Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part Three: Pente, Colonialists, Puerto Rico
The article by John Harris from the Fundamentals of Game Design series provides a detailed overview of the most popular board games, including traditional chess and go, role-playing like Call of Cthulhu, European ones like Colonialists, and many others who have a lot to learn.
Previous articles in the series:
')
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part one: go, chess, Parchis.
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part two: backgammon, monopoly, scrabble.
Pente
Published by turn by companies Parker Bros., Hasbro, then Winning Moves
Type: board game on the formation of lines of stones for two players
Difficulty level: medium
Creator: Gary Gabriel (presumably, during the creation of traditional games were taken as the basis)
Luck factor: none
Description: A variation of the Japanese game "go-moku". Two players take turns placing stones on a 19x19 square board. Yes, this is how it is, but instead of capturing the territory, it is necessary to line the stones. The winner is the one who first put 5 of his stones in a row or captures 5 pairs of opponent's stones.
Game Review
2 players take turns placing stones on a board divided into cells in order to line up 5 stones of their own color in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally and prevent the opponent from doing the same.
The player can capture and remove from the board 1 pair of opponent stones. To do this, you must place your stones on both sides of the opponent's stones, forming a line. Wins the one who first will be able to put 5 of their stones in a row or grab 5 pairs of opponent's stones.
To win, you need to place 5 stones in a row, but the key point of the game is to create a game situation in which the opponent cannot prevent the creation of a line of 5 stones in the next turn. The easiest way to achieve this is to create what we and our friends call the “boundless four”: a row of 4 stones with two free ends.
Since in one move you can block only one end of the row, this is a guaranteed victory, unless the opponent on the other end of the board does not have a similar winning combination. Other ways to win are the threat of creating two winning lines at once and entangling the opponent so that he cannot figure out the potential winning row until it is too late. The latter method often brings not such a spectacular victory, but it is still a victory.
You can win if you capture 5 pairs of opponent's stones. Advanced players are able to place their stones in such a way that the enemy can capture them only by losing their own. Players can come up with long chains of similar “traps”. Another favorite tactic of players is to line up, blocking which allows you to capture stones.
In order to win, it is usually necessary to build a line of 5 stones. It’s not possible to do this in 5 moves in a row, so the more untapped stones are on the board at the same time, the more material there is for building lines and combinations. Diagonals are one of the main tools for a good player for long sequences: diagonals are less visible on the board, but more importantly, they can start several potential lines at once.
Long lines of stones are easy to notice, and turning a pair of stones into a row of three can be problematic due to the danger of their being caught or blocked. In this regard, there is a strategy that, in my opinion, works well. First you need to place the stones at a distance of 1-2 points from each other, and then close the space, forming a grid of possible lines.
The disadvantage of this approach is that due to the alignment of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines very often pairs of stones are formed, which can be easily captured by the enemy, and during the blocking of the capture new pairs can arise.
In Penta, the player who goes first gets a significant advantage, but in itself it is not so bad. For example, in go the advantage of the first player is so well known that it is estimated at 5.5 points.
But in "Penta" the second player is more difficult to compensate for the lost advantage. In many games, the first player has an advantage, but the best of the games try to minimize it. Some enthusiasts for these purposes offer the following solutions: to introduce certain restrictions on the second and subsequent steps of the first to walk, to allow to capture 3 stones instead of 2, and also to allow the second player to change sides at will during certain moves.
What can be learned from this game?
At the heart of Pente is a technique of building several lines at the same time and planning situations of traps in which the blocking of rows leads to the seizure of stones. The more stones on the board, the more options to create a winning line. With the loss of a large number of stones, the player loses not only because of the captured stones, but also because he is unable to build several rows, and without this it is almost impossible to win.
With regard to the alignment of several rows, the diagonal lines greatly facilitate the process, since they are more difficult to notice on the board, and they are usually built from intersecting perpendicular rows. But this is where the danger lies, because such situations lead to the formation of pairs of stones that can be captured by the enemy. Such clusters are easy prey for experienced rivals, so good players try to locate them slyly, starting to connect from afar or breaking them apart.
The most elegant element of the Pente is the capture mechanic. Developers who create similar games can start by exploring both Pente and the amateur variations described above.
Colonizers
The game was first published by the German company Kosmos. Mayfair Games publishes it in the US and the UK, and Strategy Games in Canada.
Type: board game for colonization of the island for 3-4 players (extended version with additions is designed for 5-6 players).
