Subject:
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Re: LEGO Board Games: Interview with Cephas Howard
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.gaming
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Date:
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Tue, 4 Aug 2009 14:20:25 GMT
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Viewed:
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11181 times
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Abner wrote:
> From Blog website: www.brettspiel.co.uk By Brett J. Gilbert
>
> July 12, 2009
>
> [LEGO Board Games: Interview with Cephas Howard]
Great stuff.
> Cephas worked with Knizia on both Ramses Pyramid and Lunar Command specifically,
> but Knizia also acted as a consultant on the project as a whole and continues to
> work with LEGO on future games.
Lunar Command (the only game I've bought so far) really does feel
like it's been designed by someone with a good feeling for what works
in boardgames. Turns out it's not someone but sometwo. :-)
Maybe it's just me, but I found the game descriptions at shop.lego.com
a bit too vague. It's wasn't easy to figure out from that information
which game I'd like best, but I went with Lunar Command because I
rarely have more than one person to play against. So I figured I'd
write a little something about what the game is like, especially since
it doesn't have any reviews over at shop.lego.com yet. So here's my
description/review, including some suggestions for how the rules can
be clarified:
*Lunar Command*
Lunar Command is a strategy board game for two players. The goal of the game
is to build space stations that encircle the units on the map: astronauts
(microfigs) and robots (little cones). Players take turn to roll the dice and
choose one of the actions it offers. The most common action is to build a
segment of wall; these come in two shapes that must be alternated. The other
basic action is to build a coloured piece. These help players claim ownership
over the wall, particularly important when the players' walls meet. Any
closed loop becomes a space station, and the player with majority ownership
gains points from the encircled units. There are three types of coloured
pieces, including airlocks through which units can move during spacewalk, the
third action. Finally, there are UFOs which may be moved in order to block
movement and building in small areas of the map.
Some aspects of Lunar Command are vaguely reminiscent of The Settlers (the
board game), and there are probably other games even closer in concept. The
game is for two players only, so you don't have to suffer rules that barely
work with just two players. Instead, the rules make for a varied game with a
good balance between luck and skill, where a better player has an advantage
but never a guaranteed win. I have not played the game with anyone under the
age of 30, and I can't say much about whether the 7+ rating is reasonable,
but the rules are reasonably simple. I can imagine that a 7-year-old would
actually stand a chance against an older player, and if not it's easy enough
to e.g. modify the starting position. One minor complaint (which, to be fair,
I've had with most games I've ever played) is that the rules do not cover all
possible situations that may arise. I have made a little list of ambiguities
and proposed solutions (see below). I should also note that in my limited
experience (two games played so far), the 15–30 minutes stated on the box are
a bit too optimistic, and upwards of 45-60 minutes can be expected for a long
game unless both players are quick thinkers.
/Suggested rule clarifications/
The rules do not explicitly state that you can build long stretches of walls
(alternating 1x4 and 2x2) without coloured pieces, but it is implied by the
rules for building coloured pieces (which cannot be connected [only] through
uncoloured 2x2s).
What squares, if any, are blocked by the UFOs in the starting position? It
cannot be the pattern described in the rules, as the UFOs start between
studs. Suggestion: they do not block any squares, so you should remove
unmoved UFOs from the map if you need to build/move near them.
In the description of how to close a space station, "outer wall" should be
inner wall (as in: the minimum set of pieces that encircle the area).
When should a moved piece be considered to have entered a space station? It
must be when it moves into an airlock, not when it emerges on the other side,
as there is not room to park an astronaut (or even a robot) under the arch.
It is difficult to build an airlock on top of a robot or astronaut.
Suggestion: this is not allowed, not even when the airlock is the piece
closing a space station.
Can a unit move through an airlock when it is not part of a finished space
station, and then what about the problem of the unit stopping under the arch?
Suggestion: This is forbidden because "the airlock is not operational yet".
When points are divided because the players have the same number of coloured
pieces surrounding a space station, what happens when the robots and
astronauts cannot be divided equally? For example, what if there is only a
single astronaut? Or an astronaut and two robots? A few solutions are possible:
1. divide the points and forget about keeping the right number
robots/astronauts in the score sections,
2. divide points evenly as far as possible, having one player trade in a
robot from the score section in exchange for an astronaut if needed (odd
number of astronauts and less than two robots to be divided) and possible (at
least one robot already in a score section), but forfeit points if there is
no solution that allows score sections to be accurate,
3. divide points evenly as far as possible but do not touch the score
sections (so with an odd number of astronauts and less than two robots to be
divided, an astronaut would be lost), or
4. round the numbers of astronauts and robots down separately before
dividing.
Suggested solution: 3. (which in practice very rarely differs from 1. or 2.).
Can an astronaut/robot be moved into a space station with joint ownership,
and if so what happens? Suggestion: points are divided according to 3. above,
which would mean that any astronaut or robot moved into the airlock of a
jointly owned space station would be lost.
When a space station is closed but not all of its 2x2 walls are coloured,
what happens if the non-owner manages to colour some of the remaining 2x2s so
that the apparent ownership changes? Suggestion: ownership changes (to joint
when the numbers of coloured pieces are equal, then to the player with
majority). Astronauts or robots that have already been gained from the space
station have been moved to the score section and are completely unaffected –
only newly entered units are affected, and as always you can only move them
in through your own airlocks.
//Carl
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