Game(s) Played:
Today I am joined by my brother, Moses as we zerg rush our way through hundreds of Technologies in Innovation in pursuit of a winner by any number of the multitude of game winning conditions contained within this absurd game. This was followed by an equally crazy go at building castles for the mad king Ludwig. I say crazy because of the unusual way the game ended. Initially, I was not going to post about this session but the craziness that ensued left me with only the options of chronicling this or risk breaking the universe into half.
Session – Innovation
Game: Innovation
Designer: Carl Chudyk
Players: 2 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 60 minutes (This Play: 60 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Hand Management
Player(s):
Chaos. Pure, unmitigated Chaos. To those of the Pratchett persuasion, Ronnie Soak personified. If Glory To Rome was the equivalent of a free for all bar fight then Innovation is planet destroying meteors, exploding supernovas, devouring blackholes and Unicron all happening at once.
Behind the drab innocence lies anarchy
I liked Glory To Rome and so Innovation seemed a shoe in for me despite being a totally different animal altogether. You start off with innocuous technologies like Sailing, Tools & Masonry. Each technology gives you a different ability resulting in a grand total of 105 different abilities for you to try and commit to memory, although only a maximum of 5 abilities may be available at any time for your abuse.
This picture is important because… Symbols!
The driver behind Innovation is the symbols on the cards. Abilities are more or less powered by its symbols so the more symbols you can see results in you being more powerful in the game. You would think that the driving mechanic in the game would come with some sort of tracker but nooo… So you should think about getting your own tracker on the BGG website if you're interested in Innovation.
Results Of Game(s)
Empiricism – That's all folks!
Winner – Moses
LAST – Justin
The standard way to win the game is to convert Technologies into Points and then use those Points to get a set number of Achievements. However it is not a matter of when but how your Points can be taken away from you as there are a plethora of Technologies that can achieve this effect. There are also a number of Technologies with their own unique (strange) win condition such as Empiricism above which abruptly resulted in Moses' win.
Admittedly I wasn't too pleased with this outcome which left me feeling like I had absolutely no control over the situation. The rulebook actually has a subsection "Strategy" to which I quote, "Anything is possible in the late game, and your lead can quickly evaporate! If you're behind, getting to 9's and 10's is your best hope!" I have never seen a rulebook that used the word "hope" and Innovation is like this race where you're rushing towards the finish line which is the john in your house and you have the need for a massive bowel movement, you just hope that shit doesn't happen.
Session – Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Game: Castles of Mad King Ludwig
Designer: Ted Alspach
Players: 1 – 4 Players
Playing Time: 90 minutes (This Play: 60 minutes)
Main Mechanisms: Tile Placement
Player(s):
I couldn't remember how to play Tash-Kalar so we ended up playing Castles of Mad King Ludwig instead.
Moses' Outdoorsy castle with lots of Sleeping rooms
I won't go into detail here about Castles of Mad King Ludwig again as I have already done so in previous reports. I will just say that 3 Players is the sweet spot for me as dropping down to 2 Players trades reduced budgeting difficulties for reduced room options as well.
My castle with the illegal Gatehouse below the West Tapestry Room. If I could have put another room that fit there I would have scored 11 Points for the win
Results Of Game(s)
The surprise finish!
Winner – Justin (78 VPs with 3,825 square feet)
LAST – Moses (78 VPs with 3,600 square feet)
Man was I surprised at the draw. I really thought that I had it in the bag until I realized I couldn't place the Gatehouse legally to rescore my West Tapestry Room. When Moses revealed Sleep Rooms as one of his Goal Cards, I began to really sweat. It really came down to the last turn when Moses chose the Pumpkin Gardens instead of the Terrace Gardens which gave me the win in terms of size.
We'll probably try Patchistory next to break the egg on my last game on the shelf of shame.
Until next time, keep calm and play better.
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