Difficulty level: medium
Creator: Klaus Teuber
Luck factor: moderate
Description: "Colonialists" - the best-selling of the so-called "European board games", or board games in the German style. Players take turns to make moves by throwing dice. The sum of the numbers drawn on the dice determines which resources will be received by players whose settlements are on the border of the card with the number drawn.
Players are free to trade resources among themselves, change them at the bank at the rate of 4: 1, or spend in different quantities on the construction of roads, new settlements, cities and development cards.
The game ends when one of the players reaches a certain level of development, which is measured in victory points. The configuration of the island and the numbers that indicate the resource to be paid are random in each lot. Thus, each party has its own strategy development scenario.
Game Review
Before the game starts, a playing field is created - Catan Island, which consists of pre-mixed hexagonal cards. There are 6 types of sushi: forests, pastures, hills, arable land, mountains and desert. Each type of land, except the desert, has a corresponding resource: wood, wool, bricks, grain and ore. The desert gives no resources.
Landcards are surrounded by the sea, where there are ports - one port for each resource and 3 "common". After the island is created, a random angle is selected, and from this angle they start to lay out the counters with counter numbers, counterclockwise and alphabetically, on sushi cards in a spiral. A well-thought-out combination of letters and numbers on tokens ensures an even distribution of valuable locations.
A distinctive feature of the German-style board games is that they try to minimize the sequence of turns. In "Colonialists" this is given special attention. Before the start of the game, each participant builds 2 settlements and adjacent roads. In the first turn, the first player builds a settlement on the “corner” - the place where two hexagons (hexes) intersect, and then the road along one of the faces adjacent to the settlement. Then the second player does the same, and so on in turns to the last player.
The second move is done in the reverse order: the last player builds the second settlement, then the penultimate one, and so on until the first. When building it is impossible to put a settlement in the immediate vicinity (1 facet of a hex) from an existing settlement; there must be at least one free point between two neighboring settlements, regardless of who owns this settlement or city. This condition significantly limits the number of places available for construction and complicates the planning of colonization.
After the starting buildings are placed, the players start walking in turns, starting with the first one. The move is as follows:
- First, the player rolls 2 dice. The numbers drawn are summed to form a number from two to twelve. The land cards, on which the tokens with the corresponding number are located, bring resources to the players who built settlements or cities there (unless the number 7 falls out). The rule of placing buildings suggests that there can be a maximum of 3 buildings on one hex. Each settlement on the played hex brings to its owner one card of the corresponding resource, and each city two cards. In this case, the resources are received by all the players whose buildings are located on the played hex, and not just the one who made the move.
If the number 7 falls out, no one gets the resources. In this case, all players who have more than 7 resource cards in their hands must fold half of their cards, and the player who rolls the dice moves the thief to another hex. This hex will not give resources as long as the robber is there. The player who moved the robber can take one card of any resource to choose from any player whose settlement is on this hex.
- Then the player can exchange resources - either with other players by agreement, or at a fixed rate at the bank or port. In a bank, resources are usually exchanged at a rate of 4: 1 (4 identical resources for 1 required). If a player’s settlement is adjacent to a port on the edge of the island, then resources can be exchanged at a rate of 3: 1 or even 2: 1, depending on the type of port.
- Finally, the player can build a settlement, city or road, or buy development.
What can be learned from this game?
“Colonialists” is a strategic game, but, paradoxically, it largely depends on chance. The most carefully verified plan can go crash if someone else pulls out all the development cards with victory points (such cases were recorded), or the “usual” number on which your game depends, simply does not fall in the game.
A more advanced strategy involves not only obtaining the maximum amount of resources, but also assigning different numbers so that income is stable. Theoretically, it is possible to create a version in which the distribution of the "dropped out" numbers will be similar to the probability of falling numbers on the cube. Such a game may be of some interest, but it will differ dramatically from the existing version.
It is very difficult to arrange your buildings evenly across the board because of the restrictions on the minimum distance between neighboring settlements and the need to connect new settlements with old ones by roads. You can try to fight this by populating a small number of hexes or erecting cities as early as possible, but both of these strategies are leveled by a robber. The rest of the robber - a rather weak chip. It affects only one hex, “steals” only one random resource, and often moves around the map.
This is a very common feature of European-style board games - they try to minimize the ways players attack each other. Often, such games force players to look for the most effective ways to use their own system, over which opponents have almost no control. But at the same time they compete to compete with opponents for the resources that are necessary in order to acquire the tools for implementing this system in the game. "Colonialists" is the most competitive of all games of this type, and yet it gives a good idea of ​​this concept.
