(no subject)

[reldnahkram]

I'm starting to get a couple of itches - the Civ itch and the new game itch (still need to play Junta...). Anyone have experience/thoughts on:

- Tempus
- Antike
- Serenissima
- Mare Nostrum
- Nexus Ops

Comments

[uncleamos]

None here, sorry.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

I've played Serenissima; unfortunately, it was with Fred, so the game wasn't really ever in contest. I suspect it's a good game provided that no one playing has actually solved it.

[creed-of-hubris.livejournal.com]

I feel like you don't have enough options in Serenissima, and thus it's fairly easy to optimize; also, you build exponentially, which means that an early lead can lead to total dominance down the road.

The game that BDan is referring to, which pretty much killed all future play of Serenissima at Swat for years, was maybe my fourth game.

It was a fun game the first few times I played it, and I think play among people of similar skill levels should be enjoyable.

I don't know the other games.

[tirerim.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I certainly never heard of it being played any time since then, and that was about six years ago. So, decent once or twice, but not much replay value. I think wayman has offered to dig it out if people want to try it again sometime.

[creed-of-hubris.livejournal.com]

BTW, if you do end up playing the game and want to win, or level the playing field by telling everyone, I think I can explain the strategy I used in like two sentences.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

I think I've heard about your strategy. It went something like:

1. Buy all the boats. This includes destroying everyone else's boats and then buying them before they can buy them.

2. Win, because nobody else can do anything.

[creed-of-hubris.livejournal.com]

Well, that's the end result.

Basically, spend down to zero and max out on boats every round. I forget the exact mechanics of the game, but you need to control/develop as many boatbuilding towns as possible as rapidly as possible, then build boats with exactly enough crew and goods to take you to zero money and to ship to the nearest valid town. Once you get a naval numerical advantage you can divide up your fleet into merchant ships and armed vessels, and use your armed vessels to whittle down your opponents while your merchants keep up your economy.

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

It's fun, and I like the style of play — one might want to come up with some house rules to mitigate the Fred effect, if that could be done without breaking it. Then again, I'm a sucker for pretty toy worlds, some of which work just fine until someone tries to win them. Games, on the other hand, are expected not to break under such conditions.

[leepinleemur.livejournal.com]

I'm shocked you haven't played Junta!
I was never too thrilled with Serenissima.

Nexus Ops is a pretty straightforward, simple but nice wargame. Will has it but we haven't played yet.

Tempus, Mare Nostrum and Antike all had the dream civ-lite buzz for awhile, but most of them did not live up to that. (NOTE I haven't played any of them, but this is my impression, still I would certainly try any of the 3). Tempus seems pretty good although turtling and in particular the 3 stack exploit seem to be problems. Antike seems to be a potentially stronger game, with no luck, but it lacks things like trading.

As far as games I have and haven't played yet, but want to:
In the Martin Wallace category (Age of Steam, Tempus) I have Struggle of Empires which I really want to get played. It does have some of a luck factor if you do not get the proper things to mitigate it.
I also really want to play the fantasy flight reprint of GW's Warrior Knights. It seems to have nice negotiation, some combat, etc.

[reldnahkram.livejournal.com]

I got a copy a while back, but have never gotten around to it. Also, I made myself a pledge (not nearly as long ago) that I wouldn't buy any new games until I played all of the games I currently own. Junta is the only thing left on that list.

I'd like to give Nexus Ops a try. Really, I'll play anything once.

We should scare up another session of Twilight Imperium. But, you know, maybe start when it's light out.

[leepinleemur.livejournal.com]

Well ajacs et al are often up for Junta.

Well Warrior Knights seems to have some of the good TI elements.

[leepinleemur.livejournal.com]

Also I should be getting the new English printing of Die Macher this week!