Entry 66- Week 21: Brass: Birmingham

        This week we played a game that is currently ranked Number 3 on Board Game Geek. This game is the follow up to the current Number 21 Brass (retitled as Brass: Lancashire). We decided to pick this up because we wanted to find out for ourselves what the glam is about the game. Were we elated or disappointed? Read on to find out. 

BRASS: BIRMINGHAM (2018) 

BGG Description 

Brass: Birmingham is an economic strategy game sequel to Martin Wallace' 2007 masterpiece, Brass. Brass: Birmingham tells the story of competing entrepreneurs in Birmingham during the industrial revolution, between the years of 1770-1870. 

As in its predecessor, you must develop, build, and establish your industries and network, in an effort to exploit low or high market demands. 

Each round, players take turns according to the turn order track, receiving two actions to perform any of the following actions (found in the original game): 

1) Build - Pay required resources and place an industry tile. 

2) Network - Add a rail / canal link, expanding your network. 

3) Develop - Increase the VP value of an industry. 

4) Sell - Sell your cotton, manufactured goods and pottery. 

5) Loan - Take a £30 loan and reduce your income. 

Brass: Birmingham also features a new sixth action: 

6) Scout - Discard three cards and take a wild location and wild industry card. (This action replaces Double Action Build in original Brass.) 

The game is played over two halves: the canal era (years 1770-1830) and the rail era (years 1830-1870). To win the game, score the most VPs. VPs are counted at the end of each half for the canals, rails and established (flipped) industry tiles. 

Birmingham features dynamic scoring canals/rails. Instead of each flipped industry tile giving a static 1 VP to all connected canals and rails, many industries give 0 or even 2 VPs. This provides players with the opportunity to score much higher value canals in the first era, and creates interesting strategy with industry placement. 

Iron, coal, and cotton are three industries which appear in both the original Brass as well as in Brass: Birmingham. 

New "Sell" system 

Brewing has become a fundamental part of the culture in Birmingham. You must now sell your product through traders located around the edges of the board. Each of these traders is looking for a specific type of good each game. To sell cotton, pottery, or manufactured goods to these traders, you must also "grease the wheels of industry" by consuming beer. For example, a level 1 cotton mill requires one beer to flip. As an incentive to sell early, the first player to sell to a trader receives free beer. 

Birmingham features three all-new industry types: 

Brewery - Produces precious beer barrels required to sell goods. 

Manufactured goods - Function like cotton, but features eight levels. Each level of manufactured goods provides unique rewards, rather than just escalating in VPs, making it a more versatile (yet potentially more difficult) path vs cotton. 

Pottery - These behemoths of Birmingham offer huge VPs, but at a huge cost and need to plan. 

Increased Coal and Iron Market size - The price of coal and iron can now go up to £8 per cube, and it's not uncommon. 

Brass: Birmingham is a sequel to Brass. It offers a very different story arc and experience from its predecessor. 

Weight 3.91/5 

A Little More Info 

        My wife describes this game as “Ticket to Ride meets worker placement” because in order to maximize the use of resources on the board (not buying from the market) you want to ensure the various towns are connected with canal/rail links. 

        The description above does provide a nice general overview of the game, the only thing I would add to what is stated is that you must always remember to discard a card for taking any action and that your first turn in the game is just one action and not two. The number of rounds played in each age (canal & rail) decreases based on the number of players. 

        More cards are added to the deck with more players which opens the upper half of the board. You can always move up into the upper areas, but the city-specific cards are added with more players. 

        Also take note that taking a loan is not a bad thing earlier in the game because you won’t be generating income until you are able to flip over tiles that you placed. 

What we like about the game 

        This game is a big hit for us. The game seems intimidating at first because of how busy it looks due to each player board having a lot of tiles on them so the set up takes a little time to complete but that is not a bad thing and here is why. Each player board is very detailed showing you where each tile is placed. A side note to this, the game board and player boards have a day and night side to them that are identical is terms of layout just different artwork so you can pick what side you want. 

