Yesterday was a Dieter Danziger night. We played both Lokomotive Werks and 1830 Cardgame, two games that are similar in some way. At least both are about trying to collect as much money as possible and both have a significant taxation mechanism (in Lokomotive Werks, everybody pays 10% every turn, in 1830 everybody pays 10%, except the poorest player pays 0% and the richest pays 20%).

I didn’t do particularly well in either – solid last place in both. Tuomo steamrolled us in Lokomotive Werks – the game has a runaway problem, if the players don’t know how to stop the leader, and clearly we don’t – and did pretty well in 1830, but since he had to pay 20% taxes so many times, he ended up third and Petteri, who ended the game at the right moment, seized the victory.

Of the two, Lokomotive Werks seems less luck-heavy, despite having lots of die-rolling in it. 1830 Cardgame has a significant luck element in what kind of cards you have, particularly whether you have “Buy a share” cards at the right time or not. It’s a nice double tragedy when you can’t buy a share when you have money, and then comes the dividend phase and you lose in dividends yet still pay 20% taxes because you couldn’t lose money by buying shares. Ouch.

So, Lokomotive Werks is the better game here and will remain in rotation. 1830 Cardgame… well, I could try again, especially as the game took just 60 minutes this time, but I’m not sure this is a keeper. Both rate as Suggest, but 1830 may end up at indifferent.

Android: Netrunner

I used to play Netrunner back in the day, hence I was somewhat interested in the new Android: Netrunner. The game is strangely high on the Geek rank, #6 right now, but it’s not a bad game. I bought a copy myself, and have managed two games now. It’s just about as good as the original game.

Now the only question is: will this see enough play ever? That’s unanswered, so far. I don’t play much two-player games. My brother – the original Netrunner opponent I had – lives far away that playing against him is not much of an option. In our weekly game nights two-player games are not usually an option, as we only have four or five players each time (had we constantly six or seven, two-player games would be an interesting option).

So, at the moment I’m keeping the game, but resisting the temptation to buy the expansions. Suggest.

Other games

• König von Siam is an interesting game. Area control, kind of, but in a good way. Very constricted: players have only eight actions during the game. There are eight areas to struggle over, but it’s up to the players to distribute their actions over the power struggles. Suggest.
• Indigo has turned out to be a pleasant family game. The kids like it, and I like it. It’s very pleasant little game. Suggest.
• The Hobbit is a decent game. Not one of my favourites, but I won’t complain if my son wants to play this. I’ve yet to try this with four or five players; that might be different. I’m not sure if it would be better or worse. Suggest.
• Dampfross isn’t the easiest game to get on table, but I managed to do that two weeks ago. It’s a lovely little game, and an interesting as a family game, I think, but it also would need more players. Four is good, five would probably be better. I like it, but I have to admin Eurorails scratches the same itch, but better. Suggest.