Glass Road Review - with Tom Vasel
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ก.ค. 2024
- Tom Vasel takes a look at this new board game from Uwe Rosenberg
00:00 - Introduction
01:12 - Game overview
08:27 - Final thoughts
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I've revisited this game after 4 years of not playing it and it's BRILLIANT
I think its time for the Dice Tower to go full HD, 1080p ;)
Thank you for posting this, Tom! I've been looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one.
You got the way cards are played all wrong. At the beginning of the round, each player puts ONE card face down. On my turn, I flip mine over. If anyone else has that card still in their hand (not face down), they play it immediately as well, and we each get one of the two functions of the card. If no one has it, I get both functions. Then play passes to the next player, and the same thing happens.
I would say that this is probably why you think the game is terrible at 2 players. The majority of BGG users agree that this game is at its best with two, and I'm inclined to agree!
Interesting, the way you describe the mechanic is actually quite cool, thanks for the clarification here for those of us who have not played it yet!
First thought: woah, the resource wheel is either genius or totally crazy. Will need to actually play it (or just understand it better) to see how it works out in practice. Regardless, seems pretty neat, as I am unaware of Uwe's other games in detail this is quite new mechanic / component for me.
The way the payment and rewards of the cards is laid out looks pretty good; simple, yet encompassing of need complexity and individual card mechanics. Doesn't look overwhelming at all to explain to a new-comer or more casual gamer.
Big shame though that a game called Glass Road with glassblowers on the front doesn't really seem to be about or understand the art of glassblowing (and its intricacies) at all. Still, would totally play this to give it a shot if the chance arises.
Just got this and really enjoy it with all players. When playing solo on the second turn onward, after selecting my specialists, I roll a d4 and a d3 and select one building and remove it from the game. Surprising how often it takes your strategy away.
Just played it for the first time this evening with my gaming group, and I really liked it. I'm going to add it to my buying list. Lots of resource management and some minor overthinking at some points in the game, but overall quite enjoyable! :D
Good, insightful review, as always! On a side note, I believe that the "w" in "Uwe" is pronounced with a "v" sound.
Right, that's what I thought, German-style. Is he German (Uwe, I mean)?
Dylan Cromwell He sure is!
For me, this game is the best board game of all time (excluding Gloomhaven/legacy games), and it plays BEST at two players. The card playing tension is extremely high, you have to wager every decision, card and when to play them. It is a super exciting game, that plays in just 30-45 min 2p. 10/10 easily.
Tom, I know you've got a lot on your plate, but you forgot to complete the video description on this one ;)
I think this was - as usual - a great review by Tom, but in my opinion he entirely missed the key point/positive fact of the game: it's extremely balanced. I don't know how many hours of playtesting this game needed, but with all the tiles, buildings and especially the resource wheels, I guess it took ages. There are several strategies to win this game and in all my rounds I've played so far, no strategy showed up as "the best" one, PLUS: no one ever won by a high amount of point difference. So what I am trying to say is: play a round of any known euro or worker placement game of your choice. Carcassone, Village, Stone Age, Tikal...pick one. There is usually (or often) one winner that wins by a landslide. But in Glass Road you have point differentials that are small and feel very, very close. Our first overall game of Glass Road for instance ended like 14-15-17-18 and the only player that had played this game before and explained it to us LOST. You can see from the scores that there were just four points between the overall winner and loser and we we're all like "wow, you did strategy XYZ and I was sure you would completely fail, but in age 3 you pulled it off" or something. This is the gorgeous part of the game. There are increcibly many ways to win and several different ideas of how to play are absolutely reasonable. Try it out for yourselves and don't be scared away by the resource wheels or an alleged lack of "wow"-effects (which you definitely have in this game by flipping your cards over and moaning cause anybody else has picked it!) - it's fun, innovative and absolutely well-balanced :)
theonlySeraph Just played my first game tonight. I won with 58 points. The next player was 37 and the last guy fell at 31. There are strategies to break it but it does take luck, depends on what buildings you get.
