The Last Gaming of the Year

I am sure you are all looking for some news or an update about Taipan, and it is coming, I promise.  There is just not a lot to show or talk about just yet.  In between playing all these games, I have been working on updating the rules (which you can find HERE)  and creating all new cards to replace the old ones that done work with the new rules.  I should have all new cards printed and ready for playing by the weekend.  Until then, here is the latest version of the Far East map with the latest corrections.  Enjoy!

I went to my friend Bryan's place last night to play some games.  We played Merkator a ponderous game that is too complicated for what it is.  So complex in its game play I barely know where to begin.  Players can buy and sell Bonus Cards and Buildings at the start of their turn.  Then they can travel to locations to collect resources and when they do this, the adjacent locations connected by a rope (don't ask) on the board gain 1 addition resource on their location.  They can also travel to these locations to complete Contracts.

Players start the game with 4 contracts ranked 1-4 and are only allowed to keep 5 Contracts.  Contracts can be completed over and over multiple times.  Each Contract has a location and a set of requirements the player must deliver to that location to complete the contract.  If the player completes it, he gets money and a new contract 1 level higher than the level of the Contract he complete.  Players have to travel to these locations and depending on the location ether takes a Time Token or pays Time Tokens (its all feels very arbitrary).  When the player takes a Time Token for traveling to certain locations they flip it over and the Letter on the back is the Column (on the players warehouse) that all players must discard a Good from their warehouse.  Also, other players can then pay that player time tokens to travel with him to perform actions on their turn.  This makes it important to know that focusing on one area or one set of Contracts is the wrong way to win the game.

The game ends when all the Time Tokens are depleted or a player scores the single Level 14 Contract.  Bryan crushed us mostly by cheating (Unintentionally).  He was keeping more than 5 Contracts and several round went by before we caught him.  But he also just had the most options of things to do at the most locations.  I focused on two really good combos, but it cost me too much time to do those combos over an over to be worth it.  Bryan was getting a lot done on our turns and doing a lot on his own turns.

I like the concept but there was so much abstract, vague, and arbitrary rules and mechanics that, In the end, I just did not have a good time playing.  It was all of our first times playing and we discovered several rules that were over looked, or lost in the original translation that we were all just guessing at some points. I would be willing to try it again, but we would have to go another round on learning the rules and check the errata online first.

After a dinner break we came together to play Age of Empires III.  This was sold to me as a 3+ hour game.  In that sense I was not lied to.  It took just over 5 hours to play.  Let me start by saying this is not my type of game.  I could have played 2-3 games in the time it took us to play this one game.  Bryan taught us the Rules and after 40 minutes we started.

This game is big and Epic.  To try to explain it all here would take forever.  Here is the Abridged Version.  Each player is a European contry trying to expand and colonize the New World.  You do this by placing colonists on one of many possible actions.  Colony Ships let you move your people to any place that has been discovered.  Trade lets you take one of the 4 trade goods that are available. Trade Ship acts as a wild card for your trade goods (you only get money if you have 3 of a kind), Construction lets you spend your money to buy buildings. Discovery lets you send a group over to try to open up a new area for colonization. Specialists lets you get one of the special characters that have additional abilities depending one where and how you use them.  And last is Warfare that lets you attack other players.

On top of all the special places you can place a colonist, there are 5 special types of colonists.  Soldiers, Captains, Merchants, Builders, and Clergy.  Each one can be used in different ways depending on where you place them.  Soldiers give bonus money when you used them for discovery and they are used in warfare as a colonists.  Captains count as 2 when bidding on the Trade Ship and when used for Discovery.  Merchants give 5 gold when they land in the New World and they count as 2 when bidding on the Trade Ship.  Builders make buildings cost 5 less and they make fortifications in a Colony that act as End of Game Victory Points.  Clergy count as 2 colonists when they land in the new world.

At the start of the game only the Caribbean is available to Colonize so it gets crowded fast.  In the image above you can see Orange and Purple have piled their people on there.  I got blocked trying to get the Trade Ship twice and I got blocked on getting the building I wanted. I ended up getting a lot of Soldiers, but no money or trade goods.  So I went on the War Path.  Half way through the game I was sure I was in the lead.  I was scoring so many points from the colonies that I had conquered, I knew it was down to Alex and me.

