I literally took a screenshot of the animal page, shrunk it down as much as I could and still be legible, made a few copies, and laminated them. Made the game better. Nassau surprised me with how fun it was, both in terms of theme and gameplay. Might be in my top 5 Felds now.
We’ve played all the city collection games and going in, Nassau was one I wasn’t really looking forward to. However, it really surprised me how fun the game ended up being. I agree there are some Oracle of Delphi comparisons, but here it feels more open on how you can score. Even the “Snake” part of Nassau ended up being more enjoyable in practice than I thought it’d be. It’s a great game. I know you don’t talk about the money part, but I think the value proposition here is getting worse in the city line. This is a $129 “deluxe” game but compare it to Marrakesh and it isn’t in the same level. The punchboards aren’t great (reminds me of Rio Grande, which I also need an Xacto knife to avoid tearing). The storage boxes are okay and they need more organization (a lot of floating pieces here). There are typos in the rulebook (German words that weren’t translated, for example). Maybe I’m nitpicking but I wish they would put a bit more thought into overall production and figure out a way to reduce some costs or match prior quality and raise the price as needed.
yup, things are getting more expensive over time as shipping and logistics continues to be historically high, and the fact that queen does all their production in europe rather than china means they get hit a lot harder than their competition, and to avoid going out of business they pass that along to buyers. nice thing is that they are doing alternate "essential" editions that get prices a bit lower over time :)
32:54 Doing “baby attacks” still costs you extra turns and provisions. Yes, by taking two turns to kill the Kraken, you get twice the cards and VP at the time, but just one tile for end-of-game scoring. But you lose the opportunity to do something else on that extra turn, provided you have the weapons. And you also risk losing the kill to your opponents.
i've got a copy here in the rig, but it's been hard to get to becuase it's so huge and my little rv table is so small. hoping to get it played and filmed before the year is over though!
I think I've played half of Stefan Feld's output and the only one I've kept is Castles of Burgundy. Nassau looks and sounds interesting, but unless it jumps onto a lot of reviewer's top 10 lists I'm unlikely to buy it. I'm pretty careful with what I buy these days and I need more validation a game is awesome before I pull the trigger. I enjoyed watching the video, though, and this is a game I will keep an eye on.
unfortunatley the timing on it is pretty bad, coming out near the end of the year like this. most reviewers won't have a copy, and by next year they won't consider it because it came out this year :(
@@rahdo That's probably true for Saltfjord as well. I bought it based on your review and it got stuck in Canada Post's strike logjam. But with that resolved I really hope it will arrive soon. If I love it I will sing its praises and also give you credit for bringing it to my attention.
I get what you are saying about “going green” and having it be more expensive. But the issue is that this is a huge collection and all have a “deluxe” version. They initially went with trays and somewhat great inserts to now being cheap tuck boxes. I’m okay with having this for the basic versions, but not for a deluxe version. Add that their customer service and shipping has not been top notch. Lots of damaged boxes, missing components, wrong orders, etc. If you are going to have expensive games, at least back that up with better customer service and components. Not trying to be a jerk. Just being real and speaking for most of the buyers who bought these games and experienced all this. Because it has been challenging. Some people still don’t have their games or replacement pieces for the first few games.
i'd suggest sticking with the standard versions... actaully i'm personally a fan of the essential editions most, but besides that i personally almost never think the deluxe option is worth it, no matter who the publisher is! :) re: customer service, i've always had good results with getting replacements for missing pieces and such (and i've always used their system anonymously), but i know others have had less luck than me!
I literally took a screenshot of the animal page, shrunk it down as much as I could and still be legible, made a few copies, and laminated them. Made the game better.
Nassau surprised me with how fun it was, both in terms of theme and gameplay. Might be in my top 5 Felds now.
Thanks for the heads up on Queen games production etc … good to hear…. Time to get this out of the shrink wrap
Love the art and the game play.
I was pleasantly surprised by this game . In the second phase of the game exploring the seas-you wait until everyone has finished the first phase .
oh well that's a bit less fun, but i guess it makes sense! :)
@@rahdo it’s still fun :-)
You can only buy from the Old Sea Bear once per round (46:12).
