Sounds really interesting. During your description I kept thinking the original setting was historical (Mediterranean, Hanseatic League, etc) but it was changed to a fantastical setting to make it more appealing to new gamers.
Yeah, now I've seen the KS campaign. I love Trendy, and I can kind of see how the Whale Riders setting would work, similar to how in that game you can work with someone to buy cheap goods, which gives them cheap goods, which gives you cheap goods. You're working together to both score. In any case, Trendy is a delight, and I'm curious to see how this design differs from it. -WEM
BoardGameGeek he is my favorite designer too and I've greatly enjoyed your reviews and interviews. His designs are just so great. I worry that people will miss it because many play his games once and say "that was fine..,. I liked it ". But if you will give the game a few more plays...you will get the Knizia click in your brain and really see how GREAT the design is with the simplicity to depth ratio being off the charts.
@@Boysenbro The BGG weight is just an average of user votes on a 1-5 scale. It can be somewhat useful, but it's not based on expert analysis of complexity and depth.
Hieronymus Pseudonymous Maybe board game reviewers should give board games a rating and a weight so we can see where they gauge it. Instead of everything lookin like promo
Yes! And whenever you buy something in a port, you'll be lowering the cost of the remaining goods for whoever else is there (and whoever is one space away). -WEM
1:35-2:10 sounds more like role playing creativity and expression but I don't get that at all in Knizia's games that feel mathy, elegant, & timeless. Maybe you were going for something else unless you mean players can try different strategies but that doesn't make his games unique.
No, I meant what I said. Knizia's game designs feel more open to me than those of most other designers. He's creating a framework that the players dress up with their actions. Games of Modern Art, Tigris & Euphrates, and even smaller games like Trendy have a wider range of experiences than games by other designers, such as those of Feld which feel more like you're on constrained paths with you trying to optimize actions in tiny ways without affecting the larger narrative of the game. -WEM
@@wolflarson71 • Modern Art was the game that opened this door for me. We once played with four experienced players and a first-timer who was doing unexpected and "wrong" things that had all of us shaking our heads - yet he beat us all by a huge margin. I've since had similar experiences with other Knizia designs, including Tajuto recently. A new player who doesn't know "how to play" can stir the pot and show how what you think you know is wrong. You must adapt to the players at the table to do well. -WEM
@@boardgamegeek For me, the moment happened while playing T&E... I had played it maybe 10-20 times on the app at that point, and someone sharper than me could probably think of that move after a play or two... I had a lot of black points and no blue points... But in my king's kingdom there were many blue tiles, and I had many blue tiles. I just removed my king from his position between 3 red tiles, and placed my blue leader there, ousting the other blue leader. The turn afterwards I attacked the neighbouring kingdom and won a great deal of blue points. The game doesn't have a card called "abdication" that lets you remove a king nor a card called "farmer messiah" that creates a religious figurehead, born from the poor farmer class that has tired of the whims of spoiled kings, that leads his nation to great conquest... Yet that is what it felt like I was doing. And it was completely emergent from the simple game rules, the board state (created by other players), and my own action. The "creativity" part in the above example isn't the story you can imagine happening, it's thinking to use that position, those tiles, that kingdom, that leader, all together to achieve a profound impact on the game state. For me that is why the good doctor is the greatest designer, and why T&E specifically is the greatest game.
There being depth to a game that isn't immediately apparent is not unique to the games of Reiner Knizia, and neither is it necessarily a hallmark of masterly design. Books hundreds of pages long have been written on backgammon and Memoir '44, not that I have anything against either of those games in particular.
I'm not suggesting that Knizia designs are the only ones with subtle depth - just that his designs typically exhibit that. Not sure what point you're trying to make by mentioning backgammon and Memoir '44. -WEM
I really like your videos! How you present the game and all the ways of playing... Just wanted to say that :)
Thanks for the kind words! -WEM
Sounds really interesting. During your description I kept thinking the original setting was historical (Mediterranean, Hanseatic League, etc) but it was changed to a fantastical setting to make it more appealing to new gamers.
At some point, could you make a video about some of the large games you have on the wall behind you? I love those sorts of things.
Yes, that video is on my to-do list so that I can refer to it whenever someone asks about those games! -WEM
Can some1 tell me what's the tune at the start of the show? I really love it
It's a sound file we purchased titled "125_short_crazy-adventures-of-banjo-kazoo_0017". -WEM
@@boardgamegeek Thanks! I did search for it but come up empty. unfortunately :)))
Whale Riders the card game is Trendy reincarnated.