But in the end, it was Ben who pulled out all the stops.  He had generated enough money to buy some really valuable buildings that gave him score multipliers on how much money he had.  He had also got a ton of points from his trade routes.  Alex and I were dead last!  Once we understood what were doing and how all the different Colonists are used, the game started to pick up speed and play faster.  I think with people who really know what they are doing the game could be played in about 3 hours.

Its interesting that on the scoreboard, the two people who where in the lead ended up being last.  And the ones in last place on the board pulled all the way to the front.  While I did enjoy this game, I do not like 5 hour games, so it is unlikely that I will every play this game again, but I would consider it.

And the vote is in....

...and the polls are closed!  The theme of Taipan will remain set in a historical Earth.  With how popular the Steampunk genre is at this time, I have to say I am kinda surprised that it didn't go that way.   I am also not disappointed.  I have a feeling that changing themes would have been more work than I thought it would be.

A great paining of the ship HMS Nemesis destroying War Junks in 1843 during 
the first Opium War.  The Chinese Junk Captains called her the "Devil Ship".

With my art bug temporarily satisfied, I have returned to working on making changes based on the last play test that went so horribly wrong.  Mostly card changes and minor adjustments to various rules.  But there are some major changes to the game as well:


The first big change is that all event cards will be a global even that will effect all players equally.  This will be good for eliminating the severe amount of random swing in the games outcome, but makes the world map feel a bit small and static.  I am wondering if I should have two decks, one for Global Events and one for  Player Events.


The Second big change will be making all city Cargo Values based on a universal value that only changes slightly.  For Example: Hong Kong is stable with its Rice cargo selling for 1 coin.  2 Spaces away Shanghai will sell their rice between 1-3.  4 Spaces away Hai Phong will sell their rice between 2-4.  Additionally, where the price is very good, the cargo value will be marked by a special color.  Buying or selling the specially marked colors will cause the card to change to the next pricing card for that city.  This is somewhat similar to the value of goods in San Juan, with a value token for every city.

In San Juan, the value of Goods changes very little but it makes a big difference.

Change number three will be that every city will let the player Upgrade their ship.  The difference being that Hong Kong is the least expensive place to do this.  Hong Kong will have the Upgrades for 4 while everywhere else will have them for 6.


The Fourth change is that all players start with -50 in debt tokens.  This is the players score.  The first player to pay off his debt ends the game once all players finish their turn.  The player with the most coin and least amount of debt wins.


The last big change is that a player's ships can be destroyed.  If a player reaches 0 on any of his stats, his ship is destroyed.  The player looses all cargo, half of their carried coin, and is returned to Hong Kong.  The player receives a -5 Debt Marker and may continue playing on his next turn.


There are lots of other smaller changes, and I could write all day explaining everything I am doing to change the game and the rules, but I think I will just start working on the changes instead.  On a similar note: I am trying very hard not to copy Merchants and Marauders.  It's a great game and there is no reason to have another game just like that one.  Its just that they did so many things right that, even when I am not directly copying it, its hard not to see similarities in what they did and what I am doing.

Such a good game, I must do my best to learn from it but not copy it. No small task!

The New Map

I have been searching the web for a lot of images that will work for my game.  Public domain images that I can use a series of Photoshop Filters to speed up the work of making the art all match a certain style.  I want the art to be cool and not just a low-res screen grab of free art.

However, after last weeks disastrous play test, it occurred to me that I still don't have all my cards and mechanics nailed down.  But being in an artistic mood I felt the need to make some art, so I dove into working on a new map for my game.  What you see before you is the final result.

LEFT SIDE: The new high res map.  RIGHT SIDE: The old quick map.

I think its clear to see the superior product here.  The new map is an amalgam of lots of maps mashed together.  Various parts of the maps have been shifted around to make room on my game board, and countless Filters have created the feel of a textured and painted surface.

With the holidays fast approaching I expect to get a lot of work done on the game.  Check back soon for more updates.