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• 12/21/2010 11:03 AM Richard Ham wrote:
  Hi, you asked during your Merkator podcast for people to post explaining what you guys might have missed, so I thought I'd give it a quick go.
  
  I certainly won't argue that the game isn't dry, because it is. But the depth of play comes from reading the situation and trying to be as efficient as possible based on what you anticipate your opponent will do, which is awesome.
  
  The reason it's so incredibly important to follow along when someone else visits a country is not to grab an extra resource (well, maybe in some cases that can be important when you need just that "one more purple"), but to fulfil contracts. If you can do that on another player's turn, that's anywhere from 4 to 20 (IIRC, can't remember the range of contract values of the top of my head) bucks you've just made which you can use on your turn. That is a HUGE boost to efficiency, instead of having to wait for your turn to make that money. In a 2 player game (how we play it) that's a big deal, and if played smart, it's even more game changing in a multiplayer game, because you could fulfil multiple contracts before your turn comes around again, following multiple players.
  
  As you said in your podcast, the game is over quick... there aren't that many moves to make. If you follow someone else and do a contract on their turn, you've effective done 1.5 turns to their 1, which is a game changer.
  
  Also, I was confused that you kept saying you could move anywhere you want for free on the board. The farther west you go, it becomes much more expensive to travel. New Foundland (which has the best contracts in the game) costs 3 (IIRC) hour glasses to make it out there. This is very expensive, when you think in terms of saving those hourglasses to follow on your opponents turn to maximize return on contracts.
  
  You also mentioned an inability to plan ahead to get matching contracts, but that's just part of the game as well... you've got to be willing to dump contracts that don't improve your efficiency to buy cards for your end game, and only keep the contracts which are efficient. There have been games where I've sold 4 contracts in a single turn, because it set me up for a winning run down the road.
  
  So the crux of the game is all about anticipating what your opponent will likely do (since there's no hidden info, this is doable), to take advantage of where they are going to travel, either to follow them and score big contracts, or to take advantage of when new cubes will appear in adjacent cities (i.e. don't go to Russia too soon, if you expect it's going to get another purple cube because your opponent will go to Sweden next turn, because they need more black cubes).
  
  Suffice to say, my wife and I really enjoy the game. We're not bothered by the dryness of the theme, and the anticipatory gameplay (OMG, I can't believe she went to France! I was sure she was going to England... that's a setback! What is she thinking?) is just fantastic.
  
  Keep up the good work on the podcasts!
  
  
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  Richard - Thanks so much for the extensive comment.  I'm going to re-post this on the Garrett's Games Guild on BGG, as your counterpoint is excellent.  I'm certainly glad you are enjoying the game and the podcast.
  -Doug
  
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