Alma Mater Review - Better than Coimbra?
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- Опубликовано: 27 июн 2020
- Alma Mater Review (Eggertspiele)
Is this better than Coimbra? Lorenzo il Magnifico? What about Grand Austria Hotel?
2-4 Players
90 Minutes
12+ Years of Age
Man Vs Meeple
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Hosted by Jeremy Salinas 
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Who else can't stop staring at the dent on Caverna's box?
I know right?!?! Drives me up the wall as well.
Arghhhh now I can't not see it!!!!!
My Caverna is badly dinged too and much worse so! 😔
Mine also has a ding
Grand Austria has been an extremely popular theme among my friends. Especially among my non-gamer friends. The idea of running a swanky cafe/hotel is pretty appealing especially compared to the themes of many other euros.
I love GAH...still one of my favorites and a permanent fixture on my shelf for eternity.
I bought GAH on Jeremy’s recommendation and it became one of my most played games. I really like Coimbra and I’m excited about Alma Mater.
Have been a MvM fan for years, but the latest reviews and content are next level. Great stuff!
Thank you - honestly we are trying really hard to focus more on reviews...and not just surface level, but detailed introspective looks at games and why and why we don't like them.
I actually found the theme of running a 15th-century university considerably more interesting than the idea of playing a euro game.
Great format for reviews. You guys are just getting better and better.
Thank you! Much appreciated! We are spending more time this year on Reviews...we realize we've stepped away from it for too long. To be honest, I enjoy them more than just about anything else that we do because they are far more personal and informative.
@@meeple It's also what made me start paying attention to your channel last year! (Ironic if you feel you had moved away from them. ha!)
I can tell you have thought about what you want to say so that you get a lot of information and answer a lot of potential questions in a shorter video; much appreciated.
Thanks C.W., yep, spent a lot of time playing the game so I wasn't blinded by the 'newness' of it. For some reason, my brain just follows this type of game really well despite it being very mathematical with how you need to predict and calculate the exact combinations of things you need to do in order to pull off some cool combos!
This is great, short, to the point, full of humor and well argumented. Thank you so much!
Thank you Sandra! Much appreciated!
wow. love this new style of a review. it has less of a sale presentation vibe in it, which I like
Thank you.....we've completely reworked the way we do reviews, AND have been concentrating on doing more of them. As always, all of our reviews are NON-Sponsored and Unpaid....and are purely our own opinions.
@@meeple Wow such a good job for non paid reviews, better than many paid reviews out there. I really always thought your reviews were paid, I could not have been more wrong.
Your excitement is infectious!
Honestly, it's hard not to get excited about games that I enjoy. I've played it 5 times now in 4 days and I'm still finding things I didn't notice the first couple games.....little tricks you can pull off with the right combinations of actions/tiles/cards.
Love the new review style! I have Coimbra and enjoy it, I wonder if there is room in my collection for both of these.
Thanks! Much appreciated. As for having room, they are very, very different types of games.
Great work again! Really like this new style.
Thank you Danny - we spent alot of time reworking the way that we present our reviews so that it is far more thorough and presents more of our thoughts rather than just upchucking how the game plays. Glad you enjoy it.
Thanks for the review! My intrigue is peaked....!! Cant wait to try
Thanks for watching icypunk880! I think this may surprise people. It's not a game that is easily figured out the first couple times you play, but when it clicks....it clicks.
Grand Hotel, Coimbra, Lorenzo are my favorite games... Oh, man, what I have to do now?!!!
I need this! thank you for the nice review!
Thank you Marco for watching. I really enjoy the work that this design team does.....they always think of cool ways to make mid weight euro's unique, engaging yet mostly approachable even for non-gamers.
Great review, thank you and has made me want to but this more... have considered Coimbra but held back as i wasnt sure
Amazingly well done review!
Thank you Mika! Much appreciated!
Great review! Tekhenu, Tawantinsuyu, Alma Mater, Dead Reckoning, Merchants of the Dark Road and Praga Caput Regni. Great euros coming out this year. 😀 Just a little concerned about Asmodee’s parts replacement for Alma Mater. Looking forward to Alban Viard’s Campus which will be in the same vein as Clinic. This is shares a similar setting with Alma Mater but will likely be a mid to heavy euro. Should be fun!
I have not heard of Campus.....Looking it up NOW! Thanks for the heads up!!
ManVsMeeple It’s mentioned on Alban Viard’s BGG page. I don’t think there is an entry for the game yet.
