Mikael Vintermark
Sweden
Göteborg
-
This review is written from a 2-player perspective, me and my wife haven’t had a chance to try Fresco - The Glaziers with other players yet.
Components
I must say the components are really nice looking. They definitely hold the same standard as the original game. The bits and boards needed for the 3 expansions is all fine, but I don’t see the need for another two boards to place the Thalers and Paint cubes on. The Bank for Thalers just take up extra space around a growingly crowded main board and the Paints depot for cubes is not working from a 2-player point of view, as it become really easy to count the different colours and therefore figure out exactly what cubes your opponent is holding. I found it fairer to just mix all the cubes in a big pile instead. But again, all boards are beautiful looking and of good quality.
Expansion 4 - The Wishing Well
The players may for free place up to a total of two Lucky Pennies in the Wishing Well and draw as many Wishing Cards as Lucky Pennies they placed when visiting the market. These cards may later be used in the different phases at no cost, one card per apprentice who are at the required location.
I found that this module don’t really add anything to the game, especially if you use Expansion 1 - The Portraits, as the cards are almost the same. Another problem I have is that the only way to receive more Lucky Pennies is from the Wishing cards, so if you run out of them and haven’t gained any from those cards (you start with 3 and out of 20 cards there are 6 where you receive additional Lucky Pennies), you can’t use this expansion for the rest of the game. We discussed introducing a house rule that you can buy 1 Lucky Penny for 3 Thalers the next time we use this expansion.
Expansion 5 - The Leaf Gold
If you buy one out of two specific paint tiles when visiting the market you receive a Leaf Gold for free. 1 of 6 cylinder cubes representing the 6 different original colours is drawn randomly every round, if you restore a tile with this colour using a Leaf Gold you double the bonus victory points gained from the Bishop. You always receive at least one bonus VP when using the Leaf Gold.
This expansion introduces an element I’m not very found of in games, luck. You usually end up with a few Leafs in your supply, and when restoring tiles you always try seeing to it that the Bishop is close by. Using this expansion doesn’t change that; it seems that if you happened to draw the cylinder of one of the colours you use this turn its double points, no additional planning required. I can see a scenario when you have built up a stash of several different colours and therefore might want to buy another tile than you originally planned for because of the colour drawn for this turn, but it doesn’t add enough to the gameplay for being worth it to me.
Expansion 6 - The Glaziers
When planning for the action of your apprentices, you may place an action tile over any other action on your action sheet. This tile comes with 2 apprentices pre-printed and you may add a third one. Every apprentice may buy one Glass token. About half of the tiles you restore is connected to a window on the board, if you restore one of those tiles you MUST buy a Window tile (costing 0-3 Thalers) showing colours that match the Glass tokens. You need to discard Glass tokens of the colours showing on the Window tile, otherwise you get a penalty of 2-8 Victory points per token missing.
This is the real gem in the box, I just love it. It adds a new action if you give up another one, brilliant. It comes with an additional 2 apprentices, which is great. The board holding the Window tiles is really cool. And it introduces a new thing in Fresco, negative Victory points. I can’t see myself ever play Fresco again without this expansion!
Summary
I’m really not sure what to think about Fresco - The Glaziers. The components are great, but some of them you find yourself not using. I’m reluctant to play with two of the expansions again, but the third one is brilliant. Am I sorry that I bought this box? No. Would I have bought it if I had known its contents? Probably not, I could almost have got a new game instead as its quite expansive.
If you love Fresco and have the money to spare, go for it. Otherwise I would skip it, purely based on that the contents are not worth the price
-
Grant
United States
Cuyahoga Falls
Ohio
Fourth Annual BOGA Weekend Retreat: March 22-24, 2013 at Camp Carl in Ravenna, OH. Mark your calendars now!!
-
I have really been wondering about this expansion, and you answered all my questions. Thanks!!
-
Peter Marchlewitz
Canada
Unspecified
-
Looking everywhere for the English rules, but they're not on the Queen site yet. Anyone?
-
Frank M.
United States
upstate New York
-
Thanks for the much needed review. Due to the price, I'm not adding this to my list since it sounds like 2 of the 3 variants are not very appealing. Maybe it will show up cheap somewhere if it doesn't sell well...
-
Nicolai Broen Thorning
Denmark
Ebeltoft
-
Very useful information and great low-down on the expansions.
Thank you.
-
Bryan Jensen
United States
Layton
Utah
-
Thanks for the info - I was concerned that the Glaziers would add just more of the same to the game -- make the game longer without really introducing anything that changes the game strategy enough to justify it. I think my hunch may still be right. On the other hand, thanks to what you said I'm a bit more intrigued.
Portraits and Bishop's Request enhance the Studio and Mixing jobs without really adding much time to the game -- necessary expansions. Yet I wish the New Colors would have had gold instead of brown. It seems like there should be more valuable colors represented by the trade up of paint tokens. On the other hand, I see why they chose the mixing method they did as it is logically progressive. But Brown as most valuable is really BLAH when gold leaf and ultramarine blue were the most expensive colors in the day to use.
-
Ted Duby
United States
Honolulu
Hawaii
-
Nekau wrote: I don’t see the need for another two boards to place the Thalers and Paint cubes on. The Bank for Thalers just take up extra space around a growingly crowded main board and the Paints depot for cubes is not working from a 2-player point of view, as it become really easy to count the different colours and therefore figure out exactly what cubes your opponent is holding.
I think the two boards are a great idea, because if you use the expansions from the original game, there is much less board space available, and I don't like putting the money and paint cubes next to the board.
-
Steve Duff
Canada
Ottawa
Ontario
-
Palpatine wrote: Looking everywhere for the English rules, but they're not on the Queen site yet. Anyone?
Yeah, this is pretty nuts that they're still not available. Queen is really slipping in this regard.
-
|
|
