Thoughts on Splotter games?

I enjoy Antiquity a lot, despite it being, in a lot of ways, not something I should like. I also really enjoy The Great Zimbabwe.

I played INDONESIA once several years ago.

The map looks evocative...til you try to use the fucking thing. Hard to make out boundaries/adjacency area connections as I recall.

Its a hardcore eco/Euro game. The final game turn doubles scoring and results in a brutal bout of analysis paralysis in the Euro weenie crowd.

Fuck that shit. One of the most painful gaming experiences in recent memory.

I think the limited print runs, high secondary market prices and endless fawning by the BGG hardcore make Splotter games white whales to be sought out by the collector crowd.

Erik Twice wrote: I play and love train games which have a fairly elitist community.

Hilarious! I wonder if trainspotters think themselves elitist too.

Should I mention that R&B has expansions?

Legomancer wrote: I enjoy Antiquity a lot, despite it being, in a lot of ways, not something I should like. I also really enjoy The Great Zimbabwe.

We have similar tastes, why do you like it? Would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Also, does The Great Zimbabwe resemble Steam/Age of Steam or is it just me? (Logistics, auction for turn order)

Msample wrote: I think the limited print runs, high secondary market prices and endless fawning by the BGG hardcore make Splotter games white whales to be sought out by the collector crowd.

I think it's undeniable this plays a big part , though I haven't seen any thing bad when reading comments by people I trust. The geekbuddy system is a godsend in these cases.

bronb wrote: Hilarious! I wonder if trainspotters think themselves elitist too.

If they are anything like model railroaders, yeah they probably are.

Should I mention that R&B has expansions?

I'm told the expansion is necessary so the game has a wider range of options instead of rushing towards making stocks on every game.

Antiquity is a no-interaction resource-futzing game, but something about it clicks with me. I've often thought about grabbing a copy even though one person in my group has it and it doesn't get played that often.

Great Zimbabwe is definitely around there with (Age of) Steam, just without visible track. I think everything about it is interesting, and I especially like that that it's not a 3-4 hour slog. I'd also consider owning a copy.

My friend who passed away was very hip on Bus, but I only played it the one time and don't remember much about it. I played R&B once and though I believe we played correctly, I don't think we played right, and I'd like to try it again. I don't have much interest in a lot of their heavy economic stuff.

Erik Twice wrote:

bronb wrote: Should I mention that R&B has expansions?

I'm told the expansion is necessary so the game has a wider range of options instead of rushing towards making stocks on every game.

Plural: Planes & Trains, & Cetera. Both worthwhile.

bronb wrote:

Erik Twice wrote:

bronb wrote: Should I mention that R&B has expansions?

I'm told the expansion is necessary so the game has a wider range of options instead of rushing towards making stocks on every game.

Plural: Planes & Trains, & Cetera. Both worthwhile.

Didn't & Cetera include Planes & Trains? I remember reading it somewhere.

I've actually found a copy of both R&B and & Cetera at a reasonable cost but I have to see if I actually want to buy it. It's very expensive and I might get a desk for my room instead.

You are correct, I forgot, & Cetera does include Planes & Trains.

Played Roads & Boats yesterday and uggghhhhhh fuck that shit. It might have wowed in 1999 but there are dozens of better choices now which do similar things without all that fuss.

Legomancer wrote: Played Roads & Boats yesterday and uggghhhhhh fuck that shit. It might have wowed in 1999 but there are dozens of better choices now which do similar things without all that fuss.

Mind telling me more about it? Would love to hear your thoughts, Legomancer.

To be honest, I'm split on the idea of getting the game. On one hand, I'm sure that the very valid complaints of having to shuffle chits arounds, of it being dry and so on won't bother me much and I would, in fact, like it. But getting the game would cost me 125€ and while I'm tempted to go and get it, I can't help but notice that this amount could give me another 18XX title, Francis Tresham's Civilization and still have some to spare so it's giving my pause.

I can tell I would buy the game if it costed 80€ and came without the expansion. But nope, the only copy around me has it and that raises the price. It's actually a good price, mind, as it's like new (unpunched in the case of & Cetera) and there are no shipping fees. But again. I have no money.

R&B is a 1999 game of resource production and conversion. You have wood and clay. Those turn into lumber and stone. Lumber and stone build buildings. Buildings produce different things, which are usually used as inputs in other buildings.

You have transports. To begin, two donkeys. The donkeys can only carry two goods and the whole deal behind the game is that anything you aren't currently carrying on a transport isn't yours. So you'll want to get more and better transports. Those of course require buildings, which require wood and brick. Some transports require factories that you have to do research to acquire. Research is done by building a paper mill, producing paper, and then turning it in with two geese -- yes, geese -- to do a research. The geese are consumed in this alchemy.

At the end of the game, only three items score anything. Gold ingots score 10vp. Coins score I think 60vp. Stock certificates score 120vp. In the game we played the winner won simply because he produced a single stock certificate.

There is also the monument. At the end of each round people can discard resources to put bricks in the monument. (The resources have to be carried to their home space on the board.) Monument bricks also score points at the end, but in an extremely stupid way. The only way the game ends is if the monument is completed. If no one works on the monument, it could literally last days. In our game, however, I got frustrated and rushed the monument. All I did was produce resources and feed them to the monument as bricks. This meant the game ended in a zippy 6 hours.

At the end of the game, the winner had 129 points. 120 for his single stock certificate and 9 wall points. The other three players were in the 50s-60s.

There is no reason to play this game. It may have been hot shit in 1999, but there are now hundreds of sand -> apple -> pig -> truck -> barber shop -> gold ingot games out there that do what it does without a million ugly cardboard chits, hours of playing time, and hundreds of US or Brit bucks out of your pocket. It's not doing anything unique or interesting that hasn't been done better since. Hell, Antiquity does it better.

COUNTERPOINT: I'm the one F:AT guy who played like 1 hour of Titan and was astonished that people would still go to bat for that tedious pile of snooze.

I appreciate your thoughts mate, it's difficult to get a negative opinion sometimes.

I guess I'll wait until I can get it for "cheap", I can try it or hear more. A shame, because I think I could like it.