My favorite aspect of the game is a random game generation mechanism. The resource numbering system usually does a good job with the distribution of numbers. Cases where "common" numbers like 6 or 8 border each other are very rare. This is a very elegant algorithm that is simply necessary when people play the game, not a microprocessor.
Software developers can use calculations to find a way out of problematic situations, but often solutions are no better than the problem itself. European type games are a storehouse of elegant game concepts and algorithms, studying which developers of computer strategy games can learn a lot for themselves.
Puerto rico
Publishers: Alea and Rio Grande Games
Type: colonization board game for 2-5 players
Level of difficulty: very high
Creator: Andreas Seyfart
Luck factor: low
Description: The task of the players is to earn the most points by developing their part of the colony in Puerto Rico. To do this, you need to build plantations and buildings, settling them with colonists who will produce various goods and send them back to the Old World.
All these actions begin to occur after the player assumes a certain role in the game. After choosing a role, all players can perform an action related to that role, and not just who got it. However, the player along with the role gets a small bonus and at this stage can perform the action before the others. Inventive players use this advantage to overtake their opponents.
Game Review
"Puerto Rico" gained immense popularity among gamers literally several years after the birth. This game is especially appreciated by the boardgamegeek resource resource regulars. Despite the fact that the luck factor in the gameplay is very low, game events can be quite unpredictable.
Sometimes in Puerto Rico it is possible to win simply by adhering to a certain plan of action, but you need to be able to benefit from unforeseen situations that arise during the game, because they play an equally important role for victory. Despite the variety of possible game strategies, none of them has established itself as universal; most tactics are effective only in certain situations, while in others they lead to defeat. Therefore, adaptability and flexibility of strategies are key qualities for this game.
The goal of the game is to accumulate as many victory points as possible. You can earn them by sending goods on ships and buying buildings, and you can also get extra points at the end of the game for building and settling large buildings. For each of these steps, good coordination is necessary, and sometimes unintended “help” from other players.
In each round there are 6 roles, one of which must be chosen by each player (more players - more roles). In each round, the role of the players must change. Choosing a role means that all players, not only the one who chose the role, can perform certain actions within the framework of this role, however, the player who chose this role gets a slight, but significant, advantage. The roles are as follows:
For example, if Indigo gets on the ship first, then it will be possible to load only Indigo on it. If it is possible to send the goods in the Captain phase, then you need to do so. All undelivered cargo deteriorates, with the exception of one barrel. All this together makes the captain's favorite phase for seasoned players who try to fool their opponents. But inept planning can lead to victory points for rivals.
Gold digger is available only in the game with more than three players. In the gold miner phase, none of the players takes any action, but the player who chooses the role gets 1 double.
Players act on an interesting system of a cycle of concentric moves. In each round, a player who has a Governor card may be the first to choose a role. Players then choose their roles in a clockwise order. During the phase of each defined role, players take turns in performing actions of that role, and the player with the chosen role makes the first move.
During the same round it is prohibited to choose the same role twice, therefore players who are located closer to the Governor have a higher chance of obtaining the role and advantage they need. When each player chooses his role, the Governor’s card goes to the next place in a clockwise direction, and the players return their role cards to the table to select them again in the next round. At first glance, this may seem confusing, but in reality everything happens very easily. The Governor card and selected role cards help players keep track of their place in the sequence of moves.
Coins are put on roles that no one chose during the round. Then the player who chose this role in the next round gets all the doubles from the card. There are not so many sources of profit in the game, so all the roles are chosen with more or less the same frequency.
Many of the limitations inherent in a particular role can be compensated for by the construction of certain buildings - most buildings make changes to the rules. But the construction of such buildings costs money, and for their activation a colonist is needed. For example, the Office promotes trade, the Hospital and the University provide new colonists for settlement and construction, and Warehouses do not allow the product to deteriorate in the Captain phase. The shipyard gives players the ability to ship goods without the use of public ships.
Most buildings are presented in only two copies, so some players lose the opportunity to build popular buildings. The scope of supply of goods is also limited; if all the barrels with a certain product are in players or on ships, no one can produce this product until these barrels are removed in any way, and it becomes possible to distribute the product again.
Despite the fact that each player has his own board, they all compete for the possibility of buying, transporting and selling goods. There are many clever ways to influence players on each other. In addition to blocking the Trade House and the ships, players still do not always manage to choose the plantations they want. Buildings that the player has aimed at can be bought by his rivals. In addition, someone can choose the Manufacturer, when a lot of unreleased barrels have already accumulated in the game, and thus use the supply limit to block rivals.
