A while back I wrote about The Princes of Florence, which combined an auction mechanic with building arrangement and other aspects to create what remains one of the top favorites of my local play group. While Princes is a deep game with varied strategies, it can be a bit much for newer players to grasp all at once. Fortunately, a game exists which can serve as a gateway to the advanced strategy of Princes while also being a very solid game on its own merits: Vegas Showdown, published in 2005 by the Avalon Hill brand of Wizards of the Coast (itself a subsidiary of Hasbro).

As might be inferred from its title, Vegas Showdown pits players against each other in a competition to see who can build the most famous Las Vegas hotel/casino. Each player begins with a barren floor plan and a stack of poker chips that represents their cash; on their floor plan is a chart for tracking their revenue and population, the lower of which will represent that player’s income for each turn. Increasing these aspects from their starting values of five and eight (respectively, so you get $5 on the first turn) will obviously be crucial to success in the game, but the trick is either doing so in a balanced manner or else working around the fact that favoring one over the other will cause you some financial issues as the game progresses. Of course, the resources to accomplish this task aren’t free… or uncontested.

The auction board contains three types of basic tiles (slots, resteraunts, and lounges) and three “premier tile” spaces that are initially filled with one from each tile size (1×1, 1×2, and 2×2); a fourth space is used only with four or five players. Each space has a bidding track that represents the minimum value to purchase that tile and the current bid, and a second bidding track for slots opens up if there are five players; premier spaces have two tracks, one outlined with red circles and another that occupies the spaces between those values.

Each round consists of five steps. 1) Reduce the prices on premier tiles by sliding a marker down to the next red-circled space (this step is skipped on the first round of the game). If doing so would reduce the price to below three (the lowest-valued space) then that tile is instead removed from the game. 2) Replenish any empty premier spaces (including the fourth space on the first round of a four/five-player game) by drawing one card per space; each card has a special action that will change the rules for the current round in any manner of ways. The symbol on the card indicates the size of tile to be placed on the auction board, and each tile has an icon that tells you its initial starting price. If ever a tile would be placed from a stack that has been exhausted, the game ends immediately. 3) Players earn income as noted above or as the card(s) for the round dictate. 4) Bidding. 5) Placement. The “dealer” (start player) token is passed to the right at the end of each round.

Bidding is accomplished by placing your bidding marker on the track of the tile you wish to purchase on the price you want to pay for it, starting with the round’s “dealer”. Once everyone has placed their bid markers, anyone who has been outbid picks theirs up and can place it anywhere else on the board. This process repeats until nobody is being outbid, at which point the auctions are over and the tiles purchased. Money is pubic information in this game, so using that knowledge to pre-emptively outbid someone is often a key strategy.  Finally, two “free” options are also available: publicity (gain one fame and optionally place one previously-unplayed tile from your supply to your board) and renovate (pick up 0-2 tiles from your board to your supply and place 0-2 tiles from your supply to your board); these options can be chosen by any number of players, and are your only choices if you can not afford anything at its current price.

Once purchased, you can place your tile on your floor plan, but there are restrictions. Each floor plan has two doors: one in the yellow-shaded “casino” area and the other in the blue-shaded “hotel” area; tiles that match those colors must be able to trace a path to their respective entrance. Green tiles can be connected to either entrance.  Although they don’t necessarily have to be placed within their respective areas, there is a bonus at the end of the game if you’ve managed to completely fill one or both of your,  two sections with the appropriately-colored tiles (green tiles can count for either section); additionally, there is another (smaller) bonus if you can connect your two entrances. Further complicating your plans is the fact that certain tiles cannot be placed unless you already have a prerequisite tile; for example, “Fancy Slots” can’t be placed unless you have a basic slots tile, and you can’t place the high-income “Dragon Room” unless you already have at least one “Fancy Slots”. They don’t have to be connected to those prerequisite tiles (with one exception, which says so), they just need to be present somewhere in your plan. If you can’t place the tile immediately you can save it in your supply to place later via the Publicity or Renovate actions. This can be a risky proposition, as you are effectively sacrificing two turns to place the tile (one just to buy it and one just to place it), but it can pay off if you can grab a powerful tile for cheap relatively early on. Each tile is worth a certain amount of revenue, population, and/or fame that you will earn once placed (and that you lose if you should pick it up via the Renovate action without replacing it). In addition to the possibility of ending in Step Two of each round, the game will also end if a player manages to completely fill his entire floor plan, although this is uncommon with more than three players.