        What is also nice about the player boards is that each tile spot shows you the cost on the left side and the rewards (flipped side of the tile) on right which will help you when planning out your moves. 

        Other games similar in style to the Brass games tend to use four or five different resources, this game only uses two main ones for building (coal and iron) and one for selling (beer). Because of the limited types of resources, the game is easier to learn and play. Coal and iron are easier to acquire and use and the beer does take building breweries to ensure you can get some when you take the sell action to flip your cotton and pottery tiles. Your coal, iron, and breweries all flip automatically when the resources on them are depleted. 

        We also like that the 99% of the scoring takes place at the end of each of the two eras. Scoring is also not complex at all; you gain points from your links between the locations where you have a canal or rail connection (based mainly on all flipped tiles at the cities) and then you score the points from your flipped tiles. It really is easy as that. 

    Last thing we want to highlight is that the cards are designed that no matter which way you hold cards in your hand your can see the cities on the left side and right side. 

What we don’t like about the game 

        Once you learn the rules well enough, it takes away some of the complexity of the game. Remembering where you legally place items requiring coal is the biggest issue we have. I am sure the more we play, the easier it will get. 

        The other point that may be a turn off for some people is that at higher player counts analysis-paralysis plays a huge factor and sometimes action blocking can take place (we feel it is mostly unintentional though). 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        My wife and I played against each other in our two player games; she played a three player game and I had played a four player one. We do enjoy the two players game a lot because once you know what to do, the game doesn’t take long to play; the four player game did take most of an afternoon to play due to what is mentioned above. The consensus from most of our group that played together is that at the three player count, the game has the best flow and balance. 

        Even though I had lost all three of my games played and my wife has won two of her three, we completely understand why it is ranked Number 3 right now on BGG. Each game a different strategy can be used, what works in one game may or may not work in the next. 

        This game is worth adding to your collection and for us will get played on a regular basis. We do love the England historical theme to the game. 

 *** Note: I mentioned on FB that Canvas: Reflections would be in this entry, but I ran out of time writing. I will save it for a future entry.

Entry 65- Week 20: Lockup: A Roll Player Tale & Expansions

     

        From the publisher that brought you the great games Cartographers and Roll Player comes a new game set in a prison in the Roll Player world which you manage a group of minions trying to gain the highest reputation while being locked up. I present to you Lockup: A Roll Player Tale by Thunderworks Games. 

        This entry we will look at both the base game and the expansions to Lockup. 

LOCKUP: A ROLL PLAYER GAME (2019) 

BGG Description 

During the Dragul Invasion of Nalos, King Taron’s loyal soldiers throw captured minions into Kulbak Prison, where enchanted gates and Construct guards make escape all but impossible. Once each year, Taron releases the toughest gang of war prisoners into the royal Colosseum. 

You command a squadron of these captured Dragul. Gather goons and craft contraband to raise your reputation. Keep your suspicion with the guards low while establishing yourself as the most powerful crew in Kulbak. In six short days, Taron may offer you the chance to fight for your freedom. 

Lockup: A Roll Player Tale is a competitive worker-allocation game for one to five players. In the game, players manage groups of minions -- gnolls, kobolds, bugbears, goblins, or insectoids -- locked up in Kulbak Prison. 

Each round, players try to keep their suspicion from the guards under control while allocating their crew to different locations within Kulbak. The player with the strongest crew in each location at the end of each round gains the most resources, hires the most powerful crew, and builds the most powerful items, increases their reputation. The player with the highest reputation at the end of six rounds, wins the game.

Lockup is a worker placement game set in the Roll Player universe. 

Play takes place over three phases in each round: 

1. Roll Call - Players take turns placing their minions in different parts of the prison, some face up showing a unit's strength and some face down, hiding the strength from the other players. 

2. Lights Out - Each area with minions is scored based on the strength of each player's crew. Players receive resources and have the opportunity to recruit goons and build items. 

3. Patrol Phase - New resources are placed on the gameboard, and the guards patrol the dungeon. Players with high suspicion are raided, and their chambers are searched. 

