The
player with the highest bid wins the auction and discards their
cards, then chooses where to place the item they have won.
Players who lost the auction keep their cards and then bidding
continues for the next item. Unused cards after the auctions are
held for use in future rounds. If no one bids on an item it will
be discarded from the game.
Phase three is tabulating scores. Scores are given
for each of the nine regions. First place receives two points
for having the most total floors of their color in the district
plus one point for each fountain (note: tallest buildings will
not necessarily win as the total floors of a color is what
counts). Second place receives one point for each fountain (this
may mean no points are received for second). Some of the
districts have pre-printed fountains in them and these count
towards this scoring (the first time we played my group missed
this and placed fountains on top of these). In rounds three and
four the temples will double some of the above scores.
The scoring track is unique: four thermometer-like sticks that
slide up under a piece of cardboard with the scores registering
at the top of the cardboard. Unfortunately, creativity was
considered before functionality and this system can be easily
bumped and scores unwittingly altered. This problem can be
easily fixed by gluing the score holder onto a cardboard back.
In addition, it has been suggested that gluing felt onto the
backing behind the scoring markers would help create a little
friction to keep the markers more intact and less susceptible to
bumping.
During phase four players replenish their hands by
re-drawing six cards. Some players will receive more cards due
to having first or second place in a district with an
amphitheater. Players decide which action cards to draw and are
not required to draw a certain amount of cards from each of the
three different action card piles.
A commonly suggested variant makes card drawing even more
interesting. Instead of having each player replenish their hand
by drawing all their cards at once, draw one card at a time,
rotating around the table until each player has drawn their
maximum. Since each of the three action card piles are placed
face-up this brings an added dose of interest and competition
into the card drawing phase.
Players repeat these four phases in four rounds and then the
game ends. The player with the highest score wins.
I believe that solid games, particularly games with high replay
value, present a myriad of tensions and choices that players
must seek to balance. CAPITOL does this very well as a
result of several aspects of game play.
Since each action card has two uses, you often have the tough
choice of deciding when to hold a card for the auction or to use
it to build, roof or place and earn points on the board. Should
you save your high numbered cards for the auction phase or play
them?
Blind auctions, while a minor part of the game, are a major part
of strategy. Do you go for the lower valued fountains that have
steady income? Do you wait and bid on the large item but face
the possibility of losing it? What cards do other players
have remaining? Blind bidding can allow you to win by a hair,
lose by a hair or overbid a painful amount of cards to win.
You must add floors to buildings in such a way that they give
you many options. This means that you often need buildings of
several layers ready to roof so you can respond to the strategy
of other players.
When to roof a building is a significant strategy, as roofed
building cannot be added to. Roof too early and you will have
the wrong size building later on. Even the decision of placing a
peaked or a round roof is a significant one. The longer you
delay your decision the better you can read what other players
are doing. But how long can you wait and still react properly to
the shifting game board?
Replenishing cards in your hand always gives tough choices. You
want a mix of high points and useful actions. Some cards will
give you both options, but more often, you will have to choose
one or the other. In addition, you need to play defensively at
times so you don't set up other players with great cards.
You must plan ahead to ensure that you have the cards to do the
actions you hope to do next round. It is not uncommon for a
player to express disgust mid-round when they realize they don't
have the action card that they thought they had (e.g. - running
out of roof cards or not having a region placement card for the
colored region you want to place in). The scoring system is
balanced and close. Games typically finish between 30 and 45
points total and first and second often are a few mere points
apart.
This game has wonderful balance. I have seen wins occur as a
result of several differing strategies; power on the board, wise
use of fountains, monopolizing amphitheatres or using temples.
|
I find CAPITOL to
be a mid-complexity game that satisfies gamers who prefer
a bit deeper fare. It can be taught to new gamers in about 10
minutes but repeat players will have a definite advantage over
first-timers. The game did not wow me after my first play. However,
my opinion of it has increased each time I have played. CAPITOL
was not the best new game I played last year but it rates well
on my list of favorites and is worthy of a spot on your games
shelf.
Jeff Suderman is Director of Admissions at Trinity Western
University in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
WARHAMSTER
RALLY
This game has had
its own odd little history, beginning life as a game called
"Rally Macabre" about the dead rising from their
graves to race hot rods between the tombstones of a graveyard.
I adore
open field racing games (ROBO RALLY, MISSISSIPPI QUEEN, MONSTER
DERBY), and was trying to create a game that was sort of an
open field version of AUSGEBREMST/AVE CAESAR. The first version
was curious indeed, with a board filled with colored hexes,
allowing you to move to a hex shown on your cards as long
as you did not move more than 3 hexes, and only turned once
during your move.
Somewhere
about then, Oriental Trading Company's catalog plopped down
on my front doorstep, hiding a number of cheap blown-glass
sea creatures on one page. $12 got me a set of 4 seahorses,
4 crabs, and 4 octopi.
So,
the crabs (they don't move around much) became my barriers
around which the seahorses ran. Two hex sharks swam
around causing havoc. And the game just was not very interesting.
The moves were just too obvious.
Something
about CAPE HORN'S arrows and currents struck me as fitting
the new sea critter theme, and so I combined that with a version
of AUTOSCOOTER'S movement templates. (Mine more resemble BLUE
MAX'S moves. Something I did not realize until months later
when Steffan O'Sullivan pointed it out to me.) That way your
facing is determined strictly by the spaces, but your move
is controlled by the card.
I was
at this time still using the blocking (no pushing) rule from
AUSGEBREMST. But by making you plot moves in advance, and
allowing racers to push each other, you could mess up other
players moves. And NOW I had a game that was interesting enough
played by myself to try and force it on others.
It sucked.
We were plotting moves TWO moves in advance-which had to go.
And racing around all 4 crabs was too long a race.
Further
playtesting taught me that the game was still too chaotic.
So, I created some special actions that you could perform.
You got one each of 6 types, each usable once per game. Levien
de Braal also helped me fix a big problem in that the
turns were only left or only right (as opposed
to having all turns be symmetrical left/right.)
Getting
better, problem was you were still at the forces of chaos.
You wanted to use the same special action more than once,
and many remained unused. Stealing a page from WILDLIFE ADVENTURE,
I converted these to Action Points (why haven't more games
used this excellent mechanic?) and the game started working.
And of course one of the actions became moving the crabs
because....the playing pieces are crabs and they should be
able to move.
Thus
begat AQUARIUM DERBY, and showing it off at the Gathering
2000. And the pain of trying to sell a game that feels perhaps
a bit too much like ROBO RALLY--but with very different mechanics.
Germany had just gotten RR courtesy of Amigo, and so
no one seemed very interested.
On a
whim, one copy went to Jolly Roger. (Their first game was
the zombie-themed MAUL OF AMERICA, and zombies have always
been near and dear to my heart.) And at the 2000 Origins,
John Kovalic asked Jim if they could do a game together. Jim
showed him a few possibilities, and John really liked AQUARIUM
DERBY.
But in re-theming the game, we made a few changes. The immobile
seaweed became small Kobold-Kin that can move around,
and to get get a feel for the Dork Tower characters,
I tested some one-use special powers for the characters. Both
make the game more interesting for advanced players (by now,
I was winning about 90% of the playtest games I participated
in.) but are pretty tricky for beginners. In fact, I have
started teaching the game without the character powers, to
let folks get used to the essential skills of using Jongleurs
and the extra move card.
Frank Branham is an Atlanta game collector, player and
designer. His published games include DIA DE LOS MUETOS
and WARHAMSTER RALLY.
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