Cannes: Can't

Tried Cannes for the first time last night, with 3 players, and was quite disappointed. I was utterly bored for much of the game, as there was simply nothing to do. The basic yellow goods were available in large quantities, but for at least half the game there were no green tiles in play for converting the yellow stuff into green stuff. Without green stuff you can't make movies, and if you can't make movies there's no point in playing the movie production tiles. Consequently they didn't appear until very late. Only two movies were produced in the entire game, both by the same player (me), as the game ended just when production seemed to become possible. There are simply too few conversion tiles in Cannes. It takes forever for them to come out, and then it can be ages before you're able to connect to them. So much of the game is spend jockeying in anticipation of something happening, which might not even happen for a long time. I very rarely say this about a game, but the end was a relief-- I couldn't wait for boredom to be over so we could move on to something fun. Direct to the trade pile.

We followed up with two 4-player games of Puerto Rico. Since its release last April, we've played PR every Tuesday (often more than once) with only 2 exceptions. We didn't think it possible, but it's eclipsed Big Boss as the warm, fuzzy blanket. The expansion buildings have certainly helped, since the strategies change now with every game. Game 1 saw our first true exploitation of the Union Hall, as both Nate and I grabbed it and a small warehouse. Nate had a virtual monopoly on indigo and managed to get about 9 indigo at once time, holding onto them for multiple turns to generate easy VPs. I had only 3 corn, 3 tobacco, and 1 sugar, but nevertheless managed 5 Union Hall VPs each captain phase and often more by shipping. By the time we were done, I had 45 VP chits and the Customs House, for a total of 76 points. Nate finished a good 15-20 behind that for second.

Game 2 I went a different way and got both the Hacienda and Forest House, nabbing 3 quarries, 4 forests, and the only coffee. While two other players built up Aquaduct production, I focused on building. With 3 large buildings (only 2 manned), I shut down the game before they could really get their shipping plan into gear and won by 10. I suspect, like the Office and Trading Post, the Hacienda and Forest House should be disallowed in the same game. It's extremely difficult to defend against a player who builds both. You simply can't ship fast enough, and you can't outbuild him.

Posted by Peter at February 19, 2003 03:42 PM