Post by MontyCircus on Sept 5, 2006 23:18:43 GMT -5
Finally got to play it...and it's pretty neat!
After playing this, I can say that I think Kramer's Hacienda is just an over-complicated version of this.
With Hacienda, "buying water" is always an afterthought, yet incredibly important. Indeed water seems like the key to victory. Granted I was just learning the game but it seemed hardly intuitive.
Through the Desert is much more interesting because scoring is clearer and it always seems tense because territory is so vital and there aren't any other ways to score points. With Hacienda there are so many ways to score points that everyone seems to be doing their own thing and you might not even have the right animal cards to directly compete anyway.
If you've played Hacienda, when you do get to play this, imagine Through the Desert, but now with coloured camel cards needed to place camels that would be drawn Ticket to Ride style each turn.
Why does it need that? It doesn't. And it doesn't need the dozen other things that Hacienda lumps on top either. The money, the animal cards, the haciendas, the land tiles, the extra pampas tiles, the water tiles, the 2 scoring rounds and the harvesting.
Strip all that away and you're left with the essence.
Each player controls 5 different caravans, one each of the 5 colours. You score points by connecting to an oasis, going over a watering hole, or encircling an area. Each turn you draw 2 camels and place them, connecting them with one of your existing caravans. The game is over when one of the piles of camels in one colour is gone. Five 10 point bonuses are given out for the player who used the most camels of each colour. That's it. That's the game's rules entirely.
Simple and fun
After playing this, I can say that I think Kramer's Hacienda is just an over-complicated version of this.
With Hacienda, "buying water" is always an afterthought, yet incredibly important. Indeed water seems like the key to victory. Granted I was just learning the game but it seemed hardly intuitive.
Through the Desert is much more interesting because scoring is clearer and it always seems tense because territory is so vital and there aren't any other ways to score points. With Hacienda there are so many ways to score points that everyone seems to be doing their own thing and you might not even have the right animal cards to directly compete anyway.
If you've played Hacienda, when you do get to play this, imagine Through the Desert, but now with coloured camel cards needed to place camels that would be drawn Ticket to Ride style each turn.
Why does it need that? It doesn't. And it doesn't need the dozen other things that Hacienda lumps on top either. The money, the animal cards, the haciendas, the land tiles, the extra pampas tiles, the water tiles, the 2 scoring rounds and the harvesting.
Strip all that away and you're left with the essence.
Each player controls 5 different caravans, one each of the 5 colours. You score points by connecting to an oasis, going over a watering hole, or encircling an area. Each turn you draw 2 camels and place them, connecting them with one of your existing caravans. The game is over when one of the piles of camels in one colour is gone. Five 10 point bonuses are given out for the player who used the most camels of each colour. That's it. That's the game's rules entirely.
Simple and fun