Post by Gilvan Blight on Jun 16, 2008 14:09:06 GMT -5
Quickly: Very different game, it's all about deal making with the other players. Quite Fun.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow] In Traders of Genoa players try to collect the most money by delivering goods and or messages to various Villa's and Businesses around the city of Genoa. The city is laid out on a 8x8 grid with some buildings taking up more then one square. The center of the city contains four main buildings that mainly provide the players with options. One provides the players with a large order to fill (requiring 3 resources), another provides the player with 2 small orders (requiring 1 resource), another provides two messages to deliver and the last provides the player with building tokens. The outside corners of the board contain 4 Villas. These are where Large orders are delivered and players can pick up what are called Privilege cards. Around the edge between the villas are 4 warehouses each producing 2 types of goods and other supporting buildings. Each supporting building can be the destination for a message or Small goods order and each provides the player activating them with some advantage. These vary from being able to take an extra action to trading one resource for another.
Players start with one of each of the following: A privilege Card, A large order, A small Order and a message to deliver. The youngest player starts first. The game is played to a set number of rounds based on the number of players with more players meaning a longer game. The winner is the player with the most money at the end of the game.
Each round starts when the first player goes and each player gets one turn in each round. A turn starts with the active player rolling 2D8 to determine where the trader starts (unless they use a special "start anywhere" card gotten from The Park). The trader is represented by a stack of 5 wooden disks. Once placed players can offer to pay the active player to be able to use the square the trader is on. This is done by offering money, goods, orders, privilege cards, or pretty much anything else you have in the game. The active player is the final decision maker either taking the offered bribe or activating the square themselves. If no one makes an offer, the active player can skip the square. Once the first spot has been decided, the active player opens up the bribing on where he should move the trader to next. Again players offer just about anything they have to get the active player to move the trader to somewhere that is advantageous to them. When a deal is made here, the players much shake on it, and if moved into a building the player wining the 'bid' must take the action for the building moved into. Again the active player can turn down all offers and do what they wish if they want. The turn continues like this until the Active player decides they don't want to move the Trader further or once the Trader has moved 4 spots on the board. At each stop only one player can activate the building landed on and each turn each player can only activate one action (unless they have the '1 extra action' card).
Activating buildings is how you do things in the game. If you activate a building you have a small order for, you turn in the required good and collect money for your delivery. You also get to activate the building you are on getting whatever benefit it offers (more orders, goods, bonus cards, etc) If the trader moves through the two buildings you have on a message card, you immediately collect $30. If you activate a Villa you can deliver a large order (giving you $100 and a special card of your choice) or you can take a privilege card. Privilege cards score you money at the end of the game. There is one card for every building on the map and you score money for each card you have and a bonus when you have cards for adjacent buildings, with the bigger the set of buildings the more money you get.
Once the trader has stopped moving, players with building tokens get to lay claim to buildings the trader passed during the turn. Owning buildings means that when they are activated the player owning the buildings gets $10 from the bank (somewhat like houses in Monopoly). In addition you make $10 per owned building at the end of the game.
Once building tokens are placed, the turn passes to the next player, once the turn gets back to the starting player, the next round starts. The player with the most money at the end wins.
Okay I hope that made some sense. As if often the case with games like this it sounds 100 times more complicated then it is. We had the rules down by Turn 2 of round 1, it's not bad at all.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]This is one of the Alea Big Box games and is as well made and as nice looking as you would expect. Wooden playing pieces, a nice solid board, nice thick tokens for special cards, etc. There was one exception noted in the Ugly below. This is a very unique game. I knew it would be a trading game and have some auction elements just based on what I had seen about this one online, it wasn't at all what I expected though. This game has some of the most open ended trading I have ever seen. You can offer pretty much any in game item in order to convince the active player to move the trader where you want them to go. You can offer money, you can offer goods, you can even offer messages to be delivered, orders, even privilege cards and special cards. You can even make deals involving items you won't even receive until after the Trader has moved. What makes this even more interesting is that until the Trader is actually next to the building the 'bidder' wants it to move to, the deals are not final. So a player can tell another they will give $100 and a privilege card if they move to the market, as long the trader isn't right next to the market, the player can change their offer, so that when the trader does go next to the market, they only offer $50 and no cards, and if the active player didn't want to go that way, they may have wasted a move. As most offers involve money it's interesting to note, that most of the time you are actually giving away what you need to win to the other players. It makes for some interesting decisions as you need to decide if it's worth X to get Y.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]For some reason these Alea games always come with these generic inserts with no real rhyme or reason to why they were included. This means that there isn't a place for every bit, so sorting the game between play is required unless you want to ziplock everything up ahead of time. Also as usual once you unpunch the sheets, the game doesn't stay in the holder very well when stored vertically.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow]The money. The game comes with a set of tiny paper money all stuck together like a stack of note paper. Monopoly money is made better then this. I haven't yet but I plan on swapping to using something like Poker Chips or some other alternative to the crappy money. It's odd since the rest of the components are so nice.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]There's a reason this game is in the top 100 on Boardgamegeek.com. It offers very unique gameplay with only a minimal amount of randomness and multiple strategic options. It's the most open ended trading game I have played, allowing players to trade any in game item. I've never played anything quite like it, and really enjoyed it. My only real disappointment was in the crappy paper money the game came with.