—description from the publisher 

Weight 2.33/5 

A Little More Info 

        The last half of the description above provides a good synopses of what happens each round. To add just a little more detail each group of minions have the following six worker tiles they can place: workers with strength values of 2 through 5, a worker whose strength is equal to the number of power cubes you have (the enforcer) , and a worker whose ability is to “ignore” any suspicion cubes at the location you place it in (the lookout). 

        During the roll call phase you can place any number of workers during your turn, not just one at a time. You also can place two tiles (three in a 2 player game) face down to help you outsmart and outplay your opponents. 

What we like about the game 

        We love that the mechanics are simple in this game with the two major ones being set collection (goon cards) and area majority/influence (placing your worker tiles to control the location). You don’t need an in-depth knowledge of how to use these to play and win the game. 

        The next thing we like is that the six rounds of play does not take long. The box says 90 minutes to play and with a higher player count I would guess that is the case. Our first game took a bit longer since we were learning but our second game (with the expansion) took about 45 minutes even with the interruption of putting our daughter to bed. 

        We also like that each player is on a level playing field each round with having the same tiles to place. The only exception is the enforcer’s value gets stronger with each power cube you have. How you manage your resources you collect is up to you and this will play into each individual players strength but keep in mind that during the patrol phase you can only keep five cubes (your storage limit) unless certain item cards provide extra storage. 

        The last thing that we do like about the game is that the crew boards have the standard side which is the same for everyone (basic game) and an advance side which is used when you play the advanced rules. The advanced rules give you initial bonuses from the crew board and additional bonuses from a single trait card that you select from the two you have drawn as part of set up. We can’t wait to try this next. 

What we don’t like about the game 

        Only a few minor points in this section. The first thing is that suspicion icons on the goon cards are difficult to see. Even with bright lights on you must inspect the card closely to see them. It would be better if there was a “halo” effect behind the icon. 

        The only other negative is that the player reference cards print is small, even with my glasses on you have to look closely at them to read the text. We understand that having larger cards just for that purpose would not have worked because everything else is on 44x68mm cards for the game. 

**Spoiler: read below for the solution to the issue.** 

LOCKUP: BREAKOUT (2022) 

BGG Description 

Everyone in Kulbak has heard rumor of secret passages that run beneath the prison. Ages ago, the catacombs carved into these mountains were used to house fallen heroes. Queen Gimnax built a prison over this sacred site during the Great War, enclosing those ghosts and their treasure behind its walls. 

Some say the catacombs lead to the tomb of Khathandor, greatest of the Dragul warriors. Others swear that the real treasure to be found in the tunnels beneath Kulbak is a crack in the prison’s outer wall. To find the truth, you’ll have to send your seeker to explore the crumbling catacombs by lantern light. 

New opportunities await you above ground, too, as you influence the legendary characters who inhabit the prison. Strike a deal with Warden Mercy. Make a truce with Masik and his Starlit Door cultists. Commune with the spirit of Khathandor. Gain their favor while you probe the hidden history of Kulbak in search of gold and freedom. 

In Lockup: Breakout, players can earn reputation stars in new ways by sending their seekers to explore the catacombs beneath the prison and by dedicating crew to influence the legendary inhabitants of Kulbak.

Gain the most reputation stars over six rounds by crafting items, recruiting goons, influencing legends, and exploring the catacombs — all while avoiding the suspicion of the guards. As in the core game, the player with the most reputation stars wins! 

-description from publisher 

Weight 2.5/5 

A Little More Info 

        This expansion adds an additional worker called “the seeker” (strength value of 1) whose main purpose is to get assigned to one of the rooms with the tunnel token so you can advance in your journey through the catacombs. 

        During the roll call phase you will still only be placing six workers on the game board and the seventh will be placed face down on the legend card in hopes that if you have the highest strength you can reap a nice reward. 

        Additional cards for each type of card are also part of the expansion including four new types of goons that adds even more variety to the game. 