Spot on with the animals. A player aid for those would have been nice! Especially as with the queenies there are twice as many!
We’ve played all the city collection games and going in, Nassau was one I wasn’t really looking forward to. However, it really surprised me how fun the game ended up being. I agree there are some Oracle of Delphi comparisons, but here it feels more open on how you can score. Even the “Snake” part of Nassau ended up being more enjoyable in practice than I thought it’d be. It’s a great game.
I know you don’t talk about the money part, but I think the value proposition here is getting worse in the city line. This is a $129 “deluxe” game but compare it to Marrakesh and it isn’t in the same level. The punchboards aren’t great (reminds me of Rio Grande, which I also need an Xacto knife to avoid tearing). The storage boxes are okay and they need more organization (a lot of floating pieces here). There are typos in the rulebook (German words that weren’t translated, for example). Maybe I’m nitpicking but I wish they would put a bit more thought into overall production and figure out a way to reduce some costs or match prior quality and raise the price as needed.
yup, things are getting more expensive over time as shipping and logistics continues to be historically high, and the fact that queen does all their production in europe rather than china means they get hit a lot harder than their competition, and to avoid going out of business they pass that along to buyers. nice thing is that they are doing alternate "essential" editions that get prices a bit lower over time :)
also, i'd agree that the deluxe version isn't worth the extra cost, but i'd say that's true across the board in 90% of cases for all games :)
32:54 Doing “baby attacks” still costs you extra turns and provisions. Yes, by taking two turns to kill the Kraken, you get twice the cards and VP at the time, but just one tile for end-of-game scoring. But you lose the opportunity to do something else on that extra turn, provided you have the weapons. And you also risk losing the kill to your opponents.
yup, i'd say the biggest concern is the other players sweeping in and taking your catch, though that's much less of a worry in 2p :)
1:10:39 But where is your coverage of Civolution? I am surprised I haven’t seen anything from you about it!
Just curious.
Thanks.
i've got a copy here in the rig, but it's been hard to get to becuase it's so huge and my little rv table is so small. hoping to get it played and filmed before the year is over though!
A Stefan Feld game that is high scoring? I am shocked, shocked!
little known fact: he's actually a very good designer
I think I've played half of Stefan Feld's output and the only one I've kept is Castles of Burgundy. Nassau looks and sounds interesting, but unless it jumps onto a lot of reviewer's top 10 lists I'm unlikely to buy it. I'm pretty careful with what I buy these days and I need more validation a game is awesome before I pull the trigger. I enjoyed watching the video, though, and this is a game I will keep an eye on.
unfortunatley the timing on it is pretty bad, coming out near the end of the year like this. most reviewers won't have a copy, and by next year they won't consider it because it came out this year :(
@@rahdo That's probably true for Saltfjord as well. I bought it based on your review and it got stuck in Canada Post's strike logjam. But with that resolved I really hope it will arrive soon. If I love it I will sing its praises and also give you credit for bringing it to my attention.
Nice review. This or Marrakesh if you had to choose?
marrakesh definitely, it fits our play style more :)
I get what you are saying about “going green” and having it be more expensive. But the issue is that this is a huge collection and all have a “deluxe” version. They initially went with trays and somewhat great inserts to now being cheap tuck boxes. I’m okay with having this for the basic versions, but not for a deluxe version.
Add that their customer service and shipping has not been top notch. Lots of damaged boxes, missing components, wrong orders, etc.
If you are going to have expensive games, at least back that up with better customer service and components.
Not trying to be a jerk. Just being real and speaking for most of the buyers who bought these games and experienced all this. Because it has been challenging. Some people still don’t have their games or replacement pieces for the first few games.
i'd suggest sticking with the standard versions... actaully i'm personally a fan of the essential editions most, but besides that i personally almost never think the deluxe option is worth it, no matter who the publisher is! :)
re: customer service, i've always had good results with getting replacements for missing pieces and such (and i've always used their system anonymously), but i know others have had less luck than me!