I really love it when Naveen wins a game. You can see the pure joy on his face. It must be pretty daunting to have a PGP (Primary Gaming Partner) like Monique!
Backed this one because Uwe is our favorite designer, but I had a suspicion we wouldn't care for it ultimately. But, MAN, this game is amazingly good. Perfect decision space for us and rewards for planning, but also a bit of chaos. We are able to play a game in just under an hour now. I certainly wouldn't want to *not* have the expansion decks, but if you think they're going to feel unique and different from one another, that's just not the case. But they add variety, which is quite nice for the game because you want the puzzle to feel a bit different and unique each game and not fall into relying on the same card combinations every game. All in all, I had anticipated that best case scenario for this would be for it to be a nice "B-tier" Uwe game, but it rocketed up to one of my favorite games of all time and absolutely among his top games, hands down--and one that I'd rank higher than a lot of his stone-cold classics. Just gets better and better the more you play it.
Oranienburger Kanal is a solo masterpiece, the last word in spatial and temporal resource conversion euro puzzles, and far and away the best solo game in Uwe Rosenberg's catalogue. It is so crunchy as everything - from the buildings to the main and player board actions and free/occupied spaces, resource wheel, and transport networks relates to everything else in terms of spatial and temporal placement. Its complexity is surprising given the relatively small board. There is way more going on than you might assume at a glance. The iconography is fairly trivial to understand after a few games, plus the appendices are helpful should you need to consult them. Certainly dry, and not much of a looker but it delivers superbly in its gameplay.
This game is amazing! Solo takes me 45 minutes and two player plays in 90 minutes after a few plays. Definitely try it solo. This is my fave of his to play solo. Can’t wait for your ranking video!
I've played, owned, and enjoyed a few of Uwe's games, but none have stuck around in the long term. But Oranienburger Kanal is definitely staying forever. It's a fantastic dry euro puzzle that offers really interesting decisions on the buildings you build and the route placements.
Naveen: "I love the dry stuff." Just gave me an image of Naveen in a cowboy hat, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth ordering a whiskey neat and bridge shuffling a card deck with one hand (I've been playing too many old west-themed games lately)
Solo game is about 45-60 minutes. Highly recommend it!I haven’t tried two player yet, but I imagine it could take a long time because of all the analysis involved. I have seen mentions of people playing with a variant of having all the cards showing in a display, though I think my brain can only handle so much at once!
I love that you guys are doing this series since Uwe is my favorite designer and I can't wait for final wrap up episode. However, you REALLY need to play fields of arle WITH the expansion. In my opinion, teas and trade is to fields what Norwegians is to feast. Both take games that were 7ish out of 10 and made then 10 out of ten for me.
I didn’t think I was interested in this one as industrial themes don’t do much for me, but, as per usual, seeing y’all play it has made me quite excited to try it out!
what a wonderful playthrough. congrats to Naveen,, though Monique's misunderstanding of the one card certainly altered her play during the middle game, so who knows how it might have turned out. all i know, is i cant wait to break this out and see just how badly my wife will beat at it.
I bought this on a whim off of an eBay seller a few weeks ago here in Germany, because I read good things on BGG, but haven't played it yet. Thanks for posting your playthrough! I am now super eager to play a solo round. This looks like the tight puzzly goodness I love. Greetings from Berlin (close to the namesake canal :)
Thanks for the playthrough. I never quite was able to really understand what « dry » really meant in board games. I mean, Castles of Burgundy is considered dry, but I actually found it exciting. Watching this playthrough, I now have an « image » for a dry board game. People love this one, so it must be good, but I really don’t feel like spending over an hour choosing between 7 actions and encircling cards with cardboard tiles… 😂
Really great game, my game of the year so far. Played it already more than 40 times, mostly solo as I am not playing often in a two player constellation. Great puzzle with a lot of depth for the short play time. Solo games take me 45-50 minutes, the few two player games were between 80 and 90 minutes.
I'm really glad you did one more, because I did not care for Atiwa at all. This one was fun to watch, and I'd love to play it for real. The interplay between routes and buildings and bridges is unlike his other games and brings a lot to the combination of worker placement and tile placement. All of the good stuff with a minimum of fiddly meeple-shuffling.
i am a big fan of Uwe games, this is on my wish list as well, for now as solo my favorites are le Havre and at the gates of loyang, my favorites change often, as 2 player i like fields of arle a lot but setup is kinda a downside for me. wow so many great games from Uwe. Games i still want : hallertau, nusfjord (big box when its out) and Oranienburger Kanal, caverna. still a long list i still dont have in my Uwe collection and growing still :) Thank you for the playthrough, i love watching you both play and explain
Not really clear by the meaning of what’s prohibited in Naveen’s example during the teach of “gaming” the resource collection (starting at 11:15). Can someone explain?
Let's say you have zero of a basic resource and you want to buy four in order to spend four. You have to buy all four by spending 10 coin (1 coin for the first, 2 for the second + 3 + 4), then spend all four. You CANNOT buy 1 for 1 coin and spend 1, then buy the second for 1 and spend the second...so spend 4 coin for the 4 and spend them one at a time. I was confused at first, but I guess there are some min-maxers who might try to get away with this.
