Bernard Hopkins
England
Durham/Darlington
Unspecified
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I’ve just stumbled across this game and I’m surprised I haven't noticed it before now. It has a very respectable rating of 7.57 and a couple of warm reviews. One of my favourite games is Caylus. I’ve tried Stone Age a few times (which I’ve seen people recommend as a lighter worker placement game for those who don’t want to tackle Caylus) and it just doesn’t do it for me. The lighter game feels too simplistic and none of the decisions are appealing to me. I’m just sat there thinking I’m not playing Caylus. I’m sure if I’d have played Stone Age first I would have a different point of view.
I'm finding Luna intriguing but I’m worried about buying it for the same reason I turn my nose up at Stone Age. I’m thinking it may give me that same watered down Caylus feeling. I also worried about Luna's longevity and replayabilty. I’m 400+ plays of Caylus and see no signs of slowing down. I don’t expect this same depth from Luna but I’ve noticed only one person has reached 20 recorded plays. Is it not built to last? Does it quickly lose its appeal once you’ve mastered the basics? It seems to me, on the surface and after reading the rules like this could be something that has the ability to slow down my Caylus marathon.
Why hasn’t this game taken off? I rarely see anyone mention it on the forums. That is another reason why I fear Luna may just be another flash in the pan and after a couple of plays, be relegated to the cupboard, which looks like what has happened to the owners of this game.
Comments from experienced Luna players would be nice but are there any?
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Brian Gasbarini
Canada
St Catharines
Ontario
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Well, I'm at 12 plays, which is actually a lot for me considering how long this game has been out and the number of unplayed games in my collection. I've also played a bunch of Luna games on Yucata.de but I don't log those. Yucata may be a good way for you to try the game to see if it suits your tastes.
I've never played Caylus, I tend to prefer rule simplicity a little more highly than depth, and I tend to enjoy playing a variety of games instead of playing one game many many times, so I may not be the right person to answer your question. But so far I still feel that Luna has a lot of replayability left for me. But I don't need it to have 200 replays worth of depth for it to be a worthwhile game, as I doubt I would ever reach that many plays of the same game. Interested to hear what others think though!
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I have only played Luna thrice, so you should take my opinion with a pinch of salt...
That said, Caylus is the game I often compare Luna with because I experience the same feeling when playing either of them. Although the mechanics are a bit different (e.g. provost/candles, castle/temple), they are somehow related in my mind.
Like you, I am not very fond of Stone Age, which I consider a gateway game. I enjoy Luna, but despite being one of Feld's meatiest games, it is still slightly below Caylus in terms of depth.
In any case, I like playing Luna. Great components, little downtime, and reasonable game length. Owning both Caylus and Luna might be redundant for some people like me with small collections, but if you like Caylus as much as you say, you will probably enjoy Luna too.
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Ken Thibodeau
Canada
Quebec
Quebec
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I don't see much similarities between Caylus and Luna, except one, which is not the least: zero luck.
If that's what appeals you, you will like it.
As for replayability, if you think Caylus games are different from one another, you will definitely find good variety in Luna games as well, due to the random initial setup.
For sure, give it a try on yucata.de to try it.
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Bernard Hopkins
England
Durham/Darlington
Unspecified
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I've registered at Yucata and have a Luna learning game request up if anyone is interested in teaching me? I've read the rules but will need a hand putting them into action.
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Ugur Dönmez
Netherlands
Hoofddorp
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I'm a big fan of Caylus and like Luna a lot too. I wrote a review a while back, you can find it here:
http://www.gamepack.nl/gamepack/rev-luna-E.html
I can definitely recommend it!
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Brian Gasbarini
Canada
St Catharines
Ontario
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Arctic Jack wrote: I've registered at Yucata and have a Luna learning game request up if anyone is interested in teaching me? I've read the rules but will need a hand putting them into action.
I signed up for your game. If you have specific questions, or you want me to explain the thoughts behind my moves, we can discuss it either through BGG PMs or through yucata's chat window. 
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Joe Pastuzyn
United States
Midland
Michigan
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I have five plays of Luna and find the game quite enjoyable. Variety creeps into the game through the random setup as mentioned before. It can be quite puzzly to try to optimize your moves and look to pinch the moves of your opponents. There are a number of tactical decisions and I don't think I've explored the value of all the benefits of all the islands and how to string them together. So, the more I play the game, the better and more efficient I'll get.
I thoroughly enjoy Caylus as well, but it is a deeper game by far. Congratulations on your number of plays. You won't get that many out of Luna, but I think you'll find the game intriguing enough to have it hit the table a goodly number of times.
Lastly, I think Luna is a very scalable game from two to four. Feld did a really nice job of restricting the temple for fewer people, so the game is fairly balanced over its play range (IMO).
