Noria

SrCorneliusstar7,0

(029)

EvEvanstar4,6

This is a really enjoyable stocks game, where in order to buy your markers up the four investment tracks, you need to pay resources. Resources come in two varieties. Basic and advanced. Basic resources are gotten through upgradeable collection actions. Advanced resources require actions to build the matching warehouses and then further actions to supply those warehouses with the matching basic goods. The values of the various tracks can be manipulated through player actions, so watching what your opponents are setting up for, and then hurting the value of those tracks is crucial. All this is fueled by this fantastic wheel based action system. Each player gets a dial with three rings. In those rings are little circular markers that determine what action happens when you activate that spot in the ring. Your turn is drawing an imaginary line from the central bottom action spot, and then can move one space to the left or right on the middle, and then again on the outside ring. Then you can resolve the actions you selected in any order. After your turn is over, all the rings rotate one position, which means the actions available to you is always changing and of course there are ways to spend resources and actions to further manipulate the wheel. There isn't a ton of variation to the game session to session. There are a few paths you can take in terms of which tracks you aim for, but the feel of all the tracks comes across as samey. The components aren't great. The cardboard discs you place in your wheel can get accidentally stuck under the wheel piece when it rotates if you aren't careful, which can get annoying. The iconography isn't bad, but it isn't great. For example, the most important number in the game, which is the number that determines your score multiplier on each of the stock tracks is really hard to see against the background art, and there's a track that can be bumped by spending some number of like or unalike resources, but when it says 3 different, what it means is 2 different and one of any, not one of each of all three. I would say the readability of the board is manageable but not great. All this being said, I do like this game. I like stocks fueled by resource management, and I like manipulating the wheel. :nostar: Art, Iconography and components functional :star: Clever or interesting mechanisms :star: Reasonably low downtime between turns with mildly AP players :star: Multiple plays stay interesting :star: Low or mitigatable luck elements :star::star::star::nostar::nostar: Raw enjoyment