Once the game has ended, bonus fame points are awarded via various criteria. In addition to the tile-placement bonuses mentioned earlier, extra points can be won for having the highest revenue and/or population (with points for 2nd and 3rd as well), for every full $10 left over at the end of the game, and for being able to create diamond patterns by careful placement of certain premier tiles. Whoever has the most fame wins, with remaining cash as a tie-breaker.

One of the neatest aspects of Vegas Showdown is how it plays differently with different numbers of players. Three players (the minimum) is a slower game, with fewer premier tiles and less competition overall, while five players not only has an additional premier tile but the basic slot tiles (the primary source of increasing revenue) are consumed twice as fast! Four players is probably the most difficult, as not having access to the second slots track makes for some harsh competition in the early stages of the game. Session times also necessarily vary, but rarely break an hour as everything is essentially simultaneous other than the bidding.

Overall, Vegas Showdown is a great gateway-level game on par with Ticket to Ride, Ra, and Carcassonne that is enjoyable at any level of experience. If you can’t find a physical copy to play (Avalon Hill titles can be scarce these days), Vegas Showdown is also available for online play at GameTableOnline.com for less than $10. 

Image by GamerChris

The “Age of Exploration”, when European nations spread their influence pretty much all over the world, is a common theme in modern board games and even a few video games. Endeavor, from Z-Man Games, is one such title, combining area control with a worker-placement mechanic into a neat seven-round package for three to five players.

Setting up Endeavor involves randomly assigning one of the 104 tokens to each of the circular spaces on the board; it’s best to do this face-down to keep things unbiased before flipping them all over. The distribution of these tokens will dramatically affect your strategy in playing, as building up your Industry, Culture, and Economy will be key to your development and collecting these tokens is one of the ways to accomplish this. Each region of the board also has a stack of cards numbered from one to five (in order) with a Governor card (or 0-value card in the case of the Europe/Mediterranean and Slavery areas) placed on top.

Each player begins at level one in each of the four statistics (the three mentioned above and Politics), with a single “occupy” action available to them. Beginning with the start player (which passes each round), players purchase one building per round, with their available options based on their level of Industry. Buildings often increase one of your stats in addition to providing a potential action for the action phase. Once buildings have been purchased, each player generates a number of workers as defined by their current Culture threshold. In all rounds but the first (because obviously no actions have been used at that point) they can also buy back a number of workers used for previous actions based on their Economy level. This is the only way to free up a used action space, barring gaining access to a “payment” action, so it pays to be able to pay your workers if you want to be able to maximize your options each round.

With the workers available to them, players then progress to the action phase. In turn, each player either performs one action or passes for the round. Actions are usually represented by open spaces on your buildings; in order to perform the action, you must place one of your workers on that space and often an additional worker — or more — somewhere else. The actions include Occupy (place one worker in a city in an area that is open to you, collecting the token there as well as the one on the connecting “trade route” if you own both ends of the route), Shipping (place a worker on the discovery track of an area, collecting the token there), Combat (sacrifice one worker to replace another player’s worker in an area where you have a presence), Payment (return another worker from one of your buildings to your available pool), and Draw (draw one card in an area, but only if you have enough influence in the area to obtain the current card there); some advanced buildings might either give you a choice of actions (“occupy or ship,” “ship or draw”) or combine/double actions (“occupy and ship,” “draw and draw”). Tokens you collect via Occupy or Shipping can either increase one of your statistics or provide you a “free” one-shot action to use at your discretion. Any workers left over once you have either exhausted your available spaces or passed are retained for future rounds. Finally, you must discard any cards you have collected in excess of those allowed by your current Politics level, adjusting your statistics accordingly; each player can have one “free” Governor card and one “free” Slavery card beyond their limit (up to a point in the case of Slavery).

Initially you can only use the Occupy, Draw, and (later) Combat actions in the European/Mediterranean region, which includes the Slavery deck. The five-value card in the E/M deck, in addition to its normal bonuses, also represents the “abolition of slavery”; each slavery card owned by all players when that card is drawn is lost (along with its benefits) and represents a negative point at the end of the game — as does a slavery card discarded for any other reason. Slavery cards are a quick and cheap way to rapidly increase your Industry and Economy early, but can potentially be a double-edged sword later on; whether or not you go for the risk is an important strategic decision.

