Beitragvon Cwali » 18. November 2008, 00:46
Last 4 days I was at the Dutch games fair. I made Powerboats, so here the opinions of the author. :)
At the game-fairs and other occasions I see that first impression can differ much. It looks like players always have fun in the first race. But for insights in tactics and interaction one race seems not enough. I sometimes read on websites that it is 100% luck or that there is no interaction. The truth is that the depth in tactics and the interaction both are 'extreme'. You experience that when you play it more. I don't tell that because luck or interaction are good or bad. I just tell it because the first impressions often are a 'misunderstanding'. It's interesting to see first impressions, but if players think Powerboats is a luck-game, then I know that I will win. In that respect it is comparable to StreetSoccer which was often judged as luck-game and even got low rates in polls in the release-year.
Originality?! I don't see much to compare with other games. The mechanic may be too logical to feel original?? You add/remove 1 die to your current speed to accelerate/brake. So if you have 3 dice, then you can change to 4 or to 2 dice or hold it 3 dice. (And from the dice which you hold you can choose which you want to roll and which you want to hold on the same number.) You may expect that there are already 10 or 100 race games where you make speed or slow down by adding 1 die or removing 1 die. I searched for many race games but I didn't find any with that yet. It may be the most logical mechanism for race games, but Powerboats seems to be the first with that. Such an 'innovation' is for a game author a dream coming true, a ones in a lifetime experience. But after the release I saw a first comment on boardgamegeek: 'Nothing original.' Rate: 2(out of 10). :) Most rated 8 on that site, so I can't complain.
That original mechanic only is a part of the game, doesn't tell much about the whole game, but the comparisons with other games ... I don't have the feeling it is 'comparable'.
On the Mastermoves site I won 275 of my first 378 races. (That are short single races between 2 players in courses where luck plays a bigger role than in the boardgame.)
My games with Lord Al always seem to be tense till the last moves. We both won 4 of the first 13 competitions on Mastermoves. In tense races you often change your plans after your opponents' move(s). See for a game with Lord Al http://www.mastermoves.eu/game.php?gameid=48319
To see the 2 boats moving you click on the first move of Yellow in the moves-list (right of the board) and then on the arrow above the moves-list.
(The Move numbers shifted ‘under’ the game board, because Lord Al had 5 and I had 4 dice in the second last move. (rare in the computer game) )
A description of my choices per move you can find on Boardgamegeek. I lost. :)
Fazit: I hope to meet many good Powerboats players.
It attracts me to play very good but making big mistakes in this game is part of the fun too. Last game I played self this weekend, late at night, 6 players, few new players and non-gamers, so we decided to do only 1 race. It was a very long course, I still remember the tricky situations well. I had a good situation towards buoy 1, but one boat reached a good spot just where I wanted to go to. Had to change plan, changed direction to other paths around other islands, but there I was not the only player too. At a fast lane I had the most speed with 4 dice. Most players seemed to aim for the same paths around buoy 2. I made much speed to be first there. Other players did think I played risky but secretly I aimed more for longer but faster paths further away from buoy 2. I 'missed' the short path and did take the wider path with much speed. that made me turn short after the 2nd buoy while holding much speed, where others had to go longer after the second buoy. I won with a distanse but the fight for 2nd till 5th place was fun to watch too.