There are many other tricks. This game is a masterpiece of the strategy of passive aggression. There are no direct attacks on opponents, but almost every step that a player takes has an effect on the development of events in the game, and many of these steps with skillful use can lead to victory.
What can be learned from this game?
Puerto Rico is a great game. Many ideas arise in it as if from nowhere and twist among themselves into such a whirlpool that the gameplay is just a storehouse of information for a careful game designer. My advice to you: play it, and as soon as possible.
The importance of this game is difficult to overestimate. If you are not familiar with German-style board games, then Puerto Rico will be an example for you that it is not necessary to be a good strategy to be military or similar to Monopoly.
All Puerto Rico gaming systems are intertwined in such a way that even the most insignificant at first glance decisions can play a key role. At the same time, in different games the same decisions affect the course of the game in different ways! The gameplay here is so deep that I doubt my ability to explain it fully. But at the same time, learning how to play Puerto Rico is not difficult. Here are some tips for beginners:
• Game currency (doubloons) is very important in the initial stages of the game, so it’s very good not to give opponents a coin or two in the first rounds. It will be easier to get doubles, but the benefits of them will be reduced proportionally. A very common mistake for newbies is that they wait too long before they start producing resources, or they don’t use the opportunity to sell something for doubloons on the first moves. Another similar mistake is that players start making money only on the 10th move, or even later. Most games end on the move at 12th.
• Large and expensive buildings that give big bonuses in the form of points and nothing more - a favorite goal of players who managed to earn a decent amount in the early stages of the game. If you have accumulated a sufficient amount before the 8th turn, it is best to build one expensive building - for example, Factory, Port or Shipyard - and save the remaining savings. The most profitable acquisition in this case will be the Factory. With proper management, it will be a good source of income. But many strategies in Puerto Rico have their own exceptions, and you should not let your opponents buy big buildings before you, because these buildings are presented in a single copy.
• If you need a specific role to be chosen, but it’s not so important to get the privilege or opportunity of the first move in this phase, try giving the other player to choose this role for you. And if you see that another specific role is important for another player to earn an advantage, do not choose it in your turn. Let him use his right to choose for the benefit. Choosing roles is one of the most powerful tools in the game.
• It is believed that the player to the left of the player is in his “shadow”. He usually walks after his neighbor to the right in the role phase, which is a big disadvantage in the Merchant and Captain phases. In addition, the player will choose his role after the neighbor to the right, which is especially inconvenient when choosing a Manufacturer. (The guys from BoardGameGeek even came up with a special term for this phenomenon: “Manufacturer's fear”).
• The player needs to beware of the neighbor on the right and try to prevent the neighbor on the left. If an evil scoundrel is sitting to your right, then wait for the Governor's card to pass to you. In this and the previous rounds between your choice of the role, the player on your right hand will not choose your role. Take advantage of this!
• If there is a flaw in Puerto Rico, it is that beginners usually have a very strong influence on the development of events. Experienced players are well versed in all sorts of blockages and know how to prevent opponents from choosing the role they need to earn points. If all players are clever and experienced, the game is filled with a deep tactical meaning.
But one single newcomer is enough to ruin all the plans of experienced players. Masters get used to playing hardcore, and ill-conceived muddling moves beginners take them by surprise, so inexperienced players have the opportunity to beat the "veterans"! It is good that the gods of this game still do not allow this to happen several times in a row.
Previous articles in the series:
')
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part one: go, chess, Parchis.
Basics of game design: 20 board games. Part two: backgammon, monopoly, scrabble.
Pente
Published by turn by companies Parker Bros., Hasbro, then Winning Moves
Type: board game on the formation of lines of stones for two players
Difficulty level: medium
Creator: Gary Gabriel (presumably, during the creation of traditional games were taken as the basis)
Luck factor: none
Description: A variation of the Japanese game "go-moku". Two players take turns placing stones on a 19x19 square board. Yes, this is how it is, but instead of capturing the territory, it is necessary to line the stones. The winner is the one who first put 5 of his stones in a row or captures 5 pairs of opponent's stones.
Game Review
2 players take turns placing stones on a board divided into cells in order to line up 5 stones of their own color in a row vertically, horizontally or diagonally and prevent the opponent from doing the same.
The player can capture and remove from the board 1 pair of opponent stones. To do this, you must place your stones on both sides of the opponent's stones, forming a line. Wins the one who first will be able to put 5 of their stones in a row or grab 5 pairs of opponent's stones.
