Viticulture is one of the best games ever. If it weren't for the fact that Dominion is my favorite game ever, Viticulture would probably be number one. (Speaking of which, I need to update my Favorite Games list, mine only has three, whereas Alex's has over 50). I don't even know what it is about Viticulture that is so awesome to me. I've been thinking about it, and I guess I really really like worker placement games. Viticulture, Caverna, Village, TZolkin, I don't know, there's something about them that I just really like. With Viticulture there's also the fact that every year your wines age and your crushed grapes in your vats age, and I really like that for some reason. I like being able to construct different buildings that give you certain stuff, but some of them seem to be essential, like you have to get them every game or else you'll lose, like the extensions for your wine storage. Others are just super important but you don't have to have them if you have the right cards, such as the buildings that allow you to plant certain types of grapes in your vineyards. One game I totally got around that by playing a visiter card that allowed me to plant without needing the required buildings. That's another thing: the visitor cards are so rich and varied, and the game automatically gives you one every year, so you don't even have to go out of your way to get one. Although once again there is a building you can buy that will get you two.
Stuff from the Tuscany expansion, I guess, that I love: the mamas and papas at the beginning are super cool. The fact that you can sell some of your starting three fields is really neat, and a lot of visitor cards are from that expansion too I think. Alex said that we didn't need Tuscany because all of the good stuff was already put into the essential edition of Viticulture, and after watching reviews I can see what he means. While some people may think the separation of Summer and Winter worker placement is cool, to me it's just alright, and in Tuscany they even have spots for Spring and Fall workers, which once again I don't think really make the game. And there's an option to make cheese? Which the reviewers were just like, what? Why did you add this to a game about making wine? You're just taking away from its simplicity and goodness. So yeah, I guess we don't need the Tuscany expansion.
So, yeah, Viticulture. Love that game. I've also been thinking a lot about recently, ever since Alex's post about Pandemic Legacy, is legacy games. I've only ever played one, SeaFall, which was awesome, but it apparently is the worst legacy game out there according to some reviewers? Well if that's the worst dude, and I loved it, I can't wait to see what the heck other legacy games are like. And Pandemic Legacy is supposed to be just as good as the first, which is super hard to pull off. (The sequel to anything is hard to pull off.) But they do recommend playing the first one before playing the second one because there are minor spoilers to the first one in the second one. But man, I have no one to play with.
See, that's the main problem. I'd absolutely love to play all these legacy games with people, but with who? Eric and Ryan live at BYU-I, and Alex is still back in Fallon fighting back adulthood as long as he can, and the only time we've had to play a legacy game was during the two week Christmas break. The closet so far since then is Jacob and Brandon suggesting we start a game of Risk Legacy, but once again, when are we going to have time to play it? Getting together once a month? It's super hard for all us of since we all have kids (well, I have kid, soon to be kids) and they are young and need our time and attention and it's really hard to go out and do anything like a legacy game for us. Maybe I'll talk to some fellow teachers and see if they want to do something after school? Besides, you know, work?
Even if I did have a group to play with and a time to play, the next question is: which Legacy game? Jacob suggested Risk Legacy, so if it with that group we could do that, and Alex suggested Pandemic Legacy Season 1, so if it was with that group we could do that. I've already played SeaFall. It's suggested that I play season 1 before I play Pandemic Legacy Season 2. There's a legacy game coming out soon (like, it's already come out? or it will very soon? one of those) called Charterstone, and get this: Charterstone is created by the exact same guy that created, wait for it, Viticulture. The same designer of one of my favorite games created a worker placement legacy game. So that one is definitely on my radar. So which would I play if given the option to play any legacy game I wanted? Well, once again, it would depend on who I played with, but my first pick would be Pandemic Legacy Season 1, followed by Charterstone, followed by Pandemic Legacy Season 2, followed by Risk Legacy. If playing with Alex and Eric, who have already played Season 1, it's a toss up between Season 1 and Charterstone, because they already know everything that happens in Season 1, and Charterstone would be a fresh experience. But, of course, all of this is only hypothetical at this point.
Having played both Pandemic Legacy and SeaFall (and, like, the aftermath of a campaign of Risk Legacy,) I can say that, well SeaFall is awesome, but anyway: I've got genuinely no idea how Season 2 is going to play out, and can only think of one or two things that would possibly play over from season one, which for the most part are totally optional plot points.
ReplyDeleteI think about the enmity system in SeaFall all the time; it takes a while to get the hang of and it's only going to be used in a finite number of games due to the nature of the Legacy game, and maybe it's a bit too complicated for that fact; but it's probably my favorite game mechanic of all time. It's a lot like the My Little Pony movie, for a lot of the same reasons... (now THERE's an idea for a post...)