I am cold on Pendragon (COIN)

Not sure what happened yesterday, but I totally bummed on Pendragon, the latest in the COIN series. It could be that I was playing the civitates who just need to hang on a bit, I guess. But I was not very excited about the meaningful choices I had in this game.

And the amount of times I went: this seems like a nices thing to do this turn, but oh no, I can't, I am not allowed, or when you see the effects it wasn't really worth doing made me dissociate from the game after a couple of hours. After the investment of a few hours going through the rules I was quite hopeful at the start of the game. I just doesn't give me much in terms of involvement or success,

And this is after apparently having been close to winning this game all along. I never felt like that I had anything to do with that.

I have enjoyed other CDGs, including Cuba Libre, but here it feels like COIN have just gone down the road of complexity without better gameplay. A dead end for as far as I'm concerned
I COIN just

That's a shame. On paper it is the most interesting looking COIN game, although I must admit I haven't played any of them. It seems like they are dead set on wringing every last drop of blood from the system.

From the outside, I'm definitely still interested in Pendragon, but I already have three COIN games, and those don't get played that much (plus this one's at the higher end of COIN complexity). Cuba Libre might be, in retrospect, a bit simplistic and limiting, and Liberty or Death is more like a two-player game with two supporting-actor sides, but I've quite enjoyed Fire in the Lake, possibly because of the involvement of Mark Herman and possibly because each of the factions seems to have something interesting to do.

I want to love coin so much. The situations are so refreshing, so not wwii east front.

Yeah, I want to love the COINs too, but perhaps Fire in the Lake and Pendragon are just too niche in complexity

WW2 east front is all the refreshment i need. Love me some eastfront.

I've played 4 COIN games i think, my pick is Falling Sky but i quite like Fire in the Lake despite the heavier rules. Both allow you to really have at it and smite your foes. The other two, Andean Abyss and Distant Plain are very much build up and then diffuse with not much real action. Is Pendragon all build up and no action? Or is the action just really confusing?

I had a bad time the last COIN I played: A Distant Plain. Due to luck of the draw, my Coalition factor triggered a momentum event after a propaganda card and then only ever had a limited op after that due to always being last faction on the cards. So sitting there without being able to really do anything for an hour or more of gameplay is pretty disheartening. Obviously that means I had great cards earlier in the game, but when your faction is on top for every card you can only take advantage of half of those. That was kind of a bummer and really put a sour taste in my mouth for the system despite previous great games of Fire in the Lake.

That said, for me Fire in the Lake and A Distant Plain are a step above the other COINs I have played(Andrea Abyss, Cuba Libre, Liberty or Death) due to how easy it is to hurt your "ally" in the game. It makes it more of a dynamic game in my mind instead of a 3v1 or 2v2 feeling that I get from the others.

Not sure what you mean by "too niche in complexity" - but I don't really find FitL or ADP than much more complex than the others. If like Cuba Libre is a 3 on a 1-5 scale of complexity, then Fire in the Lake is like a 3.1, IMO. The system just takes a little bit to grok but once you understand the concepts, almost all of the rules are on those fold-out player aids.

There is a difference in level of complexity, and it is not in the basic mechanisms. Those translate fine.
But there is more chrome, sub and supersystems that add to the complexity. Eg most ' special activities in Cuba Libre apply to only 1 area, in Pendragon to several.

Especially the exceptions and conditions add to the constant stop-go experience. It wears me out.