The game involves trading commodities, sending messages, auctioning actions and completing deliveries in a nicely designed Italian Renaissance town (probably Genoa, now I think about it). On the plus side, there was a lot of interaction and discussion with each go. On the down side, the game dragged on a bit. Perhaps we discussed too much.
Also, I wasn’t sure what to do if none of the options seemed appealing – sit tight and do nothing or go for something and try and increase its price, but run the risk of having to buy it. Or perhaps not having to buy it. I was never quite sure when you could back out of a deal.
Play started timidly, with few indications of what was the best tactic to employ. Joe went for getting plenty of villas, Adam specialised in making multiple deliveries in one move, I picked up easy points on delivering messages but made very few big deliveries and Sam fretted over how badly he was doing.
As the evening progressed, we were starting to over-run the game’s suggested 2 hour playing time and with no one bringing any crisps or snacks, people started to flag. Finally, Adam ended the game abruptly on his go by simply making one last delivery and refusing to move his piece again. Totals were totted up and the final score came to:
Joe: 775, Andrew: 765, Sam: 725, Adam: 625.
While it was quite nice to have something meaty on the table for all of us to get our teeth into (metaphorically speaking) it was quite long. Three hours plus is a lot to ask of anyone when the box promises two hours maximum. Although that probably doesn't take into account toilet breaks and Sam's poorly baby. Meanwhile, there's little movement on the Leaderboard, with Joe whittling away at Adam's lead and I struggle to get my points ratio higher than Hannah's.
The leaderboard...
| Played | Points | Ratio | |
| Adam | 11 | 55 | 5 |
| Joe | 12 | 49 | 4.08 |
| Andrew | 13 | 41.5 | 3.19 |
| Sam | 8 | 35.5 | 4.44 |
| Quentin | 7 | 30 | 4.28 |
| Hannah | 3 | 11.5 | 3.8 |
| Johnny | 1 | 2 | 2 |
I was so exhausted at the end of this game - having had a few night's bad sleep previously - that I was intent on sticking it in a maths trade today. But now I'm not sure - without the rules to go through and having worked out what's what I think we COULD get it down to two hours play - and I really liked the mechanics of it, just not the length.
ReplyDeleteI think markers are a bit of an untapped strategy for big scores - the downside being you'd have an evident presence on the table and people might be reluctant to do business with you. Like Agricola there are several ways to score but the addition of all the haggling makes it markedly different. I'd give it eight out of ten if we could play it in under two hours!
While some games get singled out for lack of interaction, that is not a complaint you could level at Genoa. If anything, it's the reverse — the constant interaction can be a bit exhausting — an hour and a half and I'm spent. I also have difficulty with some types of bidding/auction games — I need to be able roughly estimate the going value. I guess you can do that if you're totally on it, but there is an element of groupthink which can radically alter the market values.
ReplyDeleteI'm happier with something like Ra, which is almost more of a push your luck thing than an auction — then comes Medici, which is probably at the limit of my ability to calculate a good deal. After that I would put Chicago Express, which has the same brain-burny maths, but a greatly reduced running time and slightly more transparent calculation (I'm sure Genoa gets easier to read as you get better at it).
It's the length more than anything that puts me off wanting to try it again — for a long game, Brass, Caylus or Age of Steam would give me more satisfaction. It's a 5/10 for me, potentially rising to 6/7 if we maanged to get it down to half the time . . .
I think last night was the first time Adam's reputation as serial-games-winner and canny strategist actually hampered him, as we all assumed he was doing very well, and I think at one stage someone used the word 'adam' as a verb.
ReplyDeleteI just noticed that after the scores were adjusted to include the markers, it was a very close finish. I was clearly not doing that well beyond taking all those contracts. I think you're right about the markers, Sam. If played early on in popular buildings, they could earn you lots of cash, plus the 10 at the end.
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