Jeremy , Grand Austria & Lorenzo are also my two favourites from this magnificent design team. Both are medium euro solid 8’s, bread & butter games to pull out at gaming cons. This new kid on the block looks like a worthy purchase, great review!. Thank you
Have you tried Terramara? Another less talked about game from that same design team. I really like it as well, but again it is very very different.
ManVsMeeple - not tried that one yet Jeremy. I own the other 3 mentioned and waiting on gaming conventions to happen again here in the UK , so I can try someone’s copy. Last time I played Grand Austria at a gaming con , (Bastion in Conway, North Wales) in January. The Snowdonia designer, Tony Boydell came to the table and pointed out that he is a character on one of the cards. Pretty cool
@@markoreilly4433 Yes I know....I've seen the card :). Super cool!
I really enjoy the designers other games. Can’t wait to try this one. Let the hype train begin!
Thanks for a thorough review of an interesting game. Just purchased it!
Another excellent review.
Thank you Paul! Much appreciated!
Hot damn. Plays faster than Coimbra (Co-EM-brrra, btw, according to my spanish friend) and Jeremy says he likes it way more even though he still likes and enjoys Coimbra? Sounds like a must buy. OOOOOoooo, and I just noticed a play through on the right side of my screen! Thanks for this incredibly succinct but thorough review.
I don't mind that they reused the character art from Coimbra (thematically they could say that it is a prequel studying to become what they ended up being in Coimbra), I do not like that the students and professors are all the same thought.
Still excited about, I love the designers, also can't wait for Golem (Gigi, Brasinni, Luciani)
Yeah I’m also pretty excited for Golem, though I don’t know much about it at this point.
@@meeple I know that it took a lot from Grand Austria Hotel. The Marvel mechanic works pretty much the same way the dice drafting does in GAH. There is a gameplay but it is Italian.
Thanks for the review! Just 2 quick questions pretty please? :)
1) is this a very tight game? as in, in terms of resources, is it really difficult like at the beginning of Lorenzo where you're always broke. Or less constrained, say like Teotihuacan?
2) are there multiple distinct (and actually viable) paths to victory? e.g. can you go hard in students and still win? Similarly, can you win by only getting one or two students? Or do you kind of need to always use a balanced strategy in order to win?
Thanks again!
I'm glad I watched this. I had been on the fence until they uploaded the pdf the other day and I was convinced I wanted it, but still not 100% for a few reasons. One of the big reasons being that I play most of my games at 2 or 3 players and in the rare instance of a 4 player game, I have that many that a game with this theme is going to be a hard sell over...pretty much any other game haha and from the rules I knew that all the engine building and worker placement, point salad scoring, is all just the standard necessary stuff you've seen a million times before that drives the very unique player market that no one has seen before, and you would assume something so interactive to be wildly more favourable to higher player counts than the other tried-and-true elements. So to hear that you actually prefer that side of the board is great.
Oh, and I thought the same thing about the bust cards thing from the rules, it seemed bizarre to get a card that references another card instead of just the card. But I think it's more because they probably had a list of theme ideas and busts/statues was on that list and over the development it was merged with the chancellor cards because they didn't need two mechanisms, and getting lots of chancellors doesn't make as much sense thematically as busts (although why having a bust would make a chancellor help out a university is equally weird, so they could have just made the starting cards chancellors, in the same way most games just use a tiny "S" or some symbol to denote them.)
Also they might've deliberately re-used a lot of art to create more tangible parallels with Coimbra in the hope of making it a running series, as eggertspiele doesn't really have any such 'evergreen' series that most publishers rely on, because it guarantees a market for when they need a surefire hit to recoup from disappointing sales of a new title, just pump out another game with this art and set in the same period of history and, boom, money recovered.
I could well be wrong, but that was just my guesswork
Thanks for the review, it seems that in spite of the lockdown you've covered all but one of the big games I've been most curious / on the fence about but have pre-ordered anyway (the other being a GMT game, which usually isn't your remit so, that makes sense (although I'd still check it out as it is the most Euro-y heavy GMT game that I've seen being primarily an auction game, also making it the heaviest auction game I've ever seen that should appeal to people that hate auction games because of...just check it out for yourself, after reading the rules I went from on the fence to being more excited about it than any other game).
Curious which GMT game you are discussing!
Also, I've heard that this series is a trilogy. You can clearly see the artistic similarities between this and Coimbra so I am sure there will be more!
