-
Joseph Ellis
United States
Columbus
Ohio
-
One reason the true eurogames draw my ire is that there's no physical space. A good map (or something like that) is FUN to have involved in strategy and tactics. Maneuvering, getting in peoples' way, finding good paths, gaining an advantageous position, increasing and decreasing distance, these factors can all be considered AT ONCE in a game with physical space. Hard to beat that.
But physical space is not a board game quality that euros value much. The worst offenders have no physical space to be concerned with at all. Puerto Rico and Agricola have physical space, but as long as you don't screw up, it's not a big deal.
The one true, dry, glorified spreadsheet game that I've always liked is Princes of Florence. It features physical space as a big concern as you place buildings, parks, lakes, etc. Physical space is a dynamic and challenging foe. Fun!
The BEST eurogames, from my perspective, have not just physical space, but SHARED physical space. Settlers, Power Grid, and train games are great examples. It's fun to make decisions on a map because of all the dynamic factors involved.
So I hadn't thought about my gods/prophets game for a while when I visited the ole' Columbus Area Boardgame Society (I've only been there three times in the four years I've lived in Columbus). I got roped into a game of Glen More, and I was skeptical due to the euro-ness of the theme and art. But I was surprised! It's a very fun game because physical space is a huge factor and in a creative and original way.
For those who don't know, in Glen More, each player is building their own personal... uh, scottish society?... by placing tiles. You also have your meeples on a few of the tiles. Each tile has a power like letting you move a dude, generating a resource, converting a resource to another resource or a victory point, generative victory points, etc. The key is, you can only place tiles next to a meeple, and when you place a tile, its power, along with the powers of all the tiles adjacent to it, are activated.
If your game tastes are like mine, you find that concept positively scintillating. Just the idea starts the synapses in my brains exploding, before I even know the rest of the rules! And indeed Glen More is a great game that I still hope to own some day.
However, I do have one problem with it: Why isn't the tile space SHARED? How come everyone has their own personal game world, instead of working together to build one big game world? It would be so great if you could use other people's tiles, compete for position with your meeples, etc. But alas, no.
Playing Glen More got my brain spinning again with my own game. Maybe this concept of tiles with powers, activated when another tile is place nearby, could be used in MY game about gods trying to control earth's people. And the "meeples" could be prophets! And all in one big, shared world. How cool.
I made a failed prototype with this, which I'll share about in an upcoming post. But in the meantime, I'm wondering what your opinion is on physical space in games, both shared and unshared. A strategy game without a physical space factor at all really turns me off. And when I play a game with physical space but not SHARED space, I just wonder why they didn't make the space shared.
What's the appeal of these games with no shared physical space? Is it a dislike of direct conflict? A system where you can only effect others' potential resources, not their current cache resources? Shared physical space blurs many of those lines, even without combat.
|
|
