Exploring a "subversion of the point salad paradigm" game that makes every decision seem like a bad one. How The Field of the Cloth of Gold creates it's own kind of fun out of gift giving.
I had not heard of this game, thanks for the review. Although it strikes me a bit odd to call Agricola a point salad game. It's very easy to have a starving family if you're not careful.
Yeah, I thought someone might call that out! :) Agricola is always included in lists of "point salad" games because there are many ways to score, but I agree. It has a very punishing mechanism built into it, including the ability to go negative in score. I had one 3-player game end with: 20, 19, and -29. Rough.
Perhaps Feast for Odin would be a better example if trying to stay in that same genre. I don't recall that one being quite as punishing.
Every Hollandspiele game I've tried has been interesting and more than a little stressful. I wrote about The Wars of Marcus Aurelius a while back... and have yet to win a game of it. I've also played Endurance but it's such a challenging (mechanically and emotionally) game that I haven't thought of a good way to write about it. Hard to compress that one into a 1200 word blog post.
Spacebiff recently had an article about different types of fun and at the time had a hard time coming up with examples of the top of my head of agonizing fun. This seems like it fits the bill!
The nice part is that it's a relatively short game. Mechanically easy to learn and doesn't overstay it's welcome. But if you are playing to win.... whooooo wow is it a rough one.
I had not heard of this game, thanks for the review. Although it strikes me a bit odd to call Agricola a point salad game. It's very easy to have a starving family if you're not careful.
Yeah, I thought someone might call that out! :) Agricola is always included in lists of "point salad" games because there are many ways to score, but I agree. It has a very punishing mechanism built into it, including the ability to go negative in score. I had one 3-player game end with: 20, 19, and -29. Rough.
Perhaps Feast for Odin would be a better example if trying to stay in that same genre. I don't recall that one being quite as punishing.
Good comment. Thank you!
This is a killer title, and one of the best things I've read all week (and i read quality!)
That is very kind. Thank you! ☺️
Heck yeah, I love this game. It's so tightly wound. What a pleasant surprise to see it here!
"Tightly wound" is a great way to describe it!
Every Hollandspiele game I've tried has been interesting and more than a little stressful. I wrote about The Wars of Marcus Aurelius a while back... and have yet to win a game of it. I've also played Endurance but it's such a challenging (mechanically and emotionally) game that I haven't thought of a good way to write about it. Hard to compress that one into a 1200 word blog post.
Also, unrelated: Loving your MÖRKTOBER posts!
Spacebiff recently had an article about different types of fun and at the time had a hard time coming up with examples of the top of my head of agonizing fun. This seems like it fits the bill!
Agonizing fun definitely works!
Haven't played this, but now I want to!
The nice part is that it's a relatively short game. Mechanically easy to learn and doesn't overstay it's welcome. But if you are playing to win.... whooooo wow is it a rough one.