Both this review and the one from Zee and Sam is very positive. However, from my original impressions I don't like that you can't restrict your opponents by blocking their spaces (part of the core of worker placement, to me). And the fact that you need to roll dice for energy. Doesn't it take away from the strategy by addding in a lot of luck? What I liked about the original game is the placement of the workers, the building of the engine, the threat of the planes, the espionage and that there is limited space for luck. I think I'll need to try this before I buy this one.
Full disclosure, I was on the playtest team, so I'm pretty biased (BTW, I think this is one of the best games I've ever played). You can't outright block, but you do make it much harder for your opponent to use a space. And if you truly wanted to block, you can place a worker with all of the unused energy you have on a space. Let's say you place your worker and 3 energy. The next player would have to pay at least 4 energy and a worker to go there! So, you can still block in theory, as long as you have the energy to do so. While there is luck in rolling the energy dice, you get to have some control over the outcomes by determining what dice to purchase. Nuclear creates a tremendous amount of energy while Solar/Wind does not. The biggest part of the dice rolling luck is if/how you pollute your environment. You can try to keep it clean by getting more "clean" (blue/green) dice. But luck may not be on your side. Personally, I like some amount of luck in my game. If I didn't, I'd go back to playing chess. I feel this game has the right amount of luck (which is not too much) and the right amount of strategy (which is a lot!).
romanphoenix999 well... you can block players from using a space, just not the way you are use to... you just need to stack enough energy in a location when you place your worker that other players arnt wiling to pay or can affordto go to the same spot... So even if you are the first worker at a location, you can say put 3 energy down with the worker. if another player wants to go there, they can, but only if they can pay 4 energy in this example... so you see, in a way, you are blocking players from using spaces in the sense that you make it too expensive for them to go to any given location... Also... the designers stated that there is a max limit of 10 energy per player that could possibly be generated... so if you max out a location with 10 energy for whatever reason. .. no one could go there until you recall your workers. ..
The Publisher should be Minion Games, and the DesignerS: should be Luke Laurie and Tom Jolly.
Honestly much easier to understand than Zees review. I bought the game after seeing this review. Going to use it as a teaching tool too
So, that's second game by Leo Colovini that Tom likes :P
Both this review and the one from Zee and Sam is very positive. However, from my original impressions I don't like that you can't restrict your opponents by blocking their spaces (part of the core of worker placement, to me). And the fact that you need to roll dice for energy. Doesn't it take away from the strategy by addding in a lot of luck?
What I liked about the original game is the placement of the workers, the building of the engine, the threat of the planes, the espionage and that there is limited space for luck. I think I'll need to try this before I buy this one.
Full disclosure, I was on the playtest team, so I'm pretty biased (BTW, I think this is one of the best games I've ever played).
You can't outright block, but you do make it much harder for your opponent to use a space. And if you truly wanted to block, you can place a worker with all of the unused energy you have on a space. Let's say you place your worker and 3 energy. The next player would have to pay at least 4 energy and a worker to go there! So, you can still block in theory, as long as you have the energy to do so.
While there is luck in rolling the energy dice, you get to have some control over the outcomes by determining what dice to purchase. Nuclear creates a tremendous amount of energy while Solar/Wind does not. The biggest part of the dice rolling luck is if/how you pollute your environment. You can try to keep it clean by getting more "clean" (blue/green) dice. But luck may not be on your side.
Personally, I like some amount of luck in my game. If I didn't, I'd go back to playing chess. I feel this game has the right amount of luck (which is not too much) and the right amount of strategy (which is a lot!).
Sean Geraghty Thanks for the response. I will keep an eye on this one even though first impressions didn't impress me.
romanphoenix999 well... you can block players from using a space, just not the way you are use to... you just need to stack enough energy in a location when you place your worker that other players arnt wiling to pay or can affordto go to the same spot... So even if you are the first worker at a location, you can say put 3 energy down with the worker. if another player wants to go there, they can, but only if they can pay 4 energy in this example... so you see, in a way, you are blocking players from using spaces in the sense that you make it too expensive for them to go to any given location... Also... the designers stated that there is a max limit of 10 energy per player that could possibly be generated... so if you max out a location with 10 energy for whatever reason. .. no one could go there until you recall your workers. ..