Jon you are a life saver. Started reading the rules last night and they were so confusing. Seemed to jump around everywhere. As soon as I watched the gameplay run through I completely understood the game. Decided to stay around for the whole extended playthrough just to give your channel the love. Love how you are able to play 3 completely different strategies so seemlessly
Fantastic play through Jon. This is why your channel is crucial to this hobby. I’m heading up to play this with my Brother and Nephews on Saturday. I’m totally stoked now.
This game really is basically Alexander Pfister's Greatest Hits Album, huh? I like most of his games, and like the look of this one, but it sadly shares the thing I hated most about Great Western Trail, and that is that a player can rush to the end of the game by going round as fast as possible. As someone who likes to take their time, I hate being rushed like that. Wonderful video as always. As usual, your editing and presentation is top notch.
After watching attentively your playthru I cant help buying this excellent game. It is a big pleasure following your explanations. Although I had decided not to acquire this game your excellent playthru ended up convincing me to have this game in my collection. Congratulations for your really perfect job. I am about to become one of your big fans. Greetings from Valencia, Spain
Very good play through, with different strategies per player. At 12'26" a misspoken location: green player places a cube in the last free city. That city is called Cartagena, not Santa Marta (which is a village). At 44'45" yellow player buys 2 cards, one of which is a Pioneer. Yellow forgot to return a worker to the general supply as it is an additional cost for the Pioneer.
This is AWESOME!!! I just got the game yesterday and played it Solo. That was tough, trying to learn the regular rules AND the Automa rules. You clarified a lot of rules and explained some I didn't fully understand. Thank YOU!!!
@@KingBlazerXS Hi, Just my personal opinion, but I didn't care for the automa. I may have been playing it wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Automa (Jean) only stops at Cities and for Quests (and automatically completes a quest that is landed on), which means it flies across the board too fast for my enjoyment. I prefer to play two handed as a 'solo' game. That works great for me. I enjoy playing the game a lot that way. The initial cards a player gets will often dictate the initial focus and since each player usually gets different initial cards the play for them is quite different. Typically those games are pretty close in score.
Ty. Great video for learning. Set up the game for playing with 2p solo,but way too much to get in to ! Setup was long to. Don’t wanna explain this for my group,hope they can look at this vid. Now I’m ready to play tomorrow if I manage.
Wow. My copy should arrive on Monday. Your excellent playthrough was my introduction to the complexities of this game. Thanks for spending the time - I know your time is much longer than video time.
thanks, I decided to to through the complete playthrough, and after that , on the same day, setup the table to explain to my 16yr old son. Too many details in the rules, so, setup took a while. We are playong it later tomorrow, and your videos totally helped me to explain it for the first time. thanks a lot.
Great job Jon! This the second game after GWT that I bought immediately after watching your playthrough. Great game and even better tutorial and rules explanation. Keep up the work!
I just want to thank you, Jon, for putting up your Maracaibo videos. I am so impressed with the quality of your presentation. The image/sound quality is really clear and your close up shots help to see what's going on - everything about it looks so professional. I've been trying to learn Maracaibo, but I knew it would help to learn from an expert so I don't miss anything. I think I learn better from your style of tutorial than other ones I've watched. Does anyone help you with all this? Or are you a one man operation? Either way, awesome work!
@@JonGetsGamesThat's amazing. You've come a long way. I just watched your video on Cyclades (another one I'm learning). By chance, did you ever follow through on getting the Hades expansion? You were asked that a lot in the messages of that video but had trouble acquiring it back then.
Loved the playthough. I kind of wished you would have sold out more on the exploration track. It felt like you hedged a bit with doing combat over exploring, and I can't tell if that helped or hurt you over all. Still really fun, and I do love your playthoughs with how you hide the 'other' players knowledge even though you are ostensibly playing all three players. Edit to clarify: I wasn't talking about your last combat vs explore action. That made perfect sense at that point. I think you went for combat at the end of round 2 and 3 though, and that would have put you up higher on the explore track for more and higher rewards. You could of maybe stopped at Port Royal more as well.
The choice of explore vs combat really is a central one to the whole game. I've gone crazy on explore before when playing, but there really is SO much benefit for doing lots of combat that it's hard to ignore it.
Hi John, I appreciate your videos a ton. This game's rulebook is hard to follow and your play-through is a difference maker. One note. Seems like you never give the victory points when you use the cubes... :)
At 1:13:53 the green player used 2 combat to get 1 influence instead of England taking over an empty village and still getting an influence, which seems like a strategic error.
