So excited to see you have virtually the same reaction to this game as I did back when I picked it up at Essen. And thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, for pronouncing it correctly. I found this in the booklet and I am trying to use this with my local gaming group. Sadly I think they are just annoyed that I can't just pronounce it according to the German rules (native English speaker ;living in Germany) of phonics - Ah-tee-vah. I have read more about Ghana and fruit bats in the last few months than probably the rest of my life combined. So exciting to see an engine based on the environment rather than economics and business. And like you I agree that the game can feel a bit samey, but at the same time I get such a giddy feeling form the thematic integration of the environmental engine.
they did still have regular plastic baggies, but i'd bet in the future they're thinking of switching over to the bio-baggied that stonemaier games and others have started using, so that's exciting! :)
Don't know if you remember--but in your "top ten concepts for a board game" video (or something like that), I posted about how I really want a bat-themed game. So I'm stoked about this game! And it's from Agricola's--my favorite board game--designer. So def gotta check it out!
This is one of the tightest end game scoring games I've ever played. Each 2-player game has had a difference of only single digits between first and last place for me. 😳
It's about time we had economic games about the diminishing returns farmers get from using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Maybe you could choose to go organic, or stay locked in with the chemical industry and watch the lawsuits roll in and the land/ nature decline! Ooh, I should be in games design!
I wasn't sold on this game because of a lack of variation, but you sold me with your coop variant. My gf will love this. It would be a great introduction to "heavier"/worker placement games. Thank you!
Thanks Rahdo, an insightful and helpful opinion as ever. Le Havre: Inland Port is a great game, no variants or expansions needed if you have enough games that you can pull it out once/ twice a year (having played it to death originally!) It's satisfying to "instinctively" know the rules and just play... I love your idea for playing this co-operatively: that to me makes purchasing this game a lot more attractive, whether it works or not, it will certainly be fun trying to tweak it down the road. If only there weren't so many other great games to play first, (a first world problem, for sure!)
i did hear from the developer of the game right after i posted the video and he asked questions specific questions about how we did it. so there was an interest from them, but i haven't heard anything since
I love the theme of this but after a half-play at Gridcon' I cancelled my pre-order for it - I was enjoying it just fine, but just could not see anything that would bring me back to it more than a couple of times. (I didn't quit, for clarity - We just ran out of time as we were playing quite late). I hope I get another opportunity to try it and/or that it gets an expansion that has a bold 'More Variety' goal in its' design ^^. Edit: If they made cooperative an official thing in an expansion I would so be in :P
@@rahdo I am, posted a bit prematurely 😆. Just edited my post as you replied to note that I'd absolutely be in for a cooperative expansion if they made it official ^^.
A pronunciation guide is welcome but never enough - The stress in Atiwa is on the final syllable, and not like how you pronounce it in the end :) My go-to for learning how to pronounce a name of a person or place is to look for videos from native speakers. Like this one: ua-cam.com/video/Db_RRJQ3eHg/v-deo.html
@@rahdo there's always room for interpretation error, even if everything is written out. I can never be sure if I understand what the writer meant by vague "say it like eee ooo ah" instructions. Anyway, I'm happy this exists!
i don't think the scaling is weak, just going for something thats purposely not very tight because it's aiming for a wider audience than hard core tension filled agriola or the like :)
@@rahdo It's in the Advanced Level series so it's not like it's targeted at gateway-level families. Very often you say that game X does nothing to tighten the board for 2p and you come up with variants (e.g. Pillars of the Earth) to make it tighter. Here you say that "it's for a wider audience". So how is Atiwa for a wider audience and doesn't need a scaling variant and Pillars of the Earth is "not tight enough" and you consider it weak for 2? I'm genuinely curious becouse I don't understand where you draw the line for such things.
i know it says advanced, but tbh i don't think it's really much heavier than lords of waterdeep. tbh i think that 'advanced' label is misplaced :) and the reason this game doesn't do much to tight up 2p is that it's NEVER a particuaruly tight game, at any player count. it's not supposed to be. it's supposed to be relaxing and other players don't prevent you from doing what you want, no matter the player count. that's the intended design of the game, and there's nothing wrong with that. it's not what we tend to go for, but in this case with the variant i suggested in the video, i'm not bothered at all by that!
@@bushibayushi His last game, Hallertau, was 'Expert Level' and it's not a heavy game at all. The Advanced and Expert labels are clearly intended for non-gamers, so for them, this being called Advanced makes sense.
Can't wait to back on KS Trolls and Princesses by Game Brewer next week! Jan 23 is the day. It is a medium to heavy euro game and one of my most anticipated games for this year. Fantastic production value judging from their trailer. Also can't wait to hear your thoughts on the game once you get it. 2023 looks so promising!