I think for this one I would have wanted to know what is in the box. How many of those cards are there? Is it a deck the size of Feast For Odin... or a small pack? Don't know. An in the box during the rules would have been grand. You could show this during the review, as an example.
I had seen that review before we received our copy of the game and I was very worried about that. Then we got it, and, honestly, after a game or two under out belt it's just not something you think about too often. Well over a dozen plays later, there's still a card or two per game that we need to look up, but it's honestly just not that big of a deal. I think a lot of reviewers (obviously) need to blast through a ton of games and therefore can't sit and kind of simmer with a game--or have the inclination to put in that effort, which makes sense. But the downside is folks like Rahdo (and his wife) may not have the opportunity to get a fuller picture of any individual game--and not have the inclination to put in more effort up front because there's always a torrent of new stuff.
Looks good, more accessible than Fields of Arle but still very puzzly challenging. Hope it arrives in North America soon. When I do pick it up I will tell my playing partner we need to read the glossary thoroughly before playing. Seems like the iconography on the structures is the one downside to the game. PS - if you haven't heard of it yet, check out a short abstract game called Sigil that is due out in March next year. It's already my pick for 2 player game of 2024.
I really love it when Naveen wins a game. You can see the pure joy on his face. It must be pretty daunting to have a PGP (Primary Gaming Partner) like Monique!
Backed this one because Uwe is our favorite designer, but I had a suspicion we wouldn't care for it ultimately. But, MAN, this game is amazingly good. Perfect decision space for us and rewards for planning, but also a bit of chaos. We are able to play a game in just under an hour now. I certainly wouldn't want to *not* have the expansion decks, but if you think they're going to feel unique and different from one another, that's just not the case. But they add variety, which is quite nice for the game because you want the puzzle to feel a bit different and unique each game and not fall into relying on the same card combinations every game.
All in all, I had anticipated that best case scenario for this would be for it to be a nice "B-tier" Uwe game, but it rocketed up to one of my favorite games of all time and absolutely among his top games, hands down--and one that I'd rank higher than a lot of his stone-cold classics. Just gets better and better the more you play it.
This might be one of if not the driest Uwe game ever lol. Thanks for showcasing it!
Oranienburger Kanal is a solo masterpiece, the last word in spatial and temporal resource conversion euro puzzles, and far and away the best solo game in Uwe Rosenberg's catalogue.
It is so crunchy as everything - from the buildings to the main and player board actions and free/occupied spaces, resource wheel, and transport networks relates to everything else in terms of spatial and temporal placement. Its complexity is surprising given the relatively small board. There is way more going on than you might assume at a glance.
The iconography is fairly trivial to understand after a few games, plus the appendices are helpful should you need to consult them. Certainly dry, and not much of a looker but it delivers superbly in its gameplay.
This game is amazing! Solo takes me 45 minutes and two player plays in 90 minutes after a few plays. Definitely try it solo. This is my fave of his to play solo. Can’t wait for your ranking video!
I've played, owned, and enjoyed a few of Uwe's games, but none have stuck around in the long term. But Oranienburger Kanal is definitely staying forever. It's a fantastic dry euro puzzle that offers really interesting decisions on the buildings you build and the route placements.
I love this game so much, surprised you find this game long, 45m sounds right to me.
Daaaaaaang we HAVE to find a way to get this game. I was already excited And this video sent the hype into the stratosphere! Thanks so much y’all
Naveen: "I love the dry stuff." Just gave me an image of Naveen in a cowboy hat, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth ordering a whiskey neat and bridge shuffling a card deck with one hand (I've been playing too many old west-themed games lately)
27:54 Shame Navin, you didnt pay for your aecond road. 😂
Yeah, I noticed that too 😅
Sneaky Naveen!!!
Sorry, Naveen*. I'm bad with spelling names.
Solo game is about 45-60 minutes. Highly recommend it!I haven’t tried two player yet, but I imagine it could take a long time because of all the analysis involved. I have seen mentions of people playing with a variant of having all the cards showing in a display, though I think my brain can only handle so much at once!
Great video! Looking forward to your Rosenberg wrap video!
I love that you guys are doing this series since Uwe is my favorite designer and I can't wait for final wrap up episode. However, you REALLY need to play fields of arle WITH the expansion. In my opinion, teas and trade is to fields what Norwegians is to feast. Both take games that were 7ish out of 10 and made then 10 out of ten for me.
I didn’t think I was interested in this one as industrial themes don’t do much for me, but, as per usual, seeing y’all play it has made me quite excited to try it out!
Thanks!
Thank you so much for your generosity Ben!! 😊
Thanks for the playthrough. Love this game. Have only played it solo so far but am looking forward to trying it with two.
what a wonderful playthrough. congrats to Naveen,, though Monique's misunderstanding of the one card certainly altered her play during the middle game, so who knows how it might have turned out. all i know, is i cant wait to break this out and see just how badly my wife will beat at it.
