Chartered: The Golden Age

EvEvanstar5,9

This is a stocks game with a minor logistical element. The board has a few paths full of numbered spaces, and players get a hand of cards with those numbers. On your turn you can buy a new card from the open display, or play a card to add a building to the matching space. If it's unconnected to other buildings, you can start a new company which gets you two bonus pieces and a cap showing the thematic good the company produces. The company then gets added to the stock value board and you get one free stock card. You may then purchase two stocks from any started companies for their current values. If the piece you placed gets added to an existing company, then the value of that company increases one step for each height of the new piece added, and then you get a money payout equal to the stock's new value. When to companies meet on the board, everyone sells their stock in the less valuable company at the current rate, and then the more valuable company absorbs the lesser one, and increases it's value on the stock board accordingly. There's some amount of flip-luck involved with this game. There's a rule that new companies can't be started within 3 spaces of existing ones, so there are times you are stuck with cards that are temporarily dead in your hands. Also, lucking into drawing something that connects to a valuable company or the company you have bought a lot of stock in, is just better than drawing a dead card. That being said, it feels like there's a lot proper planning can accomplish through the things you buy as opposed to being overly focused on board position. I'm interested to see more, but there's some chance this is too mathy for me. For example, if a player has 5 stocks in a company, and I have a piece to add to that company, am I getting a better payout than that player for adding my piece, since I'm giving all 5 of his stocks +10 value in the act? Sometimes. Is that player in the lead? Hard to say. ★ Art, Iconography and components functional ★ Clever or interesting mechanisms ★ Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players ★ Multiple plays stay interesting ☆ Low or mitigatable luck elements ★★★☆☆ Raw enjoyment