Once an outlying region’s discovery track is completely filled it becomes available for non-Shipping actions only to those who have at least one worker on the track; you can still place a worker on an already-filled track via a Shipping action to get around this restriction. Whoever has the most workers on the discovery track is declared the Governor of that region and claims the appropriate card; in the case of a tie, the tied player with the worker closest to the last place on the track earns the honor, which can create some interesting strategic tension as these cards are often quite powerful/valuable.

At the end of the seventh round, the game is over — even if there are unclaimed spaces on the board (which is especially common with fewer players). In addition to the points scored by buildings, cards, occupying cities, and controlling trade routes, each player also scores points dependent on the levels of his statistics as indicated on the boards as well as one point for every three workers they have available but unused. The rules suggest using the various tokens to keep track of the scores but this is completely unnecessary and way too fiddly; counting up and then writing down each player’s total in turn is far simpler (and makes the included 50-point tokens something of a waste of cardboard). Scores are often very close as long as everyone has at least a vague idea of what they’re doing, and the winner is typically only a handful of points away from the player with the lowest total.

This tightness in scoring is perhaps my favorite aspect of Endeavor, as these scores are often achieved via wildly differing strategies, which indicates that pretty much any well-executed plan is viable rather than there being just one dominating plan that other players need to disrupt before someone can execute it. In fact, you have to be able to adapt your strategy on the fly thanks to the random distribution of tokens and other players beating you to certain actions, which keeps you active (but can lead to some paralysis if your house of cards gets knocked over by a single unexpected move). Another huge plus is the short play time, typically 90 minutes at the very most; other games in this genre can take two hours or more to complete and can drag on towards the later rounds when options are at their peak. A quick-playing game with dynamic strategy is always a sure bet in my book, and Endeavor fits that description neatly. 

Fans of logic puzzles will probably find Tobago (published by Rio Grande) to be a treasure, although you don’t actually need to be able to solve one of those to enjoy it. Featuring a modular board and some awesome bits, this game will quickly catch your eye before it grabs your mind.

The three sections that make up the board are double-sided and can combine in over 30 ways to create distinct layouts for the island. Additionally, ten landmarks (three statues, three trees, and four huts) are placed on the map in nearly random locations (they can’t be within 6 spaces of an identical object and statues can’t be adjacent to the ocean/edge of the map) to further make each game unique. Players (from two to four) each place their ATV pawn anywhere they wish, and then the treasure hunt begins! 

Initially, each player in turn draws one map card and places it next to one of the four colored piles (white, black, brown, and grey), with each player seeding a different pile (with less than four players the unseeded piles just start out that way). Each map card lists either where the treasure is or where it is not; one card might say “adjacent to the largest forest”, while another might exclude any space within view (one or two spaces away from) a hut. The map cards use a symbology that is both universal and requires no actual reading. No single card will ever be able to pinpoint the exact location of a treasure, so once the initial cards are played each player draws four and the actual game starts.

On your turn, you can either play one card to one pile or make a move with your ATV. A card can only be played if it reduces the number of potential locations by at least one hex and does not create an illegal situation; if the treasure is already known to be “on a beach” you can’t then say that it “is not adjacent to the ocean” because there is no such space in any configuration of the boards. If you play a card, you indicate that it is yours with one of your colored claim markers and then draw one to keep four cards in your hand at all times. An ATV move consists of up to three “legs;” a “leg” is defined as either crossing from one terrain type (forest, lake, beach, plains, mountain, river) to another or moving as far as you want within your current terrain. Picking up an amulet (which I’ll get to in a second) ends your leg; unearthing a treasure ends your move.

Once enough cards have been played, the number of potential locations for each treasure will narrow. As soon as it reaches the point where you can place the provided cubes on the potential spaces you should do so, as this will help to visualize what is and isn’t a legal card to further play for that treasure. A treasure must be reduced to only one potential location before it can be raised via ATV move.

