Perhaps this comes to mind because I'm playing it right now on SpielByWeb, but "Hacienda" has almost too much tension (for me). Think of it as a card-driven "Through the Desert." The tension comes from only being able to do three actions on your turn when you really want to do about 20. Take a card or place something on the board. It's that simple. And yet you're constantly having to balance between building yourself up and blocking others. You just know someone's going to play exactly where you wanted to play. And you know you have to do something to block everyone else, but the cost of doing so seems too great.
Ack . . . it's frustrating. And yet I'm growing to like it. "Kreta" is another area-majority game in the vein of El Grande. Yet for me it's much more tense. You have different types of pieces that exert different amounts of influence. Some can move, some cannot. Of the twenty-something regions on the board, only 11 will score during the game, but you only know the next 2 scoring areas at any time, so you must always keep your pieces in flux, preparing to move them around at any time. You have some control over when an area will score, so you must balance between adding more influence to an area or scoring it right away. Very tense, and a step up (or sideways) from El Grande. I've been enjoying "Vikings" lately, too. It plays quick (best with two or three) and there's a great tension in determining which tiles to take, deciding how to distribute your pieces, and weighing the costs. Feels like St. Petersburg with a placement mechanic like Alhambra. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "BGG Down" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/BGG_down?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
