Yesterday Jonathan very kindly met up with me to try out some of the new additions to our collections.
Sadly our regular hosts were not available due to the refit taking longer than we expected. We are now having to cancel club meet ups. Which is seeing a first in the four year history of the club, a cancelled monthly meet up.
So Jonathan and I met up at the local Spoons. It’s been a while since we have done any gaming here. It far more busier and noisier. But on the plus side I can get unlimited coffee for £1.30. On the downside it’s just about drinkable coffee. So for me on the beverage side a very very cheap night out.
The first game to hit the table was the latest game from Portal Games Imperial Settlers: Roll and Write.
I like roll and writes, or the ones that are in my collection. They do seem to be this years must have for a publisher to be putting out (just like legacy games and escape rooms before that).
Naturally we played a 2 player game, and the basic version of the game. There is an advanced variant, and a solo variant too.
The game plays quickly, each game is 10 rounds, and we found a round was very quick.
I liked that the dice are used by everyone playing each round. So everyone gets the same number of basic actions each round, plus any bonus actions from buildings or tiles. And also get the same basic resources plus any bonus resources from buildings, tiles or harvesting.
I like the use of two sheets one for the village, which when the buildings are built give bonuses each turn, and an empire that is where you can harvest resources and score victory points. Neither felt overwhelming individually or together. Which the Ganz Schon Clever sheets do.
The empire sheet allows you to track rounds, and gives a very small area on that tracking for notes. Which we both found you needed. I was using it to note how many actions I had each round, and resources used.
One thing I like about the Portal Games rule books is the little touches of humour. But the one in this rule book has to be my favourite of all time (see below)
I love the graphic design and look. Naturally it matches up art wise with its inspiration thematically Imperial Settlers. But there is also this kind of pastel, sketch note feel to it as well. I point to exhibit a above for the house rules, and exhibit b below with the tile photo below. I really like the feel it gives to the whole game.
Let’s talk about the dice. There is a great design, game play choice made here with the worker die being not only a different colour to the resource dice. But also larger. It really hammers home this die is not a resource die, it’s use is different.
But wood?!!! Couldn’t we have better quality dice? These really are the weakest part of the game. You get 4 pencils included (very nice touch). But you scrimp on the dice?
I’m waiting to here back from Portal Games about why the adventure mode pad (used for solo games, each sheet is a unique village) can’t be used in a multiplayer game.
I can’t wait to try the advanced mode. But it’s cool that the game has this, plus the solo mode.
I like this game a lot. It’s not as light as say Qwixx or Qwinto. But less complicated than Ganz Schon Clever or the really over complicated and awful Welcome to Dino World. It’s hit the sweet spot.
I suppose I better admit Jonathan won by a single point.
Jonathan and I did start to set up Caverna: Cave vs Cave – Era II. Wow with the base game and this new expansion boy does it take up a lot of table space. Looking at the new rule book you play the base game first then move onto the expansion! We did the maths based on the game play times on the boxes. With having to refresh our memories on how to play as well this would take more time than we had. Our calculations put it at over an hour to play.
So we moved onto a game of Citadels. A classic for sure. I love the 2 player drafting of characters. It’s very similar to dark draft in Epic. You have an idea of what the other player may have taken but not exactly.
I will need to sleeve my copy before using it at club nights.
I managed to get the win of our play of this.
Jonathan did give me a game last night. They were being given out free at the expo. Apparently this is a worker placement style game. But looking at the box you’d have no idea what type of game it is. The description on the box gives no clue. The publisher is doing themselves no favours.
I’d like to thank Jonathan for being so kind for taking the time to meet up and play games last night. It was really appreciated.
Games played: Imperial Settlers: Roll & Write, Citadels
While you wax lyrical about the graphic design, I actually do not like that style (I have not played Imperial Settlers to judge how similar it is). The dice could have been better, but I suppose it fits with the aesthetic they were going for. My main problems with the game were twofold:
1) There is too much tracking to be done for a roll and write (and the boxes provided on the sheet are too small to fit such notes)
2) Simultaneous play. I’m not really a fan of simultaneous play in games. It makes it impossible to check up on what other players are doing. I like my turns, in most games I play and especially when the games are new, to have a running commentary through a player’s turn so I can see what each player is actually doing and simultaneous play games do not help with learning a game.
If it were threefold, I would add:
3) It’s yet another roll and write in an already burgeoning market; there’s just too many of them. But the way Alan Partridge would look at it would be, “They’re popular; let’s make some more.”
I didn’t dislike the game, but I also wouldn’t choose this roll and write over others, and certainly not over a game that does not involve paper and pencils.
I do agree about the Dino World comment though – this game was far too complicated for a roll and write game.