To win, you need to place 5 stones in a row, but the key point of the game is to create a game situation in which the opponent cannot prevent the creation of a line of 5 stones in the next turn. The easiest way to achieve this is to create what we and our friends call the “boundless four”: a row of 4 stones with two free ends.
Since in one move you can block only one end of the row, this is a guaranteed victory, unless the opponent on the other end of the board does not have a similar winning combination. Other ways to win are the threat of creating two winning lines at once and entangling the opponent so that he cannot figure out the potential winning row until it is too late. The latter method often brings not such a spectacular victory, but it is still a victory.
You can win if you capture 5 pairs of opponent's stones. Advanced players are able to place their stones in such a way that the enemy can capture them only by losing their own. Players can come up with long chains of similar “traps”. Another favorite tactic of players is to line up, blocking which allows you to capture stones.
In order to win, it is usually necessary to build a line of 5 stones. It’s not possible to do this in 5 moves in a row, so the more untapped stones are on the board at the same time, the more material there is for building lines and combinations. Diagonals are one of the main tools for a good player for long sequences: diagonals are less visible on the board, but more importantly, they can start several potential lines at once.
Long lines of stones are easy to notice, and turning a pair of stones into a row of three can be problematic due to the danger of their being caught or blocked. In this regard, there is a strategy that, in my opinion, works well. First you need to place the stones at a distance of 1-2 points from each other, and then close the space, forming a grid of possible lines.
The disadvantage of this approach is that due to the alignment of vertical, horizontal and diagonal lines very often pairs of stones are formed, which can be easily captured by the enemy, and during the blocking of the capture new pairs can arise.
In Penta, the player who goes first gets a significant advantage, but in itself it is not so bad. For example, in go the advantage of the first player is so well known that it is estimated at 5.5 points.
But in "Penta" the second player is more difficult to compensate for the lost advantage. In many games, the first player has an advantage, but the best of the games try to minimize it. Some enthusiasts for these purposes offer the following solutions: to introduce certain restrictions on the second and subsequent steps of the first to walk, to allow to capture 3 stones instead of 2, and also to allow the second player to change sides at will during certain moves.
What can be learned from this game?
At the heart of Pente is a technique of building several lines at the same time and planning situations of traps in which the blocking of rows leads to the seizure of stones. The more stones on the board, the more options to create a winning line. With the loss of a large number of stones, the player loses not only because of the captured stones, but also because he is unable to build several rows, and without this it is almost impossible to win.
With regard to the alignment of several rows, the diagonal lines greatly facilitate the process, since they are more difficult to notice on the board, and they are usually built from intersecting perpendicular rows. But this is where the danger lies, because such situations lead to the formation of pairs of stones that can be captured by the enemy. Such clusters are easy prey for experienced rivals, so good players try to locate them slyly, starting to connect from afar or breaking them apart.
The most elegant element of the Pente is the capture mechanic. Developers who create similar games can start by exploring both Pente and the amateur variations described above.
Colonizers
The game was first published by the German company Kosmos. Mayfair Games publishes it in the US and the UK, and Strategy Games in Canada.
Type: board game for colonization of the island for 3-4 players (extended version with additions is designed for 5-6 players).
Difficulty level: medium
Creator: Klaus Teuber
Luck factor: moderate
Description: "Colonialists" - the best-selling of the so-called "European board games", or board games in the German style. Players take turns to make moves by throwing dice. The sum of the numbers drawn on the dice determines which resources will be received by players whose settlements are on the border of the card with the number drawn.
Players are free to trade resources among themselves, change them at the bank at the rate of 4: 1, or spend in different quantities on the construction of roads, new settlements, cities and development cards.
The game ends when one of the players reaches a certain level of development, which is measured in victory points. The configuration of the island and the numbers that indicate the resource to be paid are random in each lot. Thus, each party has its own strategy development scenario.
Game Review
Before the game starts, a playing field is created - Catan Island, which consists of pre-mixed hexagonal cards. There are 6 types of sushi: forests, pastures, hills, arable land, mountains and desert. Each type of land, except the desert, has a corresponding resource: wood, wool, bricks, grain and ore. The desert gives no resources.
Landcards are surrounded by the sea, where there are ports - one port for each resource and 3 "common". After the island is created, a random angle is selected, and from this angle they start to lay out the counters with counter numbers, counterclockwise and alphabetically, on sushi cards in a spiral. A well-thought-out combination of letters and numbers on tokens ensures an even distribution of valuable locations.
A distinctive feature of the German-style board games is that they try to minimize the sequence of turns. In "Colonialists" this is given special attention. Before the start of the game, each participant builds 2 settlements and adjacent roads. In the first turn, the first player builds a settlement on the “corner” - the place where two hexagons (hexes) intersect, and then the road along one of the faces adjacent to the settlement. Then the second player does the same, and so on in turns to the last player.
