CandyAss Liberal

All of these are more like observations, since I only played each game once:

1) Finca – each player controls 3 farmers and tries to deliver certain types of goods to regions that need them. You have a limited carrying capacity, but can deliver to multiple regions in a single delivery turn. The farmers move around on a wheel-like board with different goods. They move a number of spokes and acquire a number of goods based on how many other farmers are in that spoke. This mechanic prevents any hoarding of goods and allows some PvP strategies that will help to make friends at the table. There are a limited number of goods in the “pool” and if you run out, everyone has to put all of that good type back into the pool. There are bonuses for most deliveries of different types of goods, etc., but the scoring system is pretty simple and easy to figure out.

It is a game I would play again and was pretty fun. Somehow I won. I was the recipient of people not calculating the bonus correctly a couple of times, so I got the bonus when they thought it would have been theirs. I can see the game getting pretty cutthroat with a group of people that have had more plays.

2) Factory Fun – Great Game! It is a strong spatial relationship game where you try and build an efficient factory floor. Everyone has an empty floorplan and you get a “machine” each turn to place in your factory. There are different color resource “inputs” and your machine will output another color. You can attach machines to these inputs and even to other machines ( input to output ) by using pipe tiles. Of course, any of these resources cost money to acquire and place in the factory ( or move, if you need to reorganize ). You chose your factories by way of a “slap” mechanic. Everyone turns over a machine tile at the same time and the first one to pick up the machine gets it. The machine itself doesn’t cost anything. You get VPs for the number on the machine, but you have to subtract the cost of all the piping, etc to make it function in the plant. You get big bonuses when you connect the input and outputs of two different machines.

A really great game and it is on my buy list. I ended up winning with a very high score during this play. Not sure how, it seemed the whole game I was one of the last ones to choose a tile ( so I got the more unwanted machines ), but they ended up fitting together well. I had a couple of “issues” with the game. I was unsure of the slap mechanic at the beginning of the game, but it works well. People end up making hasty decisions if a big shiny machine shows up. The quick decisions lead to people not being able to connect two machines due to the size of the input/outputs being wrong. I wonder how a power grid like auction mechanic would work for the game? The other issue was more thematic. You only get VPs for a machine when you place it and the bonus at the game end if they are connected to another machine. I wonder if you got VP income for these machines each turn if the strategy would change during the selection phase. But like I said, I really liked this game. It is up there with Power Grid for this type of game. A lot of fun, but it made my head hurt real bad.

Another positive was that the game did not take a long time to play. We finished a 5 person game with 2-3 newbs in under an hour.

3) Vegas Showdown – You try and build the best casino/restaurant in Vegas. You vie for Fame ( victory points ) by building fancier restaurants and gambling rooms than the opposition. An interesting mechanic where your lower score in either money or visitors is your per turn income, forces players to build balanced properties. I enjoyed the game, but about 3/4 of the way in, the table next to us was trying to get an Arkham Horror game going. I spent the rest of the time trying to get the game to end, so I could join the madness. But I failed, and like so many others, lost everything in Vegas. Not a bad game and light enough to be played by a lot of different gamers

4) Medici – I liked this a lot also. Unfortunately, I did not pick up on the strategy very well for the first turn, so the game did not go well score wise. In this game, you are ship owners and bid on cargo to load your ship. The bidding only lasts for one circuit of the players, so the last player to bid will not have anyone bidding against them . This places a lot of strategy on choosing the number of cargoes to bid on each time ( 1 – 3). Since you cannot bid if you can’t fit all the cargo on your ship, sometimes putting 3 cargoes up for auction will eliminate several players from the bidding. Interesting game and I will be happy to play it again. I think it can be used to introduce newer gamers also.

5) Hacienda – The players are Argentine ranchers. You build out your land and take your livestock to market. Another good game. You have to chain together your ranch land and strings of animals that you take to market in order to get the highest score. Each animal you get to market is worth 1 pt for each piece of land and the same type of animal connected to it. the players can block each other from markets by building land/animals in the way. All of the land/animal resources are bought in the form of 4 revealed cards from a deck or a cheaper blind draw ( like ticket to ride ). We ended up playing this rather late at night, so everyone was pretty tired. I enjoyed it and would like to try it again, especially since I got my butt kicked ( actually only 3/4, not as bad as Medici )