Coal Baron

EvEvanstar4,6

The core mechanism is worker placement, but action spaces don't get blocked off. Rather, to use an occupied action space you only have to spend one more worker than the number of workers resting in the spot, moving the workers there off the space. The action spots get you money, allow you to spend money for mine carts, grab recipe cards, and use your elevator shaft to move cubes out of the mine and onto the cards, then finally clear the completed cards for points. It's a mostly tactical process, aiming to get the most out of your supply of workers, but it's none the less enjoyable. The magic of the game comes from the scoring process. In essence there are three scoring rounds, which occur when everyone is out of workers. In each scoring round, players do a majority scoring based on different criteria on the delivered cards. In the first round, there is scoring for having delivered the most of each cube color. In the second round, you do the same again and then also score for the majority of each transportation type on those same cards. The third time around, it's those again plus empty carts on your board. In this way the majority criteria sort of build on each other, which is a pretty interesting method of getting points, if you enjoy games that find different ways of implementing majority scoring. The downsides of this game are tough however. The component quality is very poor. The cardboard is very thin, and I've never seen a copy with my own eyes that didn't have severe warping problems. The other thing is that this is not a game where at the start of the game you formulate a plan and then spend the rest of the game carrying out that plan. Then, the third downside is that there's no great way to see every player's completed score cards and be able to intuitively understand where you compare in any given scoring category. Less of a problem with 2 or maybe 3 players, but the more players the harder it is to see what everyone has. ☆ 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

MoMohaszstar7,1

Looks kinda neat, I'm not sure I really need it but I'm curious. Seems like it's just the right weight for me. I ordered it from a website, and after that it immediately went "out of stock" so I'm really hoping I was able to snatch the last copy. It's out of stock everywhere... Well... It was good I guess. Hard to tell from one 2p game. It was unique and had some interesting aspects, but I'm not sure if I'll keep it. Not a fan of the theme and the scoring. It doesn't seem like it's very replayable either, but we'll see.

Pimpi Pimpinelastar7,0

Buen juego de planificación y de interacción indirecta con los demás jugadores....un buen entrante para una tarde larga de juegos...