What we like about the expansion 

        The expansion adds just the right amount of extras to the game. We love how you use the seeker to progress through the tunnels gaining rewards along the way and points at the end of the game (unless you escape which you score immediately). 

        The various legend cards add another level of excitement because if it is a card you don’t aim to get, you can focus your efforts elsewhere. We do like that most of the cards say the “strongest crew may” do XYZ; meaning that even if you win the card, you don’t have to take the reward/action. 

        Our favorite of the new goons is the Shapeshifter. His ability can help your game immensely. We can say that we haven’t met a shapeshifter we didn’t like. 

        The last thing to mention (which was hinted above) is that the player aide cards are full sized, the same size as the legend cards. This eliminated eye squints from the base game. 

What we don’t like about the expansion 

        There is nothing about the expansion we would change. I would not want to add any additional content to the game than this because it would draw the game out more and this game is solid as is with the tunnels. 

LOCKUP: KULBAK PACK (2020) 

BGG Description 

The Kulbak Pack is a 7 Card mini-expansion for Lockup It features three new goal cards (instant, leader, and end game) and four new tome cards. Simply add these to your existing game to introduce new challenges and strategies. Was also available as part of the rewards for backing Game Boy Geek 2021 Kickstarter campaign. 

-description from publisher 

Weight 3/5 

A Little More Info 

        We have not integrated these seven cards into our game play yet. After reading them, it would be fun to at least draw one or two of the tome cards. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        If you are looking for an easy game that doesn’t really take long to learn and play, then Lockup would be a great choice. Unlike some of our most recent games from previous articles, this game is not a table hog. 

        We give this game four thumbs up (you know each hand of my wife and I) and will highly recommend this to be an entry level game covering the four mechanics outline on the BGG page: Area Majority / Influence, Multiple-Lot Auction, Secret Unit Deployment, and Set Collection. 

         So do you have what it takes to become the baddest minion leader inside of Kulbak prison?

Entry 64- Week 19: Lowlands

        When it looks like an Uwe Rosenberg game and acts like an Uwe Rosenberg game then it must be an Uwe Rosenberg game.. right?? Unless the game is by Claudia & Ralf Partenheimer and is called Lowlands published by Feuerland Spiele (an Uwe Rosenberg company). 

        This game is considered part of the Uwe Rosenberg collection. On the front page of the manual it states “This seal signifies that Uwe Rosenberg recommends this game for fans of his work. Uwe Rosenberg himself studied this game and contributed during the development phase.” 

BGG Description 

The low land is a rough area where hard-working folk make a living by the sweat of their brow. Under constant threat of storm and flood, communities here rally together to build dikes that keep the rising water at bay. But every citizen constructing a dike is one fewer citizen tending flocks and maintaining the family farm. The residents here are constantly torn between selflessness and self-interest, and only those who can strike this delicate balance can thrive in this harsh landscape. 

In Lowlands, you carve your farm out of this unforgiving land, gathering and spending resource cards to transform your farmyard into pastures that allow you to profit from breeding sheep. Adding expansions to your farm will unlock new options and score you victory points, but helping to build the dike that collectively protects all players is also rewarded. No matter what, the tide will rise and, if the dike isn't high enough, it could rush in and sweep away your hard-earned profits. Will you sacrifice your own farm for the good of the community, or will you pursue your own agenda? The choice is yours. 

Even without the poor weather, life on a farm is one of constant work where you find yourself tending flocks of sheep, extending their pastures, and looking for the right moment to sell them for a profit. To complete all these tasks, Lowlands gives you a group of farmers that you can assign to various tasks around your farm. To get the most out of them, you must think strategically, deciding which actions you want to take and the best time to take them. Once they've been assigned, your farmers help you build a bustling farm where there was once scrubby bushes, trees, and lakes. You begin the game with only two sheep and a small pasture, but your farmyard is rife with possibilities, its many empty spaces inviting you to customize your farm as you see fit. 

