by aaarg_ink
Just a quick session report. I walked into a local game store to check out the new location and it just so happened that 3 guys were setting up this game, so I joined in. The owner of the game had played a few times before, but was a very good host, and clearly was a fan of coops but was quite skilled at guiding the conversation but not at all being overbearing.We had a scholar, explorer, mystic (me), and mechanic (forgot the name). I think there were definitely some mistakes made along the way but in general we did pretty good for 3 new players. By the second half of the game me and the scholar were all-in on the Athenians while the other two guys raced to finish off the last couple components. We barely, barely completed the last components. Only the center tile remained, and I think between us we had two unused resource cubes and one mystic token. So yeah, that was pretty much it.
Unfortunately I found the dice rolling a little annoying. Then again, I'm not a big fan of Stone Age either. Usually I like dice, I typically enjoy calculating the odds with dice instead of counting cards. But maybe I've been spoiled with Troyes, where you can really manipulate dice because you roll first before making decisions. But I also suspect the context is important. When its PvP, rolling better is awesome. But in a coop you're fighting the game system, so the adrenaline rush of rolling them bones head to head is neutered. As such I think the controlled randomness of the card draw in Pandemic just felt more "right" to me gameplay wise -- instead of brute force (luck) you need to outwit the game system.
In the end I think its an interesting game, and a solid attempt of combining worker placement, dice, and coop play. And actually I think calling it a coop analog of Stone Age might be a pretty good description. Unfortunately worker placement and resource conversion games aren't my favorite mechanisms. So it just didn't do it for me especially since the theme and the board felt a bit pasted on and sterile to me. Personally, I rated this game a 3, but I rate games by desire to replay and so I've been rating a lot of games quite log because I have not little interesting in replaying just "decent" games (aside from auction games). But really, though I can see folks quite enjoying it so if you like coops, WP and dice, I'd strongly, strongly recommend checking it out.
As with any game, but coops especially, the crowd is very important, and I have to say my three partners were great! I've never played with them before, but I really enjoyed the company, and really, its hard to ask for much more than that!