The second move is done in the reverse order: the last player builds the second settlement, then the penultimate one, and so on until the first. When building it is impossible to put a settlement in the immediate vicinity (1 facet of a hex) from an existing settlement; there must be at least one free point between two neighboring settlements, regardless of who owns this settlement or city. This condition significantly limits the number of places available for construction and complicates the planning of colonization.
After the starting buildings are placed, the players start walking in turns, starting with the first one. The move is as follows:
- First, the player rolls 2 dice. The numbers drawn are summed to form a number from two to twelve. The land cards, on which the tokens with the corresponding number are located, bring resources to the players who built settlements or cities there (unless the number 7 falls out). The rule of placing buildings suggests that there can be a maximum of 3 buildings on one hex. Each settlement on the played hex brings to its owner one card of the corresponding resource, and each city two cards. In this case, the resources are received by all the players whose buildings are located on the played hex, and not just the one who made the move.
If the number 7 falls out, no one gets the resources. In this case, all players who have more than 7 resource cards in their hands must fold half of their cards, and the player who rolls the dice moves the thief to another hex. This hex will not give resources as long as the robber is there. The player who moved the robber can take one card of any resource to choose from any player whose settlement is on this hex.
- Then the player can exchange resources - either with other players by agreement, or at a fixed rate at the bank or port. In a bank, resources are usually exchanged at a rate of 4: 1 (4 identical resources for 1 required). If a player’s settlement is adjacent to a port on the edge of the island, then resources can be exchanged at a rate of 3: 1 or even 2: 1, depending on the type of port.
- Finally, the player can build a settlement, city or road, or buy development.
- For one map of the tree and one grain you can build a road, which is necessary in order to build new buildings. The player who has built the longest road of 5 or more sections, receives a special map of the longest road, which is equal to two victory points. Roads and settlements can be used to block rivals' roads.
- The settlement costs on one map of a tree, a brick, grain and wool. Players get one victory point for each settlement, plus each settlement brings an extra resource when paying with a hex. One player can have no more than 5 settlements.
- 2 ore cards and 3 grain cards develop a settlement to the city. Cities are not much different from the settlements, except that the die roll brings the player 2 units of resource instead of one, and they themselves are worth 2 victory points instead of one. One player can have no more than four cities, but the built city gives the owner the opportunity to build another settlement.
- For 3 resource cards (one card of wool, grain and ore) you can buy a development card, which gives a random advantage. A development card cannot be used on the same turn as it was purchased, but you can play it in any of the subsequent moves, including before you roll the dice. Some development cards give bonus victory points. But the most common are knights who allow you to move the robbers, not waiting for the dice to fall out 7. Played knight cards remain face up on the table, and the player with the largest army of three knights gets the special card “The Greatest Army”, which is equal to 2 victory points.
- Cards The longest road and the largest army can move from player to player during the game. A player who receives such a card may lose it if another player beats his result (the same result does not give the right to take the card from the player). Thus, if the longest road consists of six sections, another player can take a map and points relying on it only if he builds a road of seven. The player who first scores 10 points wins.
What can be learned from this game?
“Colonialists” is a strategic game, but, paradoxically, it largely depends on chance. The most carefully verified plan can go crash if someone else pulls out all the development cards with victory points (such cases were recorded), or the “usual” number on which your game depends, simply does not fall in the game.
A more advanced strategy involves not only obtaining the maximum amount of resources, but also assigning different numbers so that income is stable. Theoretically, it is possible to create a version in which the distribution of the "dropped out" numbers will be similar to the probability of falling numbers on the cube. Such a game may be of some interest, but it will differ dramatically from the existing version.
It is very difficult to arrange your buildings evenly across the board because of the restrictions on the minimum distance between neighboring settlements and the need to connect new settlements with old ones by roads. You can try to fight this by populating a small number of hexes or erecting cities as early as possible, but both of these strategies are leveled by a robber. The rest of the robber - a rather weak chip. It affects only one hex, “steals” only one random resource, and often moves around the map.
This is a very common feature of European-style board games - they try to minimize the ways players attack each other. Often, such games force players to look for the most effective ways to use their own system, over which opponents have almost no control. But at the same time they compete to compete with opponents for the resources that are necessary in order to acquire the tools for implementing this system in the game. "Colonialists" is the most competitive of all games of this type, and yet it gives a good idea of ​​this concept.
