Quick game commentary

[dmaze]

1825, Unit 2. Played a 2-player game over break. Just like unit 1 but with a different map and companies. Actually ran pretty reasonably with 2; we wound up, approximately, with the great western rail empire and the great eastern rail empire, of which the east won. One of unit 1's big problems is that the price-banding rules means that the company start order is pretty deterministic; unit 2 has more clumping so this is less of an issue. (That, and we've been playing unit 1 backwards.) Still "the kinder, gentler 18xx". Note: the receivership mechanic ("if nobody wants to run a company, it runs itself") is more useful in the late game for "I start this company then abandon it to get more trains" than "I run this company into the ground then abandon it".

Power Grid. Played last night over New Year's. Wants more than 3, probably. I thought the general mechanics seemed pretty straightforward (definitely easier than Puerto Rico) while still being interesting. Need to buy power plants, fuel for same, and cities to power to get money; then need the money to buy previous things. Win by powering the most cities at end-of-game. Didn't get locked out of the world (not actually possible in a 3-player game) and so got ahead by investing in clean power when fuel was expensive; but then being ahead makes it easy to stay ahead by being able to spend money for nicer power plants later on.

Comments

[dariaphoebe.livejournal.com]

There are 2 expansion sets (new boards) for power grid. The Eastern Europe/Benelux board (on opposite sides) is sort of neat.

[fredrickegerman.livejournal.com]

Been meaning to investigate the Power Grid expansion possibilitites. Haven't really exhausted US/Germany yet, though. Agree that the energy market and build market are utterly different at 4 players than at 5/6 (where I'd played all my previous games). I fear the game will be dysfunctional at 2, though it claims to be possible. So far only Thurn and Taxis has made the grade as a multiplayer game which works with 2.

Am interested in playing 1825 units 1&2 at some point. "Shorter than 1830" is a bonus. Alas, I am getting the impression that none of the other 18xx variants has quite such a rich "great stock market game with, by the way, railways" as 1830 does.

[dmaze]

Thurn and Taxis is vaguely dissatisfying with 2, though it's great with either 3 or 4. With 2 you can always get the card you want (playing yesterday with 4 there were multiple instances of desirable cards appearing and vanishing before my next turn) and getting there first vs. second isn't a huge deal.

I'll probably try to get a combined 1825 game going sometime before too long. I'm not clear that the combined game will be shorter than 1830 (there are 11 public companies between units 1 and 2). I might be up for a shot of 1830 with people who haven't already played it to death...have also heard that 1870 is good, and it's readily available at GPP.

[dariaphoebe.livejournal.com]

I play Power Grid with 2. It's a different strategy. I just lost majorly at 4 player because of a single bad decision at the start.