Ah yeah, that would have been smarter for sure. That would have changed the majority bonuses for sure. I think Green would have ended with 2 more points, Yellow would have had 4 less points, and we (Black) would have had 7 less points overall.
I don't like how ties work regarding strongest and weakest nation. When fighting a battle, a tie means no one is best/weakest. When endgame scoring happens, a tie suddenly means all of them are the best. Seems strange and inconsistent... :( Other than that, it seems to be a nice game. Good Job!
I didn't quite understand how removing an english cube from the board "hurts" the player who invested in the english track? Do the cubes on the board offer anything? Once they leave the influence track the point is gained no matter what right? So why bother with their cubes on board instead of going for points?
Thanks this was great! I just played my first game last night. Question on Combat: For the top bar bonus/penalty, on the combat tokens: In the first round, you played it as if there was a tie for majority, there was no bonus nor penalty And you played that way for the rest of the game. We came to the same conclusion, as the rulebook gets quite confusing to follow. Now in the first round, what you considered the weakest, (which is marked 3rd place) if 2 countries tied for first, then there is no 3rd place, and then there would be no bonus nor penalty. That seemed to be how you played it, but rounds 2-4 you went with just the weakest (which could be second place) and we still played it that if there was no third place, it got skipped. Was there an F.A.Q. Eratta to update or clarify that rule? We could not find it?
What I found out is that if you have a tie for first place: no bonus If you have a tie for last place ( not 3rd. Place as the tile made me believe): no bonus Otherwise: bonus or penalty, however it reads. Thanks though! I watched Heavy Cardboard play yesterday on youtube. First hour was instructional and 3 hours was the game. I also watched Rhado’s solo 1 round play with story mechanisms. I like the story play actually and the solo play is nice except the fact that the A.I. Rushes the game play.
Hello - I am a little late to the party is seems, but I have a question about the prestige building "Abbey": Do you get 12 points for having passed the red, green and blue barriers on the exploration track when you pay for a spot in the Abbey? I played the game for the first time yesterday, and 2 players claimed 24 points each for the Abbey, having passed red, green and blue. The argument was that red is 1barrier, blue is 2 barriers and green is 3 barriers - 6 in all. There are 6 barriers in all if you see it that way. Can anybody help me?
Jon you are a life saver. Started reading the rules last night and they were so confusing. Seemed to jump around everywhere. As soon as I watched the gameplay run through I completely understood the game. Decided to stay around for the whole extended playthrough just to give your channel the love.
Love how you are able to play 3 completely different strategies so seemlessly
I have the humor of a 12 year old and couldn't help giggling whenever the "Pinnace" card came up.
Hehe, well I'm glad it made you laugh :)
Fantastic play through Jon. This is why your channel is crucial to this hobby. I’m heading up to play this with my Brother and Nephews on Saturday. I’m totally stoked now.
Wow thank you very much. You are the best teacher for Maracaibo. Your play through is outstanding. Clear and simple for a medium-heavy game.
This game really is basically Alexander Pfister's Greatest Hits Album, huh? I like most of his games, and like the look of this one, but it sadly shares the thing I hated most about Great Western Trail, and that is that a player can rush to the end of the game by going round as fast as possible. As someone who likes to take their time, I hate being rushed like that.
Wonderful video as always. As usual, your editing and presentation is top notch.
Watched the whole thing and I finally get it. Thanks a lot!
such a game!
Good job man that is wonderful
After watching attentively your playthru I cant help buying this excellent game. It is a big pleasure following your explanations. Although I had decided not to acquire this game your excellent playthru ended up convincing me to have this game in my collection. Congratulations for your
really perfect job. I am about to become one of your big fans. Greetings from Valencia, Spain
One word summarizes this video - OUTSTANDING!
I have watched several videos of yours. You are the best teacher out there for new games. keep up the great work!!
Very good play through, with different strategies per player.
At 12'26" a misspoken location: green player places a cube in the last free city. That city is called Cartagena, not Santa Marta (which is a village).
At 44'45" yellow player buys 2 cards, one of which is a Pioneer. Yellow forgot to return a worker to the general supply as it is an additional cost for the Pioneer.
Thanks for pointing those mistakes out, I've added corrections to the Klingon subtitles for them now.
