Bay Area GamesDay XXXVI
Mall World, Senator, Reef Encounter
Mall World is the new game from Rio Grande,
Bewitched-Spiele, and Andrea Meyer. Two of Meyer's previous recent designs are
the rather clever ad acta and Schwartzarbeit. I'd been pretty happy with those
two, and they are very unique, so Mall World was a definite
pickup.
After one play, I'm not quite
sure about it. It definitely has a horrid rulebook, something Rio Grande seems
to be having trouble with of late. The problem here is one of terminology; it
seems that all the game terms were selected in order to be confusing. And unlike
her previous games, the theme here is a bit tortured, which always makes the
game harder to learn.
All that said,
there are elements of Mall World which are actually quite interesting. The idea
is that you are developing a Mall. The Mall can have four types of shops, Food
(Green), Hobby (Red), Sports (Blue), and Clothing (Purple). These can be further
customized by targeting children (Blue), teenagers (Red), Men (Purple), or Women
(Green). The players acquire orders, which can pay off when shops of the various
types get placed in the Mall in the proper configurations. There are three
tiers: the first pay off for just having non-customized shops adjacent to each
other in various configurations. The second type pay off for just having a
particular customized shop anywhere. The third tier (the special orders, for
which each player has one) pay off for having two particular types of customized
shops adjacent to each other. In all cases, you multiply the payoffs by the
number of times they appear.
As in
Union Pacific, each turn the player has to choose between playing an order
(which will score) and expanding the Mall. Expanding the Mall is done by
auctioning or paying for various development cards, which allow specific
configurations of shops to be created. The auctions are quite unusual, and how
they go depend on how many cards you play - the more you play, the more money
you will received, but the less control you have over the development of the
Mall. If you play just one, you use it yourself, but have to pay the bank (which
is redistributed at the end of each turn as in Traumfabrik). Rounds end when a
certain number of payoff cards have been played, at which point those cards pay
off.
What I liked: I liked the auctions
for developing the Mall; the choices there are quite interesting, and I suspect
90% of the game is in there. I liked that the game isn't too long; again, your
analysis paralysis folks can really torpedo the playing time (as in ad acta),
but in general it shouldn't be too bad. At least with 5, it was a rather chaotic
game, so people should be encouraged to move along - but there are players who
are going to look at the board, try to analyze all the options, and get
hopelessly locked up. But inherently it's not a long
game.
I think maybe the big potential
issue with Mall World is one of stability. Even more so than in Fifth Avenue, I
think it's easy to misapprehend the economics of the game. In our game, it was
the case that folks always wanted to be the last to play order cards, so it took
a while to get them down, and the game felt a bit uneven and slightly protracted
as a result. Just like Fifth Avenue, it may just be a game you've got to play
twice.
We played with 5 players, which
felt a bit chaotic to me; I'm not sure this is the optimal number. I never felt
like I had much choice on the acquisition of orders, I would just pick up the
one fairly obvious one, and I only acquired one or two more orders than I could
play, which is why I say that I think the bulk of the game is in the auctions
and tile laying.
The bottom line on
this one was that there was definitely stuff in there that intrigued me, but
another playing will be required (preferably with 4) to see if it really
works.
Senator is the new game in
Fantasy Flight's Silver Line game line. This is not exactly a bastion of quality
gamer's games, so on balance Senator was a pleasant surprise. It's basically a
bidding game; you bid to acquire political "agendas" which then give you
one-shot special powers, and can be later turned in to victory points if you can
win a Consulship, assuming you can avoid having other players foist off
conflicting agendas on you (war and trade, for
example).
This is a nice, short, nasty
little game. Between the assassins wiping out your bidding cards and other
players torpedoing your agendas, it is actually surprisingly hard to get
anything done (just like the real thing, I imagine). Between the special powers
of the agendas and the special rules that apply randomly to each turn
(Gladiatorial games limit influence expenditures as everyone is distracted;
Spartacus makes Rebellion agendas easier; the Social Wars mean you lose your
influence when you bid, whether you win or not; and so on), the auctions are
always different and there is stuff to consider. The clincher is that it's
short; our game (4-player) weighed in at about 40 minutes, which was just right.
It's not likely to become an enduring classic, but I liked it, and will
definitely play again. The only criticism is that the components may have had
the usability internationalized out of them; the agendas' special powers (of
which there are about 6) are not indicated on the counters in any way and no
reference is provided, so a cheat sheet will need to be created I
think.
I also played some more Reef
Encounter. For my first few games of this, I played the game much like I would
Tigris & Euphrates - pretty much a short-term optimization game, doing the
best I can do to improve my position this turn and for the near future, without
worrying too much about long-term
strategy.
This time, I tried to be
clever. I tried to set myself up for one massive score, an 8-9 sized reef with a
value pegged at 5, by slowly accumulating grey coral in front of my screen and
occasionally locking it in on a few tiles for the whole game, then dropping a
big reef all at once at the end. Meanwhile, I'm rapidly going through three
other small reefs to put time pressure on the other
players.
It didn't work out so well.
The big score just couldn't compensate for the paltry points I got on my other
reefs, and I ended up in last. So I don't think I'll try that again; I think you
need to make sure most of the polyp tiles you score are worth
something.
The game is still going
strong; I enjoy it, it seems about the right length, there is significant
subtlety, and it's got interesting management and tactical decision. It's a bit
short on interactivity, but so are many classic games. I've played twice with 3
and twice with 4, and while some have said 3 is preferable, I find it good at
both numbers. I'm still not sure whether it fall into the "very good" or "great"
categories, but I like it quite a bit.
Posted: Sunday - December 19, 2004 at 07:34 PM