My favorite aspect of the game is a random game generation mechanism. The resource numbering system usually does a good job with the distribution of numbers. Cases where "common" numbers like 6 or 8 border each other are very rare. This is a very elegant algorithm that is simply necessary when people play the game, not a microprocessor.
Software developers can use calculations to find a way out of problematic situations, but often solutions are no better than the problem itself. European type games are a storehouse of elegant game concepts and algorithms, studying which developers of computer strategy games can learn a lot for themselves.
Puerto rico
Publishers: Alea and Rio Grande Games
Type: colonization board game for 2-5 players
Level of difficulty: very high
Creator: Andreas Seyfart
Luck factor: low
Description: The task of the players is to earn the most points by developing their part of the colony in Puerto Rico. To do this, you need to build plantations and buildings, settling them with colonists who will produce various goods and send them back to the Old World.
All these actions begin to occur after the player assumes a certain role in the game. After choosing a role, all players can perform an action related to that role, and not just who got it. However, the player along with the role gets a small bonus and at this stage can perform the action before the others. Inventive players use this advantage to overtake their opponents.
Game Review
"Puerto Rico" gained immense popularity among gamers literally several years after the birth. This game is especially appreciated by the boardgamegeek resource resource regulars. Despite the fact that the luck factor in the gameplay is very low, game events can be quite unpredictable.
Sometimes in Puerto Rico it is possible to win simply by adhering to a certain plan of action, but you need to be able to benefit from unforeseen situations that arise during the game, because they play an equally important role for victory. Despite the variety of possible game strategies, none of them has established itself as universal; most tactics are effective only in certain situations, while in others they lead to defeat. Therefore, adaptability and flexibility of strategies are key qualities for this game.
The goal of the game is to accumulate as many victory points as possible. You can earn them by sending goods on ships and buying buildings, and you can also get extra points at the end of the game for building and settling large buildings. For each of these steps, good coordination is necessary, and sometimes unintended “help” from other players.
In each round there are 6 roles, one of which must be chosen by each player (more players - more roles). In each round, the role of the players must change. Choosing a role means that all players, not only the one who chose the role, can perform certain actions within the framework of this role, however, the player who chose this role gets a slight, but significant, advantage. The roles are as follows:
- Mayor: distributes additional colonists among players and allows them to move existing ones. This is important, since only those plantations and structures that are inhabited by colonists can function.
- Settler: allows each player to choose a new plantation from a random selection of options. Plantations are needed for the production of goods.
- City planner: allows players to build buildings in their cities. Buildings themselves also bring points, but more importantly, they help produce goods. Buildings offer different advantages depending on the type of building, and some buildings bring huge bonuses at the end of the game.
- Producer: a phase in which crops are harvested from plantations and processed into products. The player must have a populated plantation and an appropriate product structure (except for Corn, which does not require a building).
- Merchant: in this phase, players get the opportunity to sell on one of their goods, but on condition that such goods do not yet exist in the Trading House. The goods leave the Trading House only when all 4 slots are filled. Prices for goods depend on the value of the building where they are produced. Corn Price - 0 doubloons. But there are certain trade bonuses that make the sale of Corn profitable.
- Captain: the phase in which goods are shipped by sea and earn points. Players take turns shipping goods of the same type to one of three ships. For each unit of goods (barrel) one point is charged, but the product that hit the ship first determines the type of product that will be shipped with this ship.
For example, if Indigo gets on the ship first, then it will be possible to load only Indigo on it. If it is possible to send the goods in the Captain phase, then you need to do so. All undelivered cargo deteriorates, with the exception of one barrel. All this together makes the captain's favorite phase for seasoned players who try to fool their opponents. But inept planning can lead to victory points for rivals.
Gold digger is available only in the game with more than three players. In the gold miner phase, none of the players takes any action, but the player who chooses the role gets 1 double.
Players act on an interesting system of a cycle of concentric moves. In each round, a player who has a Governor card may be the first to choose a role. Players then choose their roles in a clockwise order. During the phase of each defined role, players take turns in performing actions of that role, and the player with the chosen role makes the first move.
During the same round it is prohibited to choose the same role twice, therefore players who are located closer to the Governor have a higher chance of obtaining the role and advantage they need. When each player chooses his role, the Governor’s card goes to the next place in a clockwise direction, and the players return their role cards to the table to select them again in the next round. At first glance, this may seem confusing, but in reality everything happens very easily. The Governor card and selected role cards help players keep track of their place in the sequence of moves.