This is AWESOME!!! I just got the game yesterday and played it Solo. That was tough, trying to learn the regular rules AND the Automa rules. You clarified a lot of rules and explained some I didn't fully understand. Thank YOU!!!
How was it solo?
@@KingBlazerXS Hi, Just my personal opinion, but I didn't care for the automa. I may have been playing it wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Automa (Jean) only stops at Cities and for Quests (and automatically completes a quest that is landed on), which means it flies across the board too fast for my enjoyment. I prefer to play two handed as a 'solo' game. That works great for me. I enjoy playing the game a lot that way. The initial cards a player gets will often dictate the initial focus and since each player usually gets different initial cards the play for them is quite different. Typically those games are pretty close in score.
Wow, three players handling by one!!!! Amazing 👍
Fantastic playthrough.... Buy the game - view this video - read the rulebook & game on...
Great walkthrough Jon, this really helped a lot.
Ty. Great video for learning. Set up the game for playing with 2p solo,but way too much to get in to ! Setup was long to. Don’t wanna explain this for my group,hope they can look at this vid. Now I’m ready to play tomorrow if I manage.
Thanks so much for helping me get up to speed on this awesome game!
What a show. Thanks!
Wow. My copy should arrive on Monday. Your excellent playthrough was my introduction to the complexities of this game. Thanks for spending the time - I know your time is much longer than video time.
Best showcase for this game out there! Great job John!
Enjoyed watching this again! Ty
Long, but such a great play through
thanks, I decided to to through the complete playthrough, and after that , on the same day, setup the table to explain to my 16yr old son. Too many details in the rules, so, setup took a while. We are playong it later tomorrow, and your videos totally helped me to explain it for the first time.
thanks a lot.
I hope you have a great time with it :)
not sure if it effects anything but at 1:30:40 you give green your points.
great tutorial none the less. I appreciate these so much.
Yeah, I have a correction about that mistake in the Klingon subtitles already. I do recommend turning those on to see corrections like this.
Great job Jon! This the second game after GWT that I bought immediately after watching your playthrough.
Great game and even better tutorial and rules explanation. Keep up the work!
I hope you enjoy it!
I watched all three videos you explained it all very well thank you!!
Now If I can only find this available ( without spending a fortune ), Loved the play through and great rules tutorial.
Once again an awesome video, looking forward to this game arriving soon thx for teaching the game
The amount of planning you has to do to make this video!!!
I just want to thank you, Jon, for putting up your Maracaibo videos. I am so impressed with the quality of your presentation. The image/sound quality is really clear and your close up shots help to see what's going on - everything about it looks so professional. I've been trying to learn Maracaibo, but I knew it would help to learn from an expert so I don't miss anything. I think I learn better from your style of tutorial than other ones I've watched. Does anyone help you with all this? Or are you a one man operation? Either way, awesome work!
This is 100% me :)
@@JonGetsGamesThat's amazing. You've come a long way. I just watched your video on Cyclades (another one I'm learning). By chance, did you ever follow through on getting the Hades expansion? You were asked that a lot in the messages of that video but had trouble acquiring it back then.
I never did get any expansions for it. I'm not sure if I played it much at all after that review if I'm being honest.
Thanks for these wonderful videos, they are extremely valuable to an hobbyst like me.
Brilliant play-through, Jon, awesome job!
Thank you! Excellent presentation of the game. TOP CLASS
Thanks so much!!!!
Thanks for this play through - really enjoyed it.
Excellent playthrough!
Thank you for this Jon really great playlthrough as usual
Very good play through. Thanks
Loved the playthough. I kind of wished you would have sold out more on the exploration track. It felt like you hedged a bit with doing combat over exploring, and I can't tell if that helped or hurt you over all. Still really fun, and I do love your playthoughs with how you hide the 'other' players knowledge even though you are ostensibly playing all three players.
Edit to clarify: I wasn't talking about your last combat vs explore action. That made perfect sense at that point. I think you went for combat at the end of round 2 and 3 though, and that would have put you up higher on the explore track for more and higher rewards. You could of maybe stopped at Port Royal more as well.
The choice of explore vs combat really is a central one to the whole game. I've gone crazy on explore before when playing, but there really is SO much benefit for doing lots of combat that it's hard to ignore it.