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Jenny Nguyen
Australia
NSW
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OP - Thanks for starting the thread.
This game was on my wishlist for ages, but I ended up not buying it because the people I game with think the theme is too pansy. After all this chatter, I'll have to buy it  . I hadn't realised that it was similar to, but not as heavy as Caylus.
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Yours Truly,
United States
Gainesville
Florida
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Arctic Jack wrote:
Why hasn’t this game taken off?
Hey Arctic Jack!
Well it's taken off in sales at least, Z-man's print run is sold out - try finding it at an online game store! So if you see it at a local game store you might want to grab it.
From what I hear there are no announced plans at a reprint, but, they might have just not decided yet whether to reprint it or not.
In my local game group it was a bit hit; it's the 14th highest average rating out of our combined 3600 different games. And we tend to like pretty heavy games with a lot of replayability.
I think those turned off by the theme are being narrow-minded. It's relatively abstract, and you don't have to light candles and get all new-agey to play it.  (But, the theme indeed might be a factor in why it hasn't cracked higher BGG rankings than low 200s?)
Anyway due to its current scarcity if you end up getting bored with it you should be able to trade it/sell it no problem.
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Bernard Hopkins
England
Durham/Darlington
Unspecified
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Hello Mr Dollar
I'm still waiting on Wallenstein!
Are there any really weak islands that are hardly used and strong ones that everyone wants? Much like the resource favour track and the building track in Caylus. Or are they better balanced?
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Joe Pastuzyn
United States
Midland
Michigan
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Arctic Jack wrote: Hello Mr Dollar I'm still waiting on Wallenstein! Are there any really weak islands that are hardly used and strong ones that everyone wants? Much like the resource favour track and the building track in Caylus. Or are they better balanced?
The ones I use the least are the virtual novice and the herbs, but I will admit I might not be playing optimally. Since I've been thinking about this, it makes me want to play the game with more people to explore the options the game has to offer.
Luna does appear to be available in North America (brief look at BoardGamePrices.com). It is available in Europe if you want to pay the shipping.
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Brian Gasbarini
Canada
St Catharines
Ontario
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Deep Silver wrote: Arctic Jack wrote: Hello Mr Dollar I'm still waiting on Wallenstein! Are there any really weak islands that are hardly used and strong ones that everyone wants? Much like the resource favour track and the building track in Caylus. Or are they better balanced? The ones I use the least are the virtual novice and the herbs, but I will admit I might not be playing optimally. Since I've been thinking about this, it makes me want to play the game with more people to explore the options the game has to offer. Luna does appear to be available in North America (brief look at BoardGamePrices.com). It is available in Europe if you want to pay the shipping.
Interesting. I tend to use the herbs fairly often, but don't often use the novice token or the bag of gold. They are situationally useful though.
Edit: Aside from those though, most of the islands are fairly balanced and used equally. The usefulness of each island varies a bit based on the strategies that your opponents pursue.
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Hi Bernard,
I'm the publisher of Luna and I'm also a member of Yucata. If you (or anyone else reading this thread) is interested in learning or testing Luna there, just invite me - my name there is, like here, "barandur".
It's a pity that the game is sold out in the US - let's see if there's a a chance to change this ... 
Besides this I must say, that Luna really becomes my favourite game. Usually as a publisher you play a game so often during the development that you have enough of it after publishing it. Not so with Luna. I still love to play it - no matter if online or offline.
And yes - Caylus is also one of my favourite games, but I really don't see much parallels between them. Especially the point that you have to consider the movement of your "workers" instead of freely placing them at the beginning of each round makes a big difference.
It has not the depth of Caylus, I agree - but you can play it much faster and there's much less downtime when everyone has played the games a few times. But nevertheless it can be quite a "brainburner" ... 
Hope to see you on Yucata!
Ralph
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I just love Luna, a lot of different strategies, and believe me a lot of replayability. I've bought it because i'm a big fan of Feld games, not because i was expecting a big hit, however the more i play it the more i like it... even the theme is ok, and the strategies and the mechanics connect very well with it. For me is a great game!
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Tadeu Zubaran
Germany
Berlin
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I don't get the criticism that Luna's theme gets.
I am an skeptic, atheist, libertarian and I am as far away from new age as you can get and I think the theme is beautiful.
The art design is very elegant and theme integration is as good as most euros IMHO. I don't see it as less integrated than Troyes, Euphrat and Tigris, Puerto Rico and many others.
I tend to like medium/heavy euros with few/no luck that you can play many times and take a long time to master and Luna is currently my favorite Stepahn Feld game. It is above die Burgen von Burgung because of component quality. I did not have the chance to play Trajan yet.
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