-
Kevin Marshall
United States
Newbury Park
California
We Are DEVO!
-
Automobile
This week's Tuesday Night Strategic Boardgaming meetup presented me with the opportunity to play Martin Wallace's 2009 release "Automobile". The game can be played with up to five players (we played with four). The game claims it is a two-hour game, and this is probably accurate for those who have played before. It took us close to three hours, and two of us had not played the game (it was the second time for the other two).
The game offers each player a very limited number of actions. This is a mixed blessing. It requires you to be efficient. There's not a lot of room for changing your strategy during the game. But the limited number of actions also allows you to realistically plot your moves and plan out where you plan to be at the end.
The game puts each player against the others trying to build and sell cars in the 1890's and moving forward. Players have 3 actions per turn and only 4 turns in the game, but each turn a player selects a character that will give them a sort of special ability which might enable them to gain an action, of sorts.
Demand is determined each turn somewhat randomly. Players will be able to roughly estimate what the demand will be, and they then struggle to meet, but not exceed this demand. The profit margin is narrow and there is constant economic pressure. There is also a system to push each player into moving the technology forward, abandoning old technologies as they become outdated. Failure to do so, accrues the player the dreaded BLACK CUBES (similar to London). These cost you money each turn, and money determines the winner at the end.
I was excited one turn when I managed to select the character Ford and press forward unexpectedly to produce the Model T (two factories AND a parts factory). I like it when things work out like that in a game.
Ultimately I did not win, but came in second by just over a hundred dollars (very close). The third place player was not too far behind me.
This was the newer version of the game, not the limited edition, so we were lacking the wooden cars. The cardboard chits that this game used instead were still of good quality and the board was very nice looking.
The game involves are fair amount of addition and subtraction each turn. I recommend keeping a calculator nearby. I would play this game again and recommend wholeheartedly.
|
|