The player who raises the treasure makes one final claim on it, and then each player is dealt one Treasure card (valued form 2 to 6) per claim they have on it. After looking at these cards, all of the dealt cards are mixed together, one unseen card is added from the deck (to keep things interesting), and the cards are revealed one at a time. Starting with the player who raised the treasure and working back to the first clue, each player gets to either take the card or pass on it. When a player takes a treasure card he places it face down in front of him and then removes the claim marker that actually took the card (e.g., if the claims are 3-1-3-2 and player 3 takes it on his second offering, the next card will be offered in the order of 3-1-2). If a treasure is passed up by all players it is discarded. Once all claims are satisfied (or once the available cards run out) the player who took the last card begins a new hunt for that treasure by using one of the map cards from his hand, with the last remaining card (if any) being discarded.

There is a danger to claiming treasure, however; somewhere after the first dozen cards in the Treasure deck lie two Curse cards. When a Curse card is revealed, all remaining cards in that treasure are immediately discarded and anyone who still has a claim on that treasure instead loses their highest-valued treasure from their collection. This is a potent threat that encourages players to not invest too heavily in a single treasure in case they get completely screwed by a Curse, but sometimes the risk can be worth it. Fortunately, the treasure-loss effect of curses can be avoided by possessing a magic amulet, which possess other powers as well. 

After each treasure is finished, the three statues will “fire”, depositing a magical amulet on the edge of the map directly in front of them before rotating 60 degrees clockwise (the manual even insists that you make a creaking/grinding noise when you do this). Anyone who picks up one or more of these has access to the following abilities in addition to the curse protection: they may play an additional map card, they may make an additional three-leg ATV move (although they may not pick up any amulets with this bonus move), they may discard their map cards in hand for four new ones, or they may eliminate one potential location of a specific treasure. Using any of an amulet’s powers causes the amulet to be discarded, but there is no limit to the number of amulets you may use in a given turn. The later stages of the game will almost certainly be decided by shrewd use of amulets, so plan accordingly.

The game ends when the final treasure card is passed out; if the last treasure requires more cards than there are left in the deck then the discarded cards from previous treasures are reshuffled to provide the remaining ones. The player with the highest total treasure value is the winner.

Tobago is quick-playing, with a session  rarely taking more than an hour (after setup). The symbology on the map cards can be awkward and/or arcane at first, but the reference page is a big help and eventually you will pick it up. The logical aspect of Tobago’s treasure hunt is very unique, although it can be frustrating to have no legal plays in your hand and have to waste your turn moving your ATV for no real reason. I love the presentation of the game, which in many ways reminds me of Taluva, another tropical island Rio Grande game and one of my favorites.

Image by GamerChris

The pastel-colored camels that comprise the bulk of the pieces in Through the Desert always remind me of Easter candy, but the gameplay is much more meaty. Scattered across the mounatin-ringed desert  are five oases (represented by plastic palm trees) and dozens of watering holes valued from 1 to 3 points. Your job is to link your caravans between them and claim as much territory as possible.

Each player has five caravan leaders, one for each color of camel (plus one more leader on a gray camel to remind everyone which colors belong to whom). Starting with the youngest, each player places one of their leaders on to the board; they can’t be placed adjacent to an oasis, adjacent to another player’s leader, or on a watering hole. The “real game” of placing camels — two per player after the first and second players place one each — begins once all of the leaders are placed, but strategic leader placement will dramatically affect your play. 

Camels are placed in caravans of like colors, connected to the appropriate leader. Two identically-colored caravans cannot be placed adjacent to each other, which can create a “Tron light cycle” interaction between players at times. Any caravan that connects to an oasis earns five points (per oasis, not per connection to a specific oasis), and any water holes occupied by a camel scores its points as well. Big points can also be earned by enclosing areas with a single caravan, but the board is crowded with five caravans per player (four if there are five players) and it isn’t easy to pull off such a maneuver if your opponents are observant. The game ends as soon as the last camel in a color is placed on the board, at which point the longest caravan in each color awards its owner ten points (or five each if tied).

Like most designs by Reiner Knizia, the play is deceptively simple but the strategy complex. Only being able to place two camels per turn is incredibly limiting, especially with each player potentially working in four or five areas of the board. There are all manner of distractions vying for your attention, and sacrifices must often be made: connect to the oasis, give up several watering holes; expand one caravan, watch another get cut off by a rival. Perhaps the most important decision of all is if you want to be the one who places the game-ending camel or see if everyone else wants to go one more round…

From two to five players can participate in a game of Through the Desert, and a session usually plays in around 30-45 minutes depending on the number of players. 

Image by GamerChris