While you could simply focus on creating more area for your sheep to roam, the game also provides plenty of options for customizing your farm with various buildings and features. Not only are these tiles worth victory points at the end of the game, they also make your farm more efficient and more profitable. You might add a feeding trough to your farm, for example, to immediately earn another sheep and the ability to house two sheep per pasture space instead of just one. Or you could construct a lake cabin on your property to get away from it all for a bit. While this tile doesn't give you any special abilities, it increases the value in victory points of the farmyard spaces immediately adjacent to it. Ultimately, you are free to pursue whatever strategy you see fit, building a farm wholly your own. 

On top of the challenges of building a successful farm, of course, you also have to deal with the tempestuous weather that comes with living on the wave-battered coast of the North Sea. Here, the tides always seem to rise a little higher, threatening to take a dent out of your profits by sweeping away some of your flock. To ensure that this doesn't happen, you always have the opportunity to send your farmers to contribute to the dike instead of working on your farm. When you do, you also commit resources to creating dike elements that are added to the board as a buffer against the rising waters. Add enough of these pieces and you might prevent disaster for everyone. The tide turns repeatedly, bringing with it new flood pieces. If there are enough dike elements in place to hold back the rising waters, players' farms are spared. If the dike breaks, however, you could be forced to take dike breach tokens that have adverse effects at the end of the game. 

While lending a hand with the dike at the expense of your own farm is certainly a nice gesture that keeps everyone safe from the floodwaters, it has rewards of its own. For each resource you contribute to the dike, you advance one step up the dike track. Not only does advancing far enough on this track grant victory points, it also amplifies your reward if the dike holds and lessens the blow when it breaks. It is in your best interest, then, to keep pace with other players on the dike in order to protect your investments back home one the farm. 

—description from the publisher 

Weight 3.1/5 

A Little More Info 

        The above description does a good job selling you on the game but what is the game play really like? 

        The game is played over three stages (rounds) which is divided up into a handful of phases. The first being the turn of the tide in which you check you hand size (limit of 8 cards) and then place three new flood cards and reveal the first one. 

        Next comes the work phase where you take turns placing your three farmers in the five action spots (details below). This is where you decide if you want to help build the dike or to increase your farm, or a combination of the two. 

        Then comes an upkeep phase. This is where you breed and house your sheep (if you have room), gain income, retrieve your farmers, reset the sheep market, change the first player (if needed), and then flip of the next flood card. 

        Repeat the work and upkeep phase before going to the high tide phase. The high tide phase is where you check to see if the dike holds up or breaks. 

        After the high tide phase you repeat everything two more times (rounds) before going to the storm surge which triggers the end of the game. This end phase is where you score your tiles with (!) symbol, recheck the dike again, then do the final scoring. 

        Now let’s take a quick look at the five actions spaces you can select from. 

Build a Farm Expansion: If you have the right resource cards and the correct farmer value to pay for a new tile, you can expand your farm. There is an appendix that provided details for each tile. 

Contribute to the Dike: Spending your action points (the number depicted on your farmer) and discarding the correct number of the same resource you can build up the dike to help prevent the flood waters from coming in. If you have not completed the dike segment, you can ask for help from another player. In a two player game, there is an additional option for help. 

Build and/or Move Fences: This is important because you need space to breed and house your sheep. By building fences from your supply, you can also unlock additional income items but you have to spend the same resource cards to build. Whereas, if you are able to just move existing fences this just uses action points. 

Buy or Sell Sheep: This applies to the sheep market. You can purchase from or sell to one row in the market. Buying sheep will help you to breed them more quickly, while selling sheep will help free up space in your farmyard and provide you extra coins for end of game scoring. 

(this image show both the Sheep Market and Dike building resource tracks for a 4 player game)

Draw Resource Cards: The number of cards you draw is depicted on the number of the farmer you placed. The resource cards are used throughout the game so having an adequate supply on hand is worthwhile. Remember though that during the turn of the tide phase you can only have eight cards in hand. 

        Something to note is that each player has two laborers, one is active from the start and the other you can get either through progress tokens or during the income step. These laborers assist you in the five action spots. 