@@meeple ooooh a trilogy? I hadn't heard, but it would slightly confirm my belief in their deliberate reuse of art, but not quite as an evergreen series, just an instantly recognisable trilogy. But adding to my point, are you not now excited for the third in the series, and if it wasn't / isn't provided to you for review purposes would you not buy it on the strength of needing the whole series? As much as people have (rightfully, mind you) complained about the recycling of art, it does sort of make good business sense (it just also smacks of oversight because the whole look is so distinctive in a crowded market of clone game art to stand out on its own merit, but oh well, maybe it was literally a Covid related decision that they still promised a game by summer and were suddenly hit by the entire world entering a pandemic. Everyone is, and will for a while, feel the effects (just be glad it's no longer the middle ages and this isn't the plague).
As for the GMT game, since you asked (and based on my passive knowledge of your tastes based entirely on watching reviews but having never actually met you hahaha) is called Versailles 1919 about the treaty of Versailles. Which, if you know your history, is often considered one of the very major factors that led to the 2md world war happening. So in the game, for 4 players, you play the big 4 of the time (France, Britain, USA, Italy) who were deciding the fate of Europe and particularly the German economy after the war (and, if you don't know, a boiled down version of events is, they were too focused on retribution to realise that if they punished Germany too strictly it would end badly (queue ww2)) and the game is like an auction where you bid with 'influence' for different political debates to serve your own end based on a complex gameplay that's all completely open so it loses that ambiguity of value that plagues (or makes, depending on the player as an individual) an auction game, because you can make entirely strategic decisions when biddi g and you can likewise see those decisions in your opponent,but you also have to balance their happiness otherwise Japan won't sign the treaty and you might all lose out. Basically it's genius and I don't want to take away from the game this video is about, but that game needs more mainstream attention so its worth me mentioning I'm case it does tick the interest of MvM because it's mind blowing how a game could be so good of a game, so thematic, and almost unintentionally have an important message to teach about world politics. I highly recommend, I pre-ordered it along with Alma Mater and Tekhenu (another game I was on the fence about when I first skimmed the rules, then I saw your video and gave the rules another look and actually read through from start to finish and added to my order). I'd love for Versailles 1919 to get the same treatment from you guys as it would open it up to a whole other audience that always thought wargames were too stuffy for them (and largely are too stuffy, but companies like GMT pump out some amazing outliers like Time of Crisis, the entire COIN series and Sekigahara that deserve more attention than the Wargame label denotes (just be prepared for a slog through the rulebook lol))
Anyway, thanks for the reply, it's nice to see content makers sifting through these because it shows they truly do care about the product they promote and it shows they aren't promoting product but community, and that's nothing if not a good thing. So huge respect from me
Have a lovely day 😊!
Sean.
Ooh, excited for this review! Alma Mater has been on my radar, especially because Coimbra fell a bit short for me.
Interested to hear what you think once you play it. This is a game of subtle moves...I like it alot.
Hey Jeremy, thanks for the excellent review.
Could you provide us with some more information about how variable is the setup?
Which variables change from game to game?
I ask that because this is exactly what I like the most in Grand Austria Hotel. A drastically varying setup has become one of the characteristics I like the most in my euros.
Yep....so there is 4 of each type of professor(Science, Law, Medicine and Math) in the game....and you only play with 2 of each so they are randomly drawn each game. There is 3 types of objective tiles (3xA, 3xB and 3xC) - and you only use 1 of each. There are 10 chancellors and you 3 more than the number of players, so not all will be used. There are a number of different research cards that make up the research track...and you only use 1 from each stack of A,B,C,D and E.
You also have a random draft with 'setup' cards at the start of the game...and there are 24 of those. Also with the small box expansion, you have another set of 4 student tiles that can be used.
So in my opinion there's alot.
@@meeple Thanks alot for the quick reply! That is, indeed, quite some variability. Based on you description, the core mechanisms and the book economy seem very interesting as well. I am eager to test it!
Looks very nice. I did like Coimbra quite a bit, so I expect to like this a lot!
I like Coimbra alot as well....but it 100% needs an expansion to add more characters and tiles at the very least.
@@meeple Yes...true!
Not watched video yet. Better than Coimbra? I love me some Coimbra. This will have to be truly amazing. Follow up after I watch.
Ok, I've watched the video and it does look pretty cool. I'm willing to give this a go for sure. Looks like it's right up my alley.
I address this exact thing in the video :). Maybeeeeee.......
Lmao, the start of every great euro game review “wait, it’s better than the theme makes it sound!”
I like the components and the plastic books. Never played the other games they designed. Saw these on you Gen Con Live Stream so wanted to investigate. Looks interesting but I'm not sure how well it plays with 2.
I miss Disney sooooo much! Thanks for the review. I’m surprised that you like it at two; I had written it off because of the dummy player. Thanks for the review!