Yeah, now I've seen the KS campaign. I love Trendy, and I can kind of see how the Whale Riders setting would work, similar to how in that game you can work with someone to buy cheap goods, which gives them cheap goods, which gives you cheap goods. You're working together to both score.
In any case, Trendy is a delight, and I'm curious to see how this design differs from it. -WEM
You gush about the Dr ANYTIME!! 😂
Indeed I do! -WEM
BoardGameGeek he is my favorite designer too and I've greatly enjoyed your reviews and interviews. His designs are just so great. I worry that people will miss it because many play his games once and say "that was fine..,. I liked it ". But if you will give the game a few more plays...you will get the Knizia click in your brain and really see how GREAT the design is with the simplicity to depth ratio being off the charts.
@@raymyers700 • I'm on the same page with you. The more I play one of his designs, the more I see in it. -WEM
Such beautiful design, with so little rules
Along with Player count and game length, I think the BGG weight would be very helpful before jumping into these videos.
I realize this is a Kickstarter game and won’t have an established weight but in the future with remakes and what not.
@@Boysenbro The BGG weight is just an average of user votes on a 1-5 scale. It can be somewhat useful, but it's not based on expert analysis of complexity and depth.
Hieronymus Pseudonymous Maybe board game reviewers should give board games a rating and a weight so we can see where they gauge it. Instead of everything lookin like promo
Can players share a port?
Yes! And whenever you buy something in a port, you'll be lowering the cost of the remaining goods for whoever else is there (and whoever is one space away). -WEM
Cheers 🍻
1:35-2:10 sounds more like role playing creativity and expression but I don't get that at all in Knizia's games that feel mathy, elegant, & timeless. Maybe you were going for something else unless you mean players can try different strategies but that doesn't make his games unique.
No, I meant what I said. Knizia's game designs feel more open to me than those of most other designers. He's creating a framework that the players dress up with their actions.
Games of Modern Art, Tigris & Euphrates, and even smaller games like Trendy have a wider range of experiences than games by other designers, such as those of Feld which feel more like you're on constrained paths with you trying to optimize actions in tiny ways without affecting the larger narrative of the game. -WEM
@@boardgamegeek Interesting. I don't get that feeling at all playing his games. They're great games but they don't feel sandboxy to me at all.
@@wolflarson71 • Modern Art was the game that opened this door for me. We once played with four experienced players and a first-timer who was doing unexpected and "wrong" things that had all of us shaking our heads - yet he beat us all by a huge margin.
I've since had similar experiences with other Knizia designs, including Tajuto recently. A new player who doesn't know "how to play" can stir the pot and show how what you think you know is wrong. You must adapt to the players at the table to do well. -WEM
@@boardgamegeek I call that "fragile". lol
@@boardgamegeek For me, the moment happened while playing T&E... I had played it maybe 10-20 times on the app at that point, and someone sharper than me could probably think of that move after a play or two...
I had a lot of black points and no blue points... But in my king's kingdom there were many blue tiles, and I had many blue tiles. I just removed my king from his position between 3 red tiles, and placed my blue leader there, ousting the other blue leader. The turn afterwards I attacked the neighbouring kingdom and won a great deal of blue points.
The game doesn't have a card called "abdication" that lets you remove a king nor a card called "farmer messiah" that creates a religious figurehead, born from the poor farmer class that has tired of the whims of spoiled kings, that leads his nation to great conquest... Yet that is what it felt like I was doing. And it was completely emergent from the simple game rules, the board state (created by other players), and my own action.
The "creativity" part in the above example isn't the story you can imagine happening, it's thinking to use that position, those tiles, that kingdom, that leader, all together to achieve a profound impact on the game state.
For me that is why the good doctor is the greatest designer, and why T&E specifically is the greatest game.
There being depth to a game that isn't immediately apparent is not unique to the
games of Reiner Knizia, and neither is it necessarily a hallmark of masterly design.
Books hundreds of pages long have been written on backgammon and Memoir '44,
not that I have anything against either of those games in particular.
I'm not suggesting that Knizia designs are the only ones with subtle depth - just that his designs typically exhibit that.
Not sure what point you're trying to make by mentioning backgammon and Memoir '44. -WEM