Still I think Uwe already produced his best games. Since Feast for Odin we see same mechanics and same trying to publish a new game every year. Very similar to what Friedmann Friese and Stefan Feld do. From rules of Atiwa nothing really caught my attention except of the setting. Maybe it is for lighter euro lovers...
oh his best game is actually glass road imo, or maybe hallertau. but this game is easily his most important, and the gameplay is really quite different from his other farming titles, and yes, i would say it's a lighter game on purpose to be appealing to a broader audience :)
I love Uwe too but in Atiwa once you will understand how engine works it becomes boring and repetitive. Game you feel you know after the first play. It needs variety to stay on the water.
Right, interesting idea 😊 but Atiwa is not designed as cooperative game - Uwe intention was to create competitive game, like his other games. It might be a interesting mode if you like cooperative games but it is not fixing its main problem with being repetitive 😊 theme is top notch, I agree, that is why I hope he will add variety to Atiwa. I think currently it does not have a start to his other games like Glass Road, Agricola, Hallertau, Kawerna or Loyang. All mentioned are better and more interesting games imo.
yeah, of course not eveyrone wants to play co-op as well. for me, this is a way to keep the game fresh until (fingers crossed) an expansion comes out. without it, the game is one you'd probably want to play a few times a year, instead of say a few times a month, but the co-op fixes that too :)
@@rahdo still, you should review the game as is, because it's unfair to "home fix" some games and say that they are great and not "home fix" others and say that their replay value is poor. Seeing your response to the post above, the bottom line of this review should be this: "It's fun for a play or two and then it's samey and repetitive".
So excited to see you have virtually the same reaction to this game as I did back when I picked it up at Essen. And thank you, thank you, THANK YOU, for pronouncing it correctly. I found this in the booklet and I am trying to use this with my local gaming group. Sadly I think they are just annoyed that I can't just pronounce it according to the German rules (native English speaker ;living in Germany) of phonics - Ah-tee-vah.
I have read more about Ghana and fruit bats in the last few months than probably the rest of my life combined. So exciting to see an engine based on the environment rather than economics and business. And like you I agree that the game can feel a bit samey, but at the same time I get such a giddy feeling form the thematic integration of the environmental engine.
Richard, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! For sharing your variant for cooperative play. The world is a better place to have you in it 💕
I love hearing about the environmentally friendly changes to games. Such as, no plastic wrapped cards. That's exciting.
they did still have regular plastic baggies, but i'd bet in the future they're thinking of switching over to the bio-baggied that stonemaier games and others have started using, so that's exciting! :)
Don't know if you remember--but in your "top ten concepts for a board game" video (or something like that), I posted about how I really want a bat-themed game. So I'm stoked about this game! And it's from Agricola's--my favorite board game--designer. So def gotta check it out!
Thank you for the review and the co-op suggestion. Great video!
Thanks Rahdo, this game looks great and looking forward to playing this.
This is one of the tightest end game scoring games I've ever played. Each 2-player game has had a difference of only single digits between first and last place for me. 😳
Love the looks of this! And your enthusiasm for this cool game. I agree that with this theme it should really have a coop possibility.
It's about time we had economic games about the diminishing returns farmers get from using chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Maybe you could choose to go organic, or stay locked in with the chemical industry and watch the lawsuits roll in and the land/ nature decline!
Ooh, I should be in games design!
Thank you Great as always. Would you buy Atiwa or Glass Road?
I wasn't sold on this game because of a lack of variation, but you sold me with your coop variant. My gf will love this. It would be a great introduction to "heavier"/worker placement games. Thank you!
Thanks Rahdo, an insightful and helpful opinion as ever.
Le Havre: Inland Port is a great game, no variants or expansions needed if you have enough games that you can pull it out once/ twice a year (having played it to death originally!) It's satisfying to "instinctively" know the rules and just play...
I love your idea for playing this co-operatively: that to me makes purchasing this game a lot more attractive, whether it works or not, it will certainly be fun trying to tweak it down the road. If only there weren't so many other great games to play first, (a first world problem, for sure!)
i would agree that inland port definitely hold up for a 'once in awhile' experience! :)
@@rahdo Possibly more so than several of today's games.
I would love to know if you ever heard back from Lookout or Uwe on the co-op variant. It’s such a cool idea!
i did hear from the developer of the game right after i posted the video and he asked questions specific questions about how we did it. so there was an interest from them, but i haven't heard anything since
I love the theme of this but after a half-play at Gridcon' I cancelled my pre-order for it - I was enjoying it just fine, but just could not see anything that would bring me back to it more than a couple of times. (I didn't quit, for clarity - We just ran out of time as we were playing quite late).