Yeah we had a family vacation planned in a few weeks and have had to cancel. At this point I'm thinking that they might not even reopen the parks until the fall due to the pandemic (July 2020). And yes I really like it at 2 and 3 best. It's super fast and the condensed spaces are fantastic.
ManVsMeeple So sorry to hear you had to cancel! I’m sure that’s tough. We are considering Disneyland Paris this summer or fall for the reopening, if things stay relatively stable in Europe. Nothing beats the one in Orlando, but we had fun at Disneyland Paris this past October and certainly don’t want to risk traveling too far.
This one is back on my radar, then. I’m curious to see where is will land on your top games for this year.
I didn't realize your opening question was meant as sarcasm because I would be very interested in it.
Hahaha....snarky right? To note though, this is coming from the same guy that has Agricola, Coimbra, Austria Hotel, Troyes, Caverna, La Havre and a multitude of other random themes on my shelves and I love the ALL!
Good review, MvM is definity raising its bar!
Thank you! Much appreciated!
You had me at the theme
Good review and stuff, but I gotta say - that’s a great shirt. 👌🏻
Thanks!? Hahaha. The shirt was cheap I assure you!
Great way of reviewing a game!
I wonder whether kingmaking might be an issue. When you choose which books to use for payment, then you set the currency for all that come later. That means that you do not only choose an opponent where you buy books but also where more books need to be bought going forward. If the books of player C are never or hardly used as currency by the other players at their first buys, they never will be. Does this break the game for player C if he cannot sell any books?
The only way to Kingmake in this game is really doing it to yourself. I mean I guess you COULD boost someone by using their books to pay for the most expensive slots but I'd ask why? You'd be making a big mistake in doing so.....
Player C can dictate the prices themselves by purchasing their own books (which is always the cheapest way to do so), and using their books to buy Professors and then moving up the research track to dictate Student Pricing as well. It's hard to explain but believe me, it's intriguing and takes a few games to go "AH HA - I GET IT!!" and then it's on like Donkey Kong!
The game's pace is relatively fast and six rounds comes very quickly. I'd be VERY impressed to find someone be able to position themselves as an untouchable leader under such restraints (both time and tight resources).
I often find that unless I'm purchasing a student I don't really look at the research track to buy the most in demand books and I'll instead just buy whatever books have a cheap and plentiful supply.
I should state though, that I never won this game so don't take my advice! Lol.
I am quite hyped. Especially as I already liked Coimbra better than Lorenzo (still haven't played Grand Austria Hotel) and I feel this should be even more interesting.
I like all 3 of the previous games alot....but really want an expansion for Coimbra! Johannes - you HAVE to play GAH and have you tried Lorenzo with the expansion? It's soooooo good.
@@meeple Yeah, after roughly 7 matches I would also at least like a few more cards for Coimbra.
Haven't played the LtM expansion, no :-D
And yes, GAH is high on my wishlist!
Well, it is more thematically linked to Coimbra the city than Coimbra the game ever was. :D
Ha! That may very well be the case.
I've been keeping an eye for this one. It looks gorgeous, however I'm soooo disappointed at the repeating art! That's really lazy...
I feel the same....I think a dozen more pieces of art would have been nice. It's honestly not a huge deterrent, but enough that I wonder why they didn't just commission it. The biggest problem is the lack of extra chancellor cards.....without them you often forget that you even have them in front of you when you acquire extra ones through 'busts'/statues.
@@meeple It feels like they just reused the art from coimbra without any changes. They probably just did the board and iconography.
A fair point but look at the recycled art of Raiders of the North Sea, Architects, Paladins, Viscounts and the excellent yet very different game experiences each offers. Not a detraction in my book. Game play is a much more important factor.
@@justacynic I don't mind that it is recycled, I meant repeating.
@@TheShapingSickness Having watched the play through, I get your point. It does seem odd.
IIRC, Lorenzo is your favorite boardgame. As you said that you enjoy this, Alma Mater, as much as Lorenzo and Grand Austria Hotel, does that mean Lorenzo you also rank as an 8? Which would seem to suggest you don't have any 9s or 10s.
Great review, love this style.
I like all 3 fairly equally. I didn't even mention that there is a preorder bonus that you can get that gives you even more stuff to add.....there is a lot of variability here for sure.
This game is on my wish list, for sure.
Cool - pointer, if you do get it, there is a small box expansion of new students that I didn't have during the review but can be acquired through preorders. Again, just more variability.
@@meeple Here there Jeremy. On my wishlist immediately after your recommendation. I appreciate that they included the extra students as an expansion, but I do wish they had thought to throw those into the main game. Tami and I are watching the channel a lot and really love the extra mile you go in covering new games. Stay safe.