What we like about the game 

        We like this game because it is a great “gateway” game into the world of Uwe Rosenberg. The game is simple enough to understand and the game play is awesome. 

        You will need to learn how to balance everything out correctly so that everyone can put up dike pieces to protect their farms. Sometimes though, letting the water through may benefit you more. 

        A key point to the game as well is that you want to be able to breed and sell your sheep. This is where you ultimately can gain the most victory points. 

        The speed of the game play is pretty quick. For us, there is minimal downtime since you can plan ahead your next move while others take their turn. With only three farmers to place each work phase the phase goes quickly.

What we don’t like about the game

 

        There isn’t anything that we don’t like. As stated before, it is a great introduction to Uwe Rosenberg. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        This game was this year’s Mother’s Day gift for my wife because I know how much she likes Uwe’s games. I figured I could not go wrong because the sheep meeples are “cute” (her words, not mine). She does very well with worker placement games so this was a hit. 

        We do recommend this game for your collection if you are a fan of Uwe or if you are looking at getting into his games.

Entry 63- Week 18: Merchants Cove

         “The Secret of The Five Realms” began with Cavern Tavern which lead to “The Future of The Five Realms” in Rise to Nobility that now has brought us up to “The Pearl of The Five Realms” in this week’s game Merchants Cove. 

        Final Frontier Games continues “The Five Realms” saga with another excellent game that adds a new twist… each character is essentially a game itself inside the main game. Read on for more information. 

BGG Description 

Welcome ashore! Merchants Cove is a highly asymmetrical eurogame where each player assumes the role of a different fantasy merchant with a unique shop. The merchants contend to sell their goods to the arriving adventurers at the cove’s piers—the most famous markets in the Five Realms. Each player uses their own set of role-specific components and gameplay mechanisms to produce their goods, increase their shop’s efficiency, and—most importantly—get rich! 

Though the merchants work independently in their specialized shops, they compete against each other to attract customers, influence the demands for goods, and secure sponsorships from the four faction halls. To get an edge, merchants can employ local townsfolk to work in their shops as staff. Or if they dare to cut corners, they can gain leverage from the corrupt lair of rogues—but at what cost? After three days of selling at the markets, the wealthiest merchant shall be declared the winner! 

—description from the publisher 

Weight 2.76/5 

A Little More Info 

           To dive right into this section, I want to tell you what all is available for the game so you can understand as more is explained: 

Base Game: Contains all you need to play the game. To highlight some of the key components: 

• The four base characters you can play are the alchemist, blacksmith, sea captain, and the chronomancer & assistant. Each has a unique gameplay and staff boards. 

• There are three types/factions of townsfolk cards; the locals, mercenaries, and sailors. Each set provides different instant abilities to help throughout the game. 

• Sixty corruption cards that will reverse your score if you have any left at the end of the game. Some of those cards can also help you if you keep them. But does it balance out?? You will have to wait and see. 

• Three rogue cards to choose from to keep you on your toes. One card is basic to introduce you to the rogues and the other two when used correctly can give you a good advantage for a price of course. 

• Six unique boats in which you load the adventurers in on their way to docking at Merchants Cove. 

Secret Stash Expansion: Contains all unlocked and daily awards from the Kickstarter campaign. This expansion will be available in retail. There are a lot of additions in this expansion to enhance your play. 

• Additional corruption cards that allow you to pay a certain price to get rid of it. 

• Four new sets of townsfolk cards that adds additional variety of abilities to boost your game. 

• New rogue cards that work with the original and new townsfolk cards. 

• Three new boats, two 5-seaters and one 2-seater, to provide you additional adventurers coming into the docks. Along with the new boats are eight boat setup cards that gives you a random setup for each round of play. 

• A solo mode and scenarios are provided if you just want to play the game alone but with some challenges. 

• And much, much, more… 

Innkeeper character: Remember Mr. Nasty from Cavern Tavern? He is back as additional character you can choose to play. He also allows a fifth player to join in the game. 