Coins are put on roles that no one chose during the round. Then the player who chose this role in the next round gets all the doubles from the card. There are not so many sources of profit in the game, so all the roles are chosen with more or less the same frequency.
Many of the limitations inherent in a particular role can be compensated for by the construction of certain buildings - most buildings make changes to the rules. But the construction of such buildings costs money, and for their activation a colonist is needed. For example, the Office promotes trade, the Hospital and the University provide new colonists for settlement and construction, and Warehouses do not allow the product to deteriorate in the Captain phase. The shipyard gives players the ability to ship goods without the use of public ships.
Most buildings are presented in only two copies, so some players lose the opportunity to build popular buildings. The scope of supply of goods is also limited; if all the barrels with a certain product are in players or on ships, no one can produce this product until these barrels are removed in any way, and it becomes possible to distribute the product again.
Despite the fact that each player has his own board, they all compete for the possibility of buying, transporting and selling goods. There are many clever ways to influence players on each other. In addition to blocking the Trade House and the ships, players still do not always manage to choose the plantations they want. Buildings that the player has aimed at can be bought by his rivals. In addition, someone can choose the Manufacturer, when a lot of unreleased barrels have already accumulated in the game, and thus use the supply limit to block rivals.
There are many other tricks. This game is a masterpiece of the strategy of passive aggression. There are no direct attacks on opponents, but almost every step that a player takes has an effect on the development of events in the game, and many of these steps with skillful use can lead to victory.
What can be learned from this game?
Puerto Rico is a great game. Many ideas arise in it as if from nowhere and twist among themselves into such a whirlpool that the gameplay is just a storehouse of information for a careful game designer. My advice to you: play it, and as soon as possible.
The importance of this game is difficult to overestimate. If you are not familiar with German-style board games, then Puerto Rico will be an example for you that it is not necessary to be a good strategy to be military or similar to Monopoly.
All Puerto Rico gaming systems are intertwined in such a way that even the most insignificant at first glance decisions can play a key role. At the same time, in different games the same decisions affect the course of the game in different ways! The gameplay here is so deep that I doubt my ability to explain it fully. But at the same time, learning how to play Puerto Rico is not difficult. Here are some tips for beginners:
• Game currency (doubloons) is very important in the initial stages of the game, so it’s very good not to give opponents a coin or two in the first rounds. It will be easier to get doubles, but the benefits of them will be reduced proportionally. A very common mistake for newbies is that they wait too long before they start producing resources, or they don’t use the opportunity to sell something for doubloons on the first moves. Another similar mistake is that players start making money only on the 10th move, or even later. Most games end on the move at 12th.
• Large and expensive buildings that give big bonuses in the form of points and nothing more - a favorite goal of players who managed to earn a decent amount in the early stages of the game. If you have accumulated a sufficient amount before the 8th turn, it is best to build one expensive building - for example, Factory, Port or Shipyard - and save the remaining savings. The most profitable acquisition in this case will be the Factory. With proper management, it will be a good source of income. But many strategies in Puerto Rico have their own exceptions, and you should not let your opponents buy big buildings before you, because these buildings are presented in a single copy.
• If you need a specific role to be chosen, but it’s not so important to get the privilege or opportunity of the first move in this phase, try giving the other player to choose this role for you. And if you see that another specific role is important for another player to earn an advantage, do not choose it in your turn. Let him use his right to choose for the benefit. Choosing roles is one of the most powerful tools in the game.
• It is believed that the player to the left of the player is in his “shadow”. He usually walks after his neighbor to the right in the role phase, which is a big disadvantage in the Merchant and Captain phases. In addition, the player will choose his role after the neighbor to the right, which is especially inconvenient when choosing a Manufacturer. (The guys from BoardGameGeek even came up with a special term for this phenomenon: “Manufacturer's fear”).
• The player needs to beware of the neighbor on the right and try to prevent the neighbor on the left. If an evil scoundrel is sitting to your right, then wait for the Governor's card to pass to you. In this and the previous rounds between your choice of the role, the player on your right hand will not choose your role. Take advantage of this!
• If there is a flaw in Puerto Rico, it is that beginners usually have a very strong influence on the development of events. Experienced players are well versed in all sorts of blockages and know how to prevent opponents from choosing the role they need to earn points. If all players are clever and experienced, the game is filled with a deep tactical meaning.
But one single newcomer is enough to ruin all the plans of experienced players. Masters get used to playing hardcore, and ill-conceived muddling moves beginners take them by surprise, so inexperienced players have the opportunity to beat the "veterans"! It is good that the gods of this game still do not allow this to happen several times in a row.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/304850/
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