Then please reread the rules, because you _definitely_ played something wrong, sir. Scores greater than 35 are near to impossible and even the best players in the world usually just score around 20 to 25. If you don't believe me, just visit BGG and read it in the forums yourself. Such scores as you posted are absolute bonkers and definitely not possible at all.
Best
Thanks for sharing your insight here. As a avid game player and a brand new game designer I am doing all the research I can on what really goes into making a game fun for different audiences. Often you don't hear players talk about game balancing but we all know how important it is because when a game is not properly balanced, oh boy do we gamers make a noise about it! Anyhow, hearing your perspective does lean me more towards giving Glass Road a try. Cheers!
I would be very interested to understand what they played wrong (so that others may avoid the same mistake). I hope this person responds back to your comment!
Just out of curiosity, what game does make you go "woooo!"?
Anything by Eric Lang, anything that has has Marvel, anything that has dice, or Le Havre.
Seems similar to Citadels: interesting character selection with a drawn out city building element
The resource wheels still kind of confuse me
All these naysayers are wrong. This is an excellent game. If you're a fan of Rosenberg, this is a great light Rosenberg. If you've never played a Rosenberg, go play Agricola a few times. Otherwise this is a great game with a lot of reading every player at the table and timing.
My top Rosenberg's
1. Agricola
2. Glass Road
3. Bohnanza
4. Le Havre
haven't played Caverna (no stress? no thank you), AFFO, Fields of Arle, Ora et Labora
Le Havre and Glass Road are also probably his most interactive games, save for the two player ones of course. Loyang is also very underrated for that reason.
Glass Road is interactive.
Wow Tom, you hit the nail on the head with this review. I could not agree more. The game mechanics are solid, but it's just so boring! I LOVE "Caverna" though!
I don't know... I like this game. It plays fast and there is fair amount of strategy in getting the right end game buildings quickly as they will determine how you are going to play your landscape. I played it with 5 different groups of people this past weekend, and everyone enjoyed it. Do I put it up there with Agricola or LeHavre. NO.. But it is a solid quick game. I'll be playing this again I'm sure :-) Not a fan of the Solo variant
Reuven Fischer - personally I like this much better than Agricola, but then I hated Agricola.
You mean Agricola aka misery farm? LoL Agricola (for me) will always be Rosenberg's masterpiece. 2 years later and I'm still lovin Glass Road
POT ASH not po'tache, that's what you grow on your upper lip Tom!!
Goes to BGG: best with two 56%, best with four 35%
do you really ever get any excitment buying any kind of building in any rosenboring game? really???
I'd say so, some of them do some really cool things - let your resource count dramatically leap from the floor to the ceiling, allow you to increase multiple different resources at once while simultaneously acquiring cash, etc. While I love Glass Road, its buildings are undoubtedly comparatively boring, with no huge "swing" effects available. But that's to be expected in a game that trades its ability to produce "WHAM" moments for a high level of balance.
Yes. Agricola All Creatures in particular has some inssnely cool little buildings.
pway?
Found this game pretty boring. The theme was dumb as hell, but I expect that from Uwe, as you mentioned the buildings are boring and not awe-inspiring.
The role selection is strictly inferior to Broom Service. It's not as fun or tense, and don't end in LoL moments when someone out braves you.
And again thematically it just falls flat, Glass Road we're glass blowers right? But somehow my time is spent insta-draining ponds, filling in pits and clearing down forests wholesale.
Well, I've never been a Uwe fan and this game isn't getting him any more brownie points from me.
Right, this comment resonates with me a lot (at least part of it) even though I haven't played it yet. This review is the first source of information I have on the game (ok, admittedly that may also not be the most factual or wisest of learning strategies, but still) and it is not at all what I would expect from a glass-theme game. I have blown glass professional for a decade and glassblowing is an exciting, fast-paced, very risky and wildly artistic adventure in chemistry and physical coordination. The only thing that seems remotely related in this game is that you have glass as a resource. As noted in my other comment that's a real shame.