tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6932441.post336230098107042961..comments2023-06-13T06:15:10.688-04:00Comments on WAGS Chronicles II : The WAGSENING: It takes a village (Urban Sprawl)Shemp Duchamphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12143427949411525615noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6932441.post-27538229181037712742012-01-03T13:34:04.283-05:002012-01-03T13:34:04.283-05:00This is exactly how I felt when playing 1960: the ...This is exactly how I felt when playing 1960: the making of a president. Every turn things seemed to change so much that I wondered what the point of the previous rounds were. By extrapolation, I haven't wanted to try Twilight Struggle since I'm told they are similar in this regard. <br /><br />Between dominant species and urban sprawl, ds gets the balance a little better. Putting the final round windfalls aside, a player is much more in charge of his fate. There are a ton of variables, but the wildest ones, the event cards, are known ahead of time. If you really need one, or need to prevent one from being played against you, there is decent ability to make that happen (supposing. You've invested enough in the turn order track to be in a position to do that). The rest of the game is reasonably incremental, and decisions seem to matter. <br /><br />Urban sprawl is different. As you say, when a card comes up which allows a player to move the column/row multiplier around, the impact is substantial and completely at the mercy of the player who's turn it happened to be at the time it came up. The events are just as significant as dominant species, but there is no foreknowledge or ability to plan. It really boils down to gambling on a strategy and hoping things go your way. <br /><br />Experience with the game is likely to reduce the perceived chaos, but I don't suspect it will drop dramatically. As I said, I enjoyed it as an experience, but it should be shorter for this amount of craziness.agent easyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17907863877533239261noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6932441.post-27258082719080505582011-12-23T12:30:47.558-05:002011-12-23T12:30:47.558-05:00This game shares a feature in common with Dominant...This game shares a feature in common with Dominant Species, which, for a lack of a better term, I will call "What's-The-Pointsitis".<br /><br />Not "what's the point of playing", but let me see if I can make a analogy to better explain:<br /><br />Say you played a game of baseball where some players who crossed home plate scored 1 run as usual, but others scored 5 runs, and still others scored 10. In general, with a few exceptions, the players who scored 1 run were the hitters who were easiest to get on base, but the hitters who scored ten weren't all that much harder to get on base, and generally required the same amount of effort to move around the diamond.<br /><br />Sometimes you're scoring one point and sometimes you're scoring ten points, and you're generally taking almost the same amount of time getting either player onto home base.<br /><br />Now, add to that an umpire who changes randomly from inning to inning, who also changes how many points each runner gets for crossing the plate. Also, each team has a different set of randomly changing umpires.<br /><br />You find yourself saying, "why should I spend "X" amount of effort to score player "A", when I can effectively ignore player "A" and concentrate on player "B" to score more points, still spending "X" amount of effort?"<br /><br />That's what I mean by "What's-the-pointitis".<br /><br />But then, the umpire changes, and player "A" is suddenly worth twice as much (or player "B" is worth half as much, or both).<br /><br />Basically there are so many shifting victory multipliers which can be taken away (or conversely given to an opponent) that small point gains seem pointless (BUT, I hasten to add, they are NOT pointless - that's the devious genius of Jensen), and if you miss the correct combination of multiplier/combos to score the little empire you've been building so far, you don't score the big runner multipliers.<br /><br />So, in early games of Dominant Species and Urban Sprawl, until you get a handle on all of the moving parts, you have a tremendous risk of blowout, especially by someone who has the right combination of innate skill and sheer luck. As you play additional games (I imagine, as this is still my first game of Urban Sprawl), the gaps narrow.<br /><br />The trouble is that, like baseball, the resolution takes many hours. Unlike a Puerto Rico or El Grande or Tikal or even Power Grid, which take from 75 minutes to 120-150 minutes to get through, a four player game of Urban Sprawl seems like it would consistently take 180 minutes (plus) to finish, all the while fiddling with 1 point runners (which you NEED for the squeak win at the end) as well as 10 point runners (which you need to even be a contender at the end).<br /><br />If I only ever had one or two games to play and unlimited time to play them in, Urban Sprawl and Dominant Species seem like games with enough depth and variability to sustain that level of focus.<br /><br />As it is, they seem like overly drawn out battles where one side can surge forward dramatically, then the other, see-sawing back and forth, until the end where the points are relatively close... and then you see that maybe all the big point scores wash out, and you win by a few small points.<br /><br />Fun, thematic, but overlong and feels unstable to play - I like randomness, but this feels like "giving one person a BB Gun and the other person a plasma cannon" randomness. It's sort of okay, because sometimes the other person gets given a limp noodle and you get given a two-handed sword, but you start asking yourself why don't we still get random weapons, but ones which are more evenly matched at some level.<br /><br />Anyhow, would like to play again, but I find myself agreeing with a lot of Easy's criticisms.Kozurehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01441385217527761214noreply@blogger.com