Very excited for the recap to see your rankings of least to most favorite Uwe games!!
I bought this on a whim off of an eBay seller a few weeks ago here in Germany, because I read good things on BGG, but haven't played it yet. Thanks for posting your playthrough! I am now super eager to play a solo round. This looks like the tight puzzly goodness I love.
Greetings from Berlin (close to the namesake canal :)
Great exciting game. Thanks for sharing as always.
My wife and I love this one!!
I own this one but have not gotten it to the table yet. I really need to do so! Thanks for the play through!
This is a good one! Love it. Well introduced and well played 🙂
Looking forwards to the wrap up!
Thanks for the playthrough.
I never quite was able to really understand what « dry » really meant in board games. I mean, Castles of Burgundy is considered dry, but I actually found it exciting. Watching this playthrough, I now have an « image » for a dry board game.
People love this one, so it must be good, but I really don’t feel like spending over an hour choosing between 7 actions and encircling cards with cardboard tiles… 😂
Really great game, my game of the year so far. Played it already more than 40 times, mostly solo as I am not playing often in a two player constellation. Great puzzle with a lot of depth for the short play time. Solo games take me 45-50 minutes, the few two player games were between 80 and 90 minutes.
I've been looking forward to this video!
can't wait to see the ranking!!! will do a ranking with my partner in advance to compare ours to yours
I'm really glad you did one more, because I did not care for Atiwa at all. This one was fun to watch, and I'd love to play it for real. The interplay between routes and buildings and bridges is unlike his other games and brings a lot to the combination of worker placement and tile placement. All of the good stuff with a minimum of fiddly meeple-shuffling.
This game is amazing, i love how dry it is.
Nice game play you make me always Smile when you dont remember the resources name’s 😂
i am a big fan of Uwe games, this is on my wish list as well, for now as solo my favorites are le Havre and at the gates of loyang, my favorites change often, as 2 player i like fields of arle a lot but setup is kinda a downside for me. wow so many great games from Uwe.
Games i still want : hallertau, nusfjord (big box when its out) and Oranienburger Kanal, caverna.
still a long list i still dont have in my Uwe collection and growing still :)
Thank you for the playthrough, i love watching you both play and explain
I timed my solo setup for Fields of Arle last week and it was just under 8 minutes. I think you can do it too!
Ahhh excited to watch but also dreading as its not available in my country :(
I’ve played solo 3x now and each has run about 45-60 minutes. Definitely quicker once you have some familiarity with the cards.
So glad you guys are covering this one. Waiting for my copy to be delivered.
I think that this was Kickstarter only for the US
Not really clear by the meaning of what’s prohibited in Naveen’s example during the teach of “gaming” the resource collection (starting at 11:15). Can someone explain?
Let's say you have zero of a basic resource and you want to buy four in order to spend four. You have to buy all four by spending 10 coin (1 coin for the first, 2 for the second + 3 + 4), then spend all four.
You CANNOT buy 1 for 1 coin and spend 1, then buy the second for 1 and spend the second...so spend 4 coin for the 4 and spend them one at a time.
I was confused at first, but I guess there are some min-maxers who might try to get away with this.
I think for this one I would have wanted to know what is in the box. How many of those cards are there? Is it a deck the size of Feast For Odin... or a small pack? Don't know. An in the box during the rules would have been grand. You could show this during the review, as an example.
27:50 Did Naveen forget to pay another brick?
Probably a bit too dry for me, and I like dry games! It's got a great solo mode, though, perhaps one of Uwe's best.
Rahdo not keeping the game due to the impossible to decipher iconography. Otherwise loved it
I had seen that review before we received our copy of the game and I was very worried about that. Then we got it, and, honestly, after a game or two under out belt it's just not something you think about too often. Well over a dozen plays later, there's still a card or two per game that we need to look up, but it's honestly just not that big of a deal. I think a lot of reviewers (obviously) need to blast through a ton of games and therefore can't sit and kind of simmer with a game--or have the inclination to put in that effort, which makes sense. But the downside is folks like Rahdo (and his wife) may not have the opportunity to get a fuller picture of any individual game--and not have the inclination to put in more effort up front because there's always a torrent of new stuff.
I feel like Monique wins 80% of the games so always rooting for Naveen, shame the difference was down to a card misread. GG
Looks good, more accessible than Fields of Arle but still very puzzly challenging. Hope it arrives in North America soon. When I do pick it up I will tell my playing partner we need to read the glossary thoroughly before playing. Seems like the iconography on the structures is the one downside to the game.
PS - if you haven't heard of it yet, check out a short abstract game called Sigil that is due out in March next year. It's already my pick for 2 player game of 2024.
So what I’m hearing is Now that Uwe is done…Friendemann Friese is on deck???? I think ya’ll would genuinely enjoy Free Ride, Faiyum etc etc etc
I think you should finish this series by interviewing Uwe. Can you set that up?
Oef, it is not a looker, is it.