by arkayn
zinho73 wrote:
The only possible difference i see is the possibility or not to block. But to be honest I found that they are very similar in that too.
Granted, most spaces in Stone Age are blocked if you place a piece there. In Ninjato, the actual action space is free, but the cards are also "blocked" as they are removed from the game.
Granted, most spaces in Stone Age are blocked if you place a piece there. In Ninjato, the actual action space is free, but the cards are also "blocked" as they are removed from the game.
That's not true. The most trivial difference is that the ninja stars don't directly block others' placement there - that's technically why Ninjato isn't listed under the Worker Placement mechanic. Of course, that varies by space.
The houses will either be blocked or not blocked by each star placed on them, regardless of the number of stars there (dependent on the resolution). A partially empty house is not necessarily less valuable than a full house - often the opposite: easy pickings. That's definitely different from the resource gathering spots in Stone Age, where there's a limited number of spaces, and with 3 or less players only N-1 people can place to each one.
The huts and civ cards in stone age work somewhat similarly to the counterparts in Ninjato - when all the cards are taken, they're taken. But the Dojo works in a completely separate way.
The biggest difference, though, is that there's an assignment and a resolution phase in Stone Age, and that means a lot. Just placing out a piece and taking an action is much different from placing out all of your pieces and then resolving them in a variable order (or a set order, like some other worker placement games). It changes a lot of the structure of the game.
I can tell you that I watched a group play Ninjato like it was Stone Age, with a placement and resolution stage, as well as stars placed on houses being blockers (I walked in in the middle of the game, so I had to wait for the next game... while doing so, I read the rules and noticed the error, but I waited until the end of the game to tell them, because I didn't want to ruin the session). It was still an interesting game, but much different.