted to play and missed, so I thought I'd write about them a bit.
Age of Steam is at this point Wallace's best-known game. I've always found it a bit too mathy, and thus I've preferred Railroad Tycoon (and I suspect the upcoming Steam) for the fact that you can take out loans whenever you want, which just makes everything much simpler.
On the one hand, I find Age of Steam somewhat separate from Wallace's other designs. There's a lot of geography and blocking that you just don't see in most of his non-RR releases. Those elements create a totally new and nice tension in Age of Steam.
On the other hand, there are a few elements that are very recognizable Wallace design elements. What strikes me most is how similar the whole concept of taking out loans and then losing income in Age of Steam is to Brass. They're just done in totally different ways (and, generally, I find Brass more intuitive and less stressful).
I'm also struck by how much the core idea of these games matches. They're both about creating continuing economic systems. It seems clear (to me at least) that when you make a delivery in Age of Steam you're building a long-term route, just like you're building permanent partnerships in Brass.
I think it'd be fascinating to dig through Wallace's whole series of linked train games (and Brass) and see how ideas were polished from one release to the next.
(Unfortunately I've only played a few of the more recent railroad games, and thus can't comment on most of them myself.)
I said last year that I wanted to try Tempus again without all the expectations that surrounded it at its release (e.g., that it was a "Civ Lite" game). I did tonight, and I was quite pleasantly surprised.
As I watched the civilizations slowly spread out, then start moving faster and further, I realized that I wasn't watching "Civilization", but rather "The Game of Life". I was seeing ecosystems from 100 miles up, as they grew, spread, and contracted.
Tempus is an amazingly tight game, and if you play with people who go quickly (as I did tonight), I think it's a pretty good one.
What also surprised me (sadly) was how vehement some of the people at BGG are about the game. They scream and shout about how its' garbage and who knows what else. You'd think Tempus killed their grandma or something, from how they go on. Though I can understand disappointment over the game's very high expectations, I can't understand that attitude.
Anyway, that was 2 more Wallace games. Much to my surprise today, I also got Waterloo in the mail, which I hadn't expected at all. A 2-player war game usually isn't my thing, but I know a few people at Endgame who be willing to give it a try so that I can review it.
Age of Steam is at this point Wallace's best-known game. I've always found it a bit too mathy, and thus I've preferred Railroad Tycoon (and I suspect the upcoming Steam) for the fact that you can take out loans whenever you want, which just makes everything much simpler.
On the one hand, I find Age of Steam somewhat separate from Wallace's other designs. There's a lot of geography and blocking that you just don't see in most of his non-RR releases. Those elements create a totally new and nice tension in Age of Steam.
On the other hand, there are a few elements that are very recognizable Wallace design elements. What strikes me most is how similar the whole concept of taking out loans and then losing income in Age of Steam is to Brass. They're just done in totally different ways (and, generally, I find Brass more intuitive and less stressful).
I'm also struck by how much the core idea of these games matches. They're both about creating continuing economic systems. It seems clear (to me at least) that when you make a delivery in Age of Steam you're building a long-term route, just like you're building permanent partnerships in Brass.
I think it'd be fascinating to dig through Wallace's whole series of linked train games (and Brass) and see how ideas were polished from one release to the next.
(Unfortunately I've only played a few of the more recent railroad games, and thus can't comment on most of them myself.)
I said last year that I wanted to try Tempus again without all the expectations that surrounded it at its release (e.g., that it was a "Civ Lite" game). I did tonight, and I was quite pleasantly surprised.
As I watched the civilizations slowly spread out, then start moving faster and further, I realized that I wasn't watching "Civilization", but rather "The Game of Life". I was seeing ecosystems from 100 miles up, as they grew, spread, and contracted.
Tempus is an amazingly tight game, and if you play with people who go quickly (as I did tonight), I think it's a pretty good one.
What also surprised me (sadly) was how vehement some of the people at BGG are about the game. They scream and shout about how its' garbage and who knows what else. You'd think Tempus killed their grandma or something, from how they go on. Though I can understand disappointment over the game's very high expectations, I can't understand that attitude.
Anyway, that was 2 more Wallace games. Much to my surprise today, I also got Waterloo in the mail, which I hadn't expected at all. A 2-player war game usually isn't my thing, but I know a few people at Endgame who be willing to give it a try so that I can review it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 09:34 am (UTC)In the trial run I played with my wife (two colours each) I could already see the ebb and flow you describe, and wondered how much one should bother with going after the 'first to the new era' prize each round. Apart from the the Writing and Printing bonuses I wasn't that impressed with the advantage it would give.
no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 02:08 pm (UTC)Our (no longer) Resident Train Guru swears that although this looks more forgiving and friendly, it really isn't, and it's just a veil of optimism. RRT is still as hard as Age Of Steam, and the money system still has harsh. He also had some complicated explanation about how the "you can take loans whenever you want" thing actually mathematically "doesn't work" as well as the cash system in Age Of Steam (or more properly 18xx games). I'm not sure I followed his explanation at all, which is why I can't repeat it reliably here.
But I think it's certainly true that RRT is not an "easier" game than AoS, nor is it really friendlier. It just seems that way to people who can't see past (or are able to avoid looking past the paper screen) the supposedly friendly cash system. In reality, it seems to me that because of the way the board is configured, a game of Railroad Tycoon is actually nastier than most well designed AoS boards, because it can be quite true that can get smoked in the first 15 to 20 minutes, and then be completely unable to catch up. 8P
I actually really like both games, but I think I prefer AoS, actually. With folks that are of the sort that would prefer RRT to AoS, I tend to play Power Grid... 8)
Your mileage may vary...
no subject
Date: 2009-05-22 02:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-24 07:49 pm (UTC)