I am a bit confused by the intro calling this theme and GAH uninspiring. They are pretty unique an intriguing if you ask me. I'd rather play a game with that kind of theme than yet another generic dungeon crawl, fantasy, or IP-based game.
do you recommend this for 2P?
I do yes....I've played it 3 times at 2p and really like it! Super fast....45 minutes!
Nice Video! But please don't disrespect ma eurogame themes. I would lahve being a headmaster of my own independent university during the 15th century. Thank you for the video, looks exciting! :)
ROFL! Calling a spade a spade! I mean, I'm not really into farming either but I love me some Agricola!
Thanks for the review, but imho, Coimbra is FAR superior to both Lorenzo and GAH, which are both quite good games.
Coimbra was excellent, and I did find the variability to be there with every game. But if you say AM has even more, then I'm very excited for this.
You are certainly entitled to that opinion, though I do enjoy both of those better than Coimbra. I think we are arguing over nothing though since all of them are incredibly well designed games. I think and hope you enjoy Alma Mater, I really love it.
@@meeple Yep, I'm really looking forward to it, especially after your review! :)
Great review Jeremy. Grand Austria is my least favorite game the members of the team have done (not bad, but not great); everything else has been gold.
I prefer GAH at 2p, I think it shines at that player count.
We actually like GAH the most.
Thanks for the extensive review. One question: If a player didn’t care for Coimbra because it felt like working a big spreadsheet, would they feel differently about Alma Mater?
That's a gpod question. Hmmmmm. Do you enjoy euro games in general or did you just feel like Coimbra specifically was too mathy for you - or it was just going through the motions? I think this one has some similar traits to it but it wildly different in the end. It's hard for me to answer because I love spreadsheets and games that make you think about numbers and how things score...so yes this has some of that but the way in which it does it might be more appealing in the end. In other words, give it a shot at the least......doesn't mean you have to buy it, but worth playing even if you are on the fence.
I personally like it better than Coimbra.
ManVsMeeple Totally love euros but those that have less of a pure or heavy math feel, usually, but not always. I felt like Coimbra was “going through the motions” as you put it. Thanks for the comments.
Hmmm I'm torn on this one.
Why is that? What feature makes you apprehensive. Don't want to change your mind but curious to know!
@@meeple I play board games with my family mainly and although I'm pretty sure I'd enjoy it I don't think they will. The art and some of the mechanics will put them off. So I don't like spending money on something if I don't think I'll get it to the table with my kids.
Another work placement game? I'd like more creativity
There will always be more Worker Placement games.....the mechanisms and gameplay around it are what make it unique.
Where’s the dice?
There are no dice !! Not in this game :)
ManVsMeeple Then it’s hard for me to put this is in the same camp as Grand Austria Hotel.
NCTarheel55 For me, they are in the same camp because they are all mid weight euros designed by members of the same Italian design team. I can’t really exclude them because one has dice and one doesn’t. Otherwise if all you need is dice to compare two games, then Lorenzo could be in the same camp as Risk. It’s like saying tennis and badminton aren’t both racket sports because one uses a shuttlecock and one uses a ball.
ManVsMeeple Completly valid points and due to the designers I may have to check it out. I guess at this point with these designers I expect dice and grown to love those dice worker placement games. Thanks
@@NCTarheel55 I love Dice Placement games as well. Have you played Troyes....or Crystal Palace?
Can't play it since it's not out yet.
August....very soon!
Tekhenu, alma mater, tawatikijajaja
Hahahaha Tawatikijajaja - The names for these games are so varied, I love them and to be honest if nothing else, they are expanding my vocabulary and knowledge!
@@meeple the funny thing is that Tawantinsuyu to me it feels like they simplified it for English speaking people Because the name in Quechua is actually Tahuantinsuyo and no one would have guessed that it actually sounds almost exactly like Tawantinsuyu but I am sure no one would have said correctly.
@@J-Wheeler-G That's what you call a 'knowledge drop'!
I dropped a like on your video.
it's not that hard to be better than Coimbra
I like Coimbra, but again I just think it wears itself out after a handful of plays. Needs an expansion to add variability.
Heavier than Coimbra??
I honestly think that Coimbra, Lorenzo and Grand Austria Hotel are all the same weight. They each have small learning curves but NONE of them are more difficult than the others. The nature of these mechanisms though do require you to think in different ways than Coimbra. I totally dig it!
I'm surprised they used "masters" in this game. Isn't that racist? BLM, right?
I really enjoy the designers other games. Can’t wait to try this one. Let the hype train begin!
Yeah this team is fantastic. I'm definitely a fan.