Oracle character: The Oracle adds a roll and write mechanic to the game. She also allows a fifth player to join in the game (but not a sixth). 

Dragon Rancher character: Who doesn’t like dragons in a fantasy realm? The Dragon Rancher also allows a fifth player to join in the game (again, no sixth player). 

        Merchants Cove is played over three rounds that has four phases. The arrival phase is where you load each boat with two adventurers with following the additional rules on the rogue card. 

        The production phase is where each player takes turns performing the actions of their character using time on the clock until you reach the market indicator on the clock. During this phase you also draw an adventurer from the bag and add them a boat if you pass certain markers, docking the boat if it is full. If all the piers are full, you will then proceed to the next phase once all players timeclocks meet up with or pass the market indicator. 

        The next phase is the market phase in which you can sell your goods at the Bazaar Pier (large goods), Grand Plaza Pier (small goods) or at the Black Market Pier (all goods but you get a corruption card). You also earn coins based on sponsorships that you have with each of the Faction Halls during this phase as well. 

        The cleanup phase is where you prepare the game board for the next round and if applicable, your individual character board. This is skipped if it is the third round, which you would go to final scoring that involves earning gold from the factions also taking away gold from corruption. 

What we like about the game 

        WOW. Where to start? This game is another hit for us by a company that we have grown to love with each title they have released in the series. 

        Between my wife and I (at the time I was writing this during the week) we have played four of the seven characters so far with my sister adding one more to the count. Each character provides new and exciting ways to create goods and to gain faction sponsorships. We really enjoy that no two characters are doing the same type of actions for producing the goods. Each character does have two common actions which are recruit townsfolk (same for everyone) and activate staff (each character has three unique activations and one common). We like that some characters are easier to use and some it feels like they are for more experienced gamers. 

        We do love the continuity in the artwork from one game to the next. Mihajlo Dimitrievski aka “The Mico” (same artist who has done the North Sea & West Kingdom games) is a great artist and we appreciate his work. 

        Next, the quality of the game pieces and the cardboard items is top notch. The organizer for the base game is great as well because of the overlays that are included showing and telling you what goes where. One thing I would have done differently though is have another box with the same type of organizers for the additional characters that are not part of the base game. 

        Last thing to mention is that the instructions for the core and for each character are one of the best we have seen in a while. We had no issues with finding things and understanding what to do. The game overview on the back of the manual is spot on and explains what we need to know in a summary form, so much so that for the first time we can remember we can say that player aides are not needed for the game at all. 

What we don’t like about the game 

        Our biggest complaint would be that the game does take a long time to get through. The main reason behind this is that everyone takes their turn in order of priority and if you are unsure what you are doing you can easily spend five minutes trying to decide on your action(s) you want to do. There is an option for simultaneous play that we will try after we have a few more games in without teaching new players. However, my initial feeling about this is that it may be harder to decide what strategy you want to do based on previous players turns if everyone is playing at once. This opinion may also change as we table the game more as well. 

        The other complaint is that the game is a table hog. You need to make sure that you have a big enough table for the main board and each character’s boards. The more players you add to the game, the bigger the space needed. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        We have really enjoyed “The Five Realms” series by Final Frontier Games. Each game in the series just gets better and better and with the next game already in full production mode (Bardwood Grove) we are looking forward to getting that one on the table too. 

        Even though we should have tabled Merchants Cove when we first got it delivered, we waited until we tabled Rise to Nobility first (see Entry 54) to follow the story line. It is not necessary to play the games in order because each one is a fully independent and are different from one another but we find it more fun to do it that way because “each one becomes a new top game once played.” 

        Again, with Merchants Cove, we love how unique each character in the game is and how they add their own story to it. Looking back to Cavern Tavern, where it all began, everyone has the same role, so this game is definitely the right step forward in gameplay evolution.

Entry 62: Week 17- Glass Road

        This week we will look at a game that came out in 2013 by another of our favorite creators, Uwe Rosenberg. This game came out before A Feast for Odin and Fields of Arle, both of which are favorites of ours. 

