Donating, Horse Racing, and Pirating

Welcome to this week’s gaming post! This week I’m discussing two heavy euros and a party, horse-racing game. So without further ado, let’s jump into the recent highlights.

First off, I recently played a four-person game of Carnegie. Carnegie is a heavy euro-game focused around managing employees across four types of departments which each allow players to activate different actions, including building routes along a map of the continental U.S.

For all four of us, this was our first time playing Carnegie, so it took a bit of time for us to comprehend the rules. However, once we got going, I was surprised at how relatively smooth the core gameplay loop is. This is certainly a heavy-euro through and through, but the complexity comes from the number of options to consider rather than the actions themselves. The meat of the game involves the active player choosing one of the four actions to activate, and then all of other players activating their own departments of that type with active employees in them, triggering that department’s action.

One of my favorite parts of the game is managing your employees in the departments. In order to move employees from your lobby (where employees return inactive after a mission) or from one department to another, you have to activate your HR department. This creates a satisfying puzzle where you have to ensure that you have employees active in multiple departments, so that you’re prepared regardless of which of the four department types the active player selects.

The game also puts an interesting spin on production/income. When the active player selects one of the four action types, it also triggers which of the four regions on the map will activate. Then, every player with employees in that region may recall their employees to trigger income. This also creates an interesting dynamic for the active player to consider when choosing which action to trigger. 

For a heavy-euro, there is also a fair amount of player interaction. In addition to the active player selecting which departments and region will activate that turn, there’s also competition over cities on the map, as well as over the donation spots for end-game scoring.

Finally, I really like the art and components in Carnegie. The art is by Ian O’Toole, and it really reminds me of the art he has done for Vital Lacerda’s games.

If I had to nitpick the game, I’d say that it might not have the same replayability compared to some of my favorites. Since many of the mechanisms are interconnected, it’s difficult to focus too heavily in one area, without it negatively impacting other areas. For example, if I wanted to focus heavily on building projects on the map and connecting cities, it would be difficult since I would first have to use the research and development action in order to have access to more projects to build. Therefore, while you can focus more on certain areas, I imagine it would be difficult to fully specialize in one area and still do well.

I’ve only played Carnegie once, so these are only my initial thoughts, but I really enjoyed my first play through of the game. So much so, that I’m kicking myself I didn’t pick the game up during the recent Pegasus Spiele sale. Overall, I’m looking forward to returning to Carnegie in the not too distant future, and I’m especially interested in hearing your thoughts on Carnegie in the comments below!

Next up, I was able to bring out Ready Set Bet during a July 4^th get-together. If you’ve never heard of Ready Set Bet, it basically simulates a series of horseraces where everyone is betting and cheering on their favorite horses to win. It’s great as a party game because players don’t need to be familiar with board games to still enjoy it. There are also no turns, so all players are placing bets simultaneously while the horses are moving which builds momentum.

One player can act as House, who can also participate in the betting (or choose to refrain) and is in charge of rolling the dice and moving the horses. Or, there is an app that will simulate rolling the dice and progressing the horses. The app is well-implemented and there are speed controls which sets how quickly the dice will be rolled. Usually, I don’t mind acting as the House player, and I might even enjoy it more than actually participating in the betting.

My favorite element of the game is how when the same number is rolled twice in a row, then that horse will get to move extra spaces depending on how likely that number is to be rolled. That means that even the horses corresponding to 2/3 and 11/12 can still win if they get lucky a couple of times. This also means that horses are never truly out of the race, and they can still come from behind to snatch a victory. We recently had a round where the 11/12 horse got lucky early and jumped out to a big lead, but then sat one space away from winning the race for a while which allowed another horse to catch up and win in the end.  I also enjoy how the VIP cards mix up the betting in subsequent rounds in interesting ways, without overcomplicating the game. 

While Ready Set Bet is a light game, the number of available bets can be overwhelming to newcomers, and the betting theme may turn some people off. While you can strategically plan out your bets, the game is also almost entirely luck, as evidence by a horse coming out of nowhere at the end to win the race. Finally, the overall enjoyment of the game will likely largely depend on the group of players. If players really get into the theme, and are cheering and shouting, then you’ll likely have a good time. However, if that doesn’t sound enjoyable or fit with your group, then the game may not land as well. Also, the game is best enjoyed at the higher player counts (6+ players), so that there’s more competition over betting spots and more commotion.

Overall, with the right group, I really enjoy getting Ready Set Bet to the table, and it is a great party game for the collection.

It had been a while since I have gotten Maracaibo to the table, which is a game from one of my favorite designers, Alexander Pfister. In Maracaibo, players take turns moving their player piece around a rondel through the Caribbean, taking various actions and completing quests.

First off, I really enjoy the multiuse cards in the game. Players can either play the card for its effects (either income, abilities, or additional action spaces), spend the card to complete a quest, or spend the card to deliver a good (opening up additional rewards and effects on individual player boards). The multiuse cards create interesting decisions where players have decide how they want to use the limited cards in their hand (either 4 or 6).

Unlike Great Western Trail, where players progress through the rondel at different paces, in Maracaibo, once one player reaches the end, it triggers the end of the round and all players will have to move their ship back to the start. This creates an interesting tension where if one player decides to make a bee line towards the end, then players will not get as many actions that round.

While I prefer the game multiplayer, I decided to try out the solo mode for the first time, and I enjoyed how easy the AI was to pilot. There’s also some variety in which solo cards get used in each game which encourages the AI to specialize in certain areas.

I also really enjoy the area-control influence track mechanism, which reminds me of the companies in Mombasa/Skymines. Although this aspect is more interesting at higher player counts, the downside is that more players does lengthen the game quite a bit, especially at four players.

Another downside is the amount of setup in the game, particularly in how the deck of cards is constructed. The box says 30 minutes per player, but even with the game fully set up, which easily takes at least 15 minutes solo, you’re looking at close to an hour solo unless you’re very familiar with the game. And a four-person game is likely to reach close to three-hours if not longer.

The game also comes with an optional legacy component, and while I’m not that enamored by the story, the legacy tiles themselves are a nice edition by mixing up the rondel in interesting ways.

Finally, while I haven’t played the game enough to reach a definitive conclusion, in addition being more interesting than the explorer track, the influence tracks also appears to provide quite a bit more points. Therefore, I usually tend to focus more on a combat heavy strategy compared to moving my explorer along the track.

Overall, I’m glad to have gotten Maracaibo back to the table, even for just a solo session. While I prefer some of Pfister’s other designs, I still really enjoy Maracaibo, and I hope to get it to the table more often soon.

With that, I’ll wrap up this week’s gaming highlights! I’d love to hear your thoughts on any of the games I’ve mentioned, future content, or format in the comments section below. Happy gaming!