Hi John, I appreciate your videos a ton. This game's rulebook is hard to follow and your play-through is a difference maker. One note. Seems like you never give the victory points when you use the cubes... :)
I'm glad you enjoyed this and found it informative :) Could you explain the mistake I made with a timestamp from the video I can check it?
@@JonGetsGames Hi John, actually, I beg your pardon. I learned after that I was doing something wrong with scoring... Thanks for checking in.
Cool vidéo. Quite clear and interesting. Well done.
At 1:13:53 the green player used 2 combat to get 1 influence instead of England taking over an empty village and still getting an influence, which seems like a strategic error.
Ah yeah, that would have been smarter for sure. That would have changed the majority bonuses for sure. I think Green would have ended with 2 more points, Yellow would have had 4 less points, and we (Black) would have had 7 less points overall.
31:00 black forgot to take their money from the quest token 2 coins for each compass =6
I didn't show it on screen, but the next time we take a turn we have 11 coins whereas we had 5 the previous turn so I do think we took the 6 coins.
Wasn't the green player supposed to be first to act in round two? Thank you for teaching by playing.
I don't believe so, they were the player to end the previous round which means the person after them in clockwise order will start the next round.
Good game i bought but did not played yet...i have a feeling you can play this totally random and still win...
From my experience that isn't the case at all.
I don't like how ties work regarding strongest and weakest nation. When fighting a battle, a tie means no one is best/weakest. When endgame scoring happens, a tie suddenly means all of them are the best. Seems strange and inconsistent... :(
Other than that, it seems to be a nice game. Good Job!
I didn't quite understand how removing an english cube from the board "hurts" the player who invested in the english track? Do the cubes on the board offer anything? Once they leave the influence track the point is gained no matter what right? So why bother with their cubes on board instead of going for points?
There is a bonus modifier at the end of the game for the country with the most and second most cubes still on the board.
1:30:40 you gave the green points instead of yourself
Yeah that was unfortunate. I've already added this to the Klingon subtitles.
Thanks this was great! I just played my first game last night.
Question on Combat:
For the top bar bonus/penalty, on the combat tokens:
In the first round, you played it as if there was a tie for majority, there was no bonus nor penalty And you played that way for the rest of the game. We came to the same conclusion, as the rulebook gets quite confusing to follow.
Now in the first round, what you considered the weakest, (which is marked 3rd place) if 2 countries tied for first, then there is no 3rd place, and then there would be no bonus nor penalty. That seemed to be how you played it, but rounds 2-4 you went with just the weakest (which could be second place) and we still played it that if there was no third place, it got skipped.
Was there an F.A.Q. Eratta to update or clarify that rule? We could not find it?
Huh, I don't know of an errata but I never saw it as specifically "third place" but "last place". I hope I played that correctly.
What I found out is that if you have a tie for first place: no bonus
If you have a tie for last place ( not 3rd. Place as the tile made me believe): no bonus
Otherwise: bonus or penalty, however it reads.
Thanks though! I watched Heavy Cardboard play yesterday on youtube. First hour was instructional and 3 hours was the game.
I also watched Rhado’s solo 1 round play with story mechanisms. I like the story play actually and the solo play is nice except the fact that the A.I. Rushes the game play.
I thought you could only buy cards if they're on the reserve slot above your player board?
No, you can buy those or from the market.
Forgot to pay yellow player’s worker for pioneer card at 44:30 and black player’s worker for same card at 54:21
Dang, looks like I was blind to that cost with that specific card. I've added notes for both of these to the Klingon subtitles, thanks!
Sure thing dude👍
Hello - I am a little late to the party is seems, but I have a question about the prestige building "Abbey":
Do you get 12 points for having passed the red, green and blue barriers on the exploration track when you pay for a spot in the Abbey? I played the game for the first time yesterday, and 2 players claimed 24 points each for the Abbey, having passed red, green and blue. The argument was that red is 1barrier, blue is 2 barriers and green is 3 barriers - 6 in all. There are 6 barriers in all if you see it that way. Can anybody help me?
My understanding is that there are only 3 barriers and the number of lines help differentiate them from each other.
I pressed pause, but at around 12:35 you move black marker instead of the green one!
12:32*
Woops! Glad it was just a 1 point cheat. I'll add a note to the Klingon subtitles now.
And again at 1:30:40, you give green 6 points. Great playthrough!
@@Kep19901 Good catch, it looks like I only gave 2 points with the incorrect push as well. I've added a note, thanks!