BGG Description 

The game Glass Road commemorates the 700-year-old tradition of glass-making in the Bavarian Forest. (Today, the "Glass Road" is a route through the Bavarian forest that takes visitors to many of the old glass houses and museums of that region.) You must skillfully manage your glass and brick production in order to build the right structures that help you keep your business flowing. Cut the forest to keep the fires burning in the ovens, and spread and remove ponds, pits, and groves to supply yourself with the items you need. Fifteen specialists are there at your side to carry out your orders... 

In more detail, the game consists of four building periods. Each player has an identical set of fifteen specialist cards, and each specialist comes with two abilities. At the beginning of each building period, you choose a hand of five specialists. If during this building period, you play a specialist that no other player has in hand, you may use both abilities on that card; if two or more players play the same specialist, each of them may use only one of the two abilities. Exploiting the abilities of these specialists lets you collect resources, lay out new landscape tiles (e.g., ponds and pits), and build a variety of buildings, which come in three types: 

• Processing buildings 

• "Immediate" buildings with a one-time effect 

• Buildings that provide bonus points at the end of the game for various accomplishments 

Mastering the balance of knowing the best specialist card to play and being flexible about when you play it — together with assembling a clever combination of buildings — is the key to this game. 

The 2021 edition of Glass Road includes previously released promotional material: the Oktoberfest and Adventskalender tiles and the Harlekin card for use in the solitaire version of the game. 

Weight 2.97/5 

A Little More Info 

        The above description does a good job at explaining the game. I would add that the processing buildings provide you special actions that you can take each turn that can help with gaining resources needed to increase your production. 

        Also a little more clarity about the five cards specialist cards you pick for your hand is needed. At the start of the round (building period) each player will select one of the five cards and place it face down in from of you. Beginning with the starting player, they flip over the card and the other players will check the cards in hand (not the face down card) to see if they have it. If they do, they play the card and each person with it will take one of the two abilities. Then the next player will flip their card and the other players do the same thing and so on until everybody played their first card. 

        Take note, that you can only play a “copied” card twice because each round you will repeat the above process two more times with the remaining cards in hand playing a total of three cards facedown each round. 

What we like about the game 

        We really enjoy that the game play is simple and easy to understand and makes a great “introduction to Uwe.” It is a quicker play with the only real downtime is when you select your five cards each building period and selecting which card to play face down each turn. 

        We like that the production wheels are “self-managing” when it comes to producing your glass and bricks. This makes it easier to track what resources you need in order to increase your production of the two materials. 

        For those who like design of Uwe’s games, this game follows the same looks as most of his other Euro’s. This consistency in game design is what draws us to his games. Yes, he has other games that are different in style and looks but if you laid out the pieces to this game you should be able to immediately say “Hey! That’s a Rosenberg game!” 

        Like some reviews have stated, it is the specialist cards that do make the game. With each player having the same fifteen cards to pick from and doing your best to pick the five that would benefit you the most each round by using one ability (or both if you are lucky enough to not have someone match you). Another reviewer stated that you should pick the three you want to play the most and pick two that you could hope to play for “free.” 

What we don’t like about the game 

        I think that Tom Vasel said it best when he stated that the buildings in the game are not memorable or have the “I have to have that one” feeling. 

        The number of each type of building tiles does seem excess for being only a four player game. Now my view about this might change based on player count, but with only having a three player game in the books it seems that your more than enough buildings that you may never see unless you play the game dozens of times at the minimum. 

FINAL THOUGHTS 

        Again, this game is great for introducing people to the world of Uwe Rosenberg. The game is very well done and easy enough to understand even for the novice board gamer. 

        We enjoy that Uwe creates games that are from easy and fast to play to complex and takes a whole afternoon to play. This game fits into the first category. 

        Right now I kind of have an itch and want to be like Pokémon’s Ash and “Gotta Catch ‘Em All!” What are some of your favorite Rosenberg games to play?