I hope I get another opportunity to try it and/or that it gets an expansion that has a bold 'More Variety' goal in its' design ^^.
Edit: If they made cooperative an official thing in an expansion I would so be in :P
watch the entire final thoughts... i think i've found just the thing :)
@@rahdo I am, posted a bit prematurely 😆. Just edited my post as you replied to note that I'd absolutely be in for a cooperative expansion if they made it official ^^.
Hold up...Uwe co-op? That sounds awesome!!
i know, right!?! :)
A pronunciation guide is welcome but never enough - The stress in Atiwa is on the final syllable, and not like how you pronounce it in the end :)
My go-to for learning how to pronounce a name of a person or place is to look for videos from native speakers. Like this one: ua-cam.com/video/Db_RRJQ3eHg/v-deo.html
the rulebook does say the final syllable is stressed actually, i just screwed up! :)
@@rahdo there's always room for interpretation error, even if everything is written out. I can never be sure if I understand what the writer meant by vague "say it like eee ooo ah" instructions.
Anyway, I'm happy this exists!
Great theme integration, but weak 2-p scaling (wide open board) and very low replay value (it's always the same puzzle).
i don't think the scaling is weak, just going for something thats purposely not very tight because it's aiming for a wider audience than hard core tension filled agriola or the like :)
@@rahdo It's in the Advanced Level series so it's not like it's targeted at gateway-level families. Very often you say that game X does nothing to tighten the board for 2p and you come up with variants (e.g. Pillars of the Earth) to make it tighter. Here you say that "it's for a wider audience". So how is Atiwa for a wider audience and doesn't need a scaling variant and Pillars of the Earth is "not tight enough" and you consider it weak for 2? I'm genuinely curious becouse I don't understand where you draw the line for such things.
i know it says advanced, but tbh i don't think it's really much heavier than lords of waterdeep. tbh i think that 'advanced' label is misplaced :)
and the reason this game doesn't do much to tight up 2p is that it's NEVER a particuaruly tight game, at any player count. it's not supposed to be. it's supposed to be relaxing and other players don't prevent you from doing what you want, no matter the player count. that's the intended design of the game, and there's nothing wrong with that. it's not what we tend to go for, but in this case with the variant i suggested in the video, i'm not bothered at all by that!
@@rahdo thank you for taking the time to respond! All clear now ;)
@@bushibayushi His last game, Hallertau, was 'Expert Level' and it's not a heavy game at all. The Advanced and Expert labels are clearly intended for non-gamers, so for them, this being called Advanced makes sense.
Can't wait to back on KS Trolls and Princesses by Game Brewer next week! Jan 23 is the day. It is a medium to heavy euro game and one of my most anticipated games for this year. Fantastic production value judging from their trailer. Also can't wait to hear your thoughts on the game once you get it. 2023 looks so promising!
i hadn't even heard of this one!
@@rahdo I saw it in an ad, it's not even on KS yet but will be available on January 23rd
You can check out the trailer on youtube. I tried posting the link but the algorithm deleted it lol
Still I think Uwe already produced his best games. Since Feast for Odin we see same mechanics and same trying to publish a new game every year. Very similar to what Friedmann Friese and Stefan Feld do. From rules of Atiwa nothing really caught my attention except of the setting. Maybe it is for lighter euro lovers...
oh his best game is actually glass road imo, or maybe hallertau. but this game is easily his most important, and the gameplay is really quite different from his other farming titles, and yes, i would say it's a lighter game on purpose to be appealing to a broader audience :)
I love Uwe too but in Atiwa once you will understand how engine works it becomes boring and repetitive. Game you feel you know after the first play. It needs variety to stay on the water.
i made a suggestion for how to address that in this very video that works pretty well i think :)
Right, interesting idea 😊 but Atiwa is not designed as cooperative game - Uwe intention was to create competitive game, like his other games. It might be a interesting mode if you like cooperative games but it is not fixing its main problem with being repetitive 😊 theme is top notch, I agree, that is why I hope he will add variety to Atiwa. I think currently it does not have a start to his other games like Glass Road, Agricola, Hallertau, Kawerna or Loyang. All mentioned are better and more interesting games imo.
yeah, of course not eveyrone wants to play co-op as well. for me, this is a way to keep the game fresh until (fingers crossed) an expansion comes out. without it, the game is one you'd probably want to play a few times a year, instead of say a few times a month, but the co-op fixes that too :)
@@rahdo still, you should review the game as is, because it's unfair to "home fix" some games and say that they are great and not "home fix" others and say that their replay value is poor. Seeing your response to the post above, the bottom line of this review should be this: "It's fun for a play or two and then it's samey and repetitive".
i did review the game as is, and then i added a suggestion to make it better.