Resurrecting an older thread, but I'm curious to know if anyone has any thoughts on Lancaster. Sure, it's a medieval-themed worker placement from Queen (yay!), but it also throws in a nice mix of voting/bidding, area control, and set collection, with a little bit of co-op AND take that (in the form if displacement in the WP phase).
It sounds like a mess, and in some ways it is. But it does all manage to fit together into a reasonably cohesive whole. Since each individual mechanic/element/phase is fairly simple, it's easy to teach (and relearn). And it plays quickly enough. 5 rounds in 60-90 minutes. Done.
Certainly not a G-great game, but a solid little-g great that I'll continue to enjoy.
I knew you'd like this thread Steve...come to find out, what is considered "Ameritrash" now is really just a bunch of scenario-based, semi-coop hidden traitor tactical skirmish Kickstarter dungeon crawl crap "dripping with theme" and piled up with overpriced gumball machine figures. Fact is, these older Eurogames and German family games are really more in the fun-first spirit of AT, at least as we knew and understood it back when we were spearheading the movement.
Atilla is a good one, I kept meaning to mention it. It kind of got bagged on back in the day (2000?) for really being a stock market game despite the Hun theme. Regardless, it was actually a pretty good stock market game that for a while was fetching like $100+. I think that' come down a lot as interested in this "hidden gem" tapered off.
It's a Karl Heinz-Schmiel design. You know, Die Macher.
I heard some good stuff about Lancaster back when it was new, just never got around to it.
The ERP will resume coverage in 2015...got behind with some reviews, but I think Tonga Bonga is going to be next.
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