Emerald News - November 2002

[nat268]

We're getting close! With a little luck and a lot of playing by everyone, we just might be able to build our TH by early December.

Prices at the market has been coming down for all resources with the exception of wood which has stayed fairly steady. We've been making trades (almost everyday) so that we don't flood the market and cause a major price change in any one commodity. By doing this, we've managed to maintain the price on our sale of wood at around 30.

From reading some of the other bulletins, it would appear that 3 new games are coming soon to BSW...Sticheln, Medina, and Emerald. Here are some links to English rules for each of these games:

Sticheln: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewfile.php3?fileid=936

Medina: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/viewfile.php3?fileid=1643

Emerald: http://kumquat.com/cgi-kumquat/funagain/13288 (write up on funagain--could not find English rules on boardgamegeek.com)

If anyone has played these games, let me know what you think about building a game room when these games become available.

Happy Gaming Everyone!!

Cheers,
nat268

[Alexfrog]

Buying new gamerooms:

I think that once the new games come to BSW, it would be a good idea to have us play the games for awhile first before buying a room of them, and see if they hold our interest, or whether we all play them 10 times and then decide to stop.

I think the benefit of getting the gameroom immediately is not that great...a few weeks of resources from one room wont come near paying for the room...unless the play is constant, like our PR rooms.  If that is the case, we should buy it.
But if we tire of the game and dont want it anymore, the cost is very high...we lose one of our few opportunities for a low cost game room to a game we dont want.

I think that there are some other games that we know would be popular, and played often, such as Fuersten...I would suggest getting those rooms first after TH, and then the new games later if we decide they will be sufficiently played.

Also...the new card game might be a good choice, as those tend to be played frequently, and be goor providers of resources and points,...just look at Tichu and Dopplekopf.  So I would recommend getting a room of the new card game if we decide its good.

[Esterio]

I agree with Alexfrog about trying the new games before we decide to build rooms for them. I don't know Sticheln and Medina, but I've played a few games of Emerald. The game is nice and short, but I didn't find it so great after so few plays. I would try it on BSW once it is available, but would probably not count it as one of my favourite games for a new room.

Fuersten, as said many times before, would be my favourite choice. Several of us play it, and would probably play it more if it could be done in EC; it isn't as good as PR for the generation of resources (as the games are slightly longer), but not too bad from that point of view.

For now, the goal should be the TH, anyway. I am unfortunately quite busy at the moment, and cannot play often, but it should be a little easier next week.

Esterio

[nat268]

I completely agree with the both of you about holding off building rooms for new games immediately upon being published. We don't want to waste our efforts on buildings that citizens of EC would not make much use of.

If we stick to the list of top three games everyone has supplied me with, our next room will definitely be Fuersten, followed by KUK.

Anyone who hasn't given me their top 3 games can leave me a message here.

Cheers,
nat268

[Alexfrog]

I dont know about KuK...

I was trying to reach 10 games of it last night, to get to 12x10 for the level requiremnts, and was having trouble finding KuK players  I dont know how much I would play it anymore...I think its gets a bit boring after you've played it a lot.

Fuersten however, I think has a high replay value, and I think would be played a lot.

I dont know of any other game on BSW I think I would play a lot besides PR, Doko, Tichu, LC and Fuersten...and the only one we dont have is Fuersten.

Maybe after the new games come out there will be one more?  (The card game especially I think might be quite good for replay value)  I'll probably get to 10 on Medina and Emerald, and see if I still want to play them anymore.

Verrater and Mueterer are pretty good, and I would play them occasionally, but I think thats kindof like Ra...I play it occasionally.  I dont know that they would have the level of play to warrant gamerooms/


So for now, my votes for gameroom after TH are:

1) Fuersten
2) Princes of Florence
3) Fuersten von Florenz (no, not 3 fuersten rooms...just 3 votes for it )

other than that, I dont really have to go outside EC much at all, since we have PR, Tichu, Doko and LC...

But my votes for g

[Alexfrog]

ignore that last line up there...the "But my votes for g"

[schnuff]

I only have experience in Medina and I think it's really a very good concept. Doesn't get boring (played it about 15 times) so I could recommend it.

Its strategic character would certainly fit to our common tastes concerning boardgames.

On the other hand I totally agree that it's wise to test new games before building rooms. After all, we're just a small town and thus can not afford empty gamerooms as easily as a big city...

schnuff