[glow=blue,2,300]Summary:[/glow] In Traders of Genoa players try to collect the most money by delivering goods and or messages to various Villa's and Businesses around the city of Genoa. The city is laid out on a 8x8 grid with some buildings taking up more then one square. The center of the city contains four main buildings that mainly provide the players with options. One provides the players with a large order to fill (requiring 3 resources), another provides the player with 2 small orders (requiring 1 resource), another provides two messages to deliver and the last provides the player with building tokens. The outside corners of the board contain 4 Villas. These are where Large orders are delivered and players can pick up what are called Privilege cards. Around the edge between the villas are 4 warehouses each producing 2 types of goods and other supporting buildings. Each supporting building can be the destination for a message or Small goods order and each provides the player activating them with some advantage. These vary from being able to take an extra action to trading one resource for another.
Players start with one of each of the following: A privilege Card, A large order, A small Order and a message to deliver. The youngest player starts first. The game is played to a set number of rounds based on the number of players with more players meaning a longer game. The winner is the player with the most money at the end of the game.
Each round starts when the first player goes and each player gets one turn in each round. A turn starts with the active player rolling 2D8 to determine where the trader starts (unless they use a special "start anywhere" card gotten from The Park). The trader is represented by a stack of 5 wooden disks. Once placed players can offer to pay the active player to be able to use the square the trader is on. This is done by offering money, goods, orders, privilege cards, or pretty much anything else you have in the game. The active player is the final decision maker either taking the offered bribe or activating the square themselves. If no one makes an offer, the active player can skip the square. Once the first spot has been decided, the active player opens up the bribing on where he should move the trader to next. Again players offer just about anything they have to get the active player to move the trader to somewhere that is advantageous to them. When a deal is made here, the players much shake on it, and if moved into a building the player wining the 'bid' must take the action for the building moved into. Again the active player can turn down all offers and do what they wish if they want. The turn continues like this until the Active player decides they don't want to move the Trader further or once the Trader has moved 4 spots on the board. At each stop only one player can activate the building landed on and each turn each player can only activate one action (unless they have the '1 extra action' card).
Activating buildings is how you do things in the game. If you activate a building you have a small order for, you turn in the required good and collect money for your delivery. You also get to activate the building you are on getting whatever benefit it offers (more orders, goods, bonus cards, etc) If the trader moves through the two buildings you have on a message card, you immediately collect $30. If you activate a Villa you can deliver a large order (giving you $100 and a special card of your choice) or you can take a privilege card. Privilege cards score you money at the end of the game. There is one card for every building on the map and you score money for each card you have and a bonus when you have cards for adjacent buildings, with the bigger the set of buildings the more money you get.
Once the trader has stopped moving, players with building tokens get to lay claim to buildings the trader passed during the turn. Owning buildings means that when they are activated the player owning the buildings gets $10 from the bank (somewhat like houses in Monopoly). In addition you make $10 per owned building at the end of the game.
Once building tokens are placed, the turn passes to the next player, once the turn gets back to the starting player, the next round starts. The player with the most money at the end wins.
Okay I hope that made some sense. As if often the case with games like this it sounds 100 times more complicated then it is. We had the rules down by Turn 2 of round 1, it's not bad at all.
[glow=green,2,300]The Good:[/glow]This is one of the Alea Big Box games and is as well made and as nice looking as you would expect. Wooden playing pieces, a nice solid board, nice thick tokens for special cards, etc. There was one exception noted in the Ugly below. This is a very unique game. I knew it would be a trading game and have some auction elements just based on what I had seen about this one online, it wasn't at all what I expected though. This game has some of the most open ended trading I have ever seen. You can offer pretty much any in game item in order to convince the active player to move the trader where you want them to go. You can offer money, you can offer goods, you can even offer messages to be delivered, orders, even privilege cards and special cards. You can even make deals involving items you won't even receive until after the Trader has moved. What makes this even more interesting is that until the Trader is actually next to the building the 'bidder' wants it to move to, the deals are not final. So a player can tell another they will give $100 and a privilege card if they move to the market, as long the trader isn't right next to the market, the player can change their offer, so that when the trader does go next to the market, they only offer $50 and no cards, and if the active player didn't want to go that way, they may have wasted a move. As most offers involve money it's interesting to note, that most of the time you are actually giving away what you need to win to the other players. It makes for some interesting decisions as you need to decide if it's worth X to get Y.
[glow=yellow,2,300]The Bad:[/glow]For some reason these Alea games always come with these generic inserts with no real rhyme or reason to why they were included. This means that there isn't a place for every bit, so sorting the game between play is required unless you want to ziplock everything up ahead of time. Also as usual once you unpunch the sheets, the game doesn't stay in the holder very well when stored vertically.
[glow=red,2,300]The Ugly[/glow]The money. The game comes with a set of tiny paper money all stuck together like a stack of note paper. Monopoly money is made better then this. I haven't yet but I plan on swapping to using something like Poker Chips or some other alternative to the crappy money. It's odd since the rest of the components are so nice.
[glow=purple,2,300]Overall:[/glow]There's a reason this game is in the top 100 on Boardgamegeek.com. It offers very unique gameplay with only a minimal amount of randomness and multiple strategic options. It's the most open ended trading game I have played, allowing players to trade any in game item. I've never played anything quite like it, and really enjoyed it. My only real disappointment was in the crappy paper money the game came with.