And this is the #1 rated boardgame?

San Juan has to be one of the biggest pieces of garbage I've ever played.

I'd rather play San Juan 50 times than set up even a single game of Puerto Rico.

I'm lucky ATer: I haven't played any euro in 2 years.
Our weekly gaming group is big enough that there is always some AT played, so I don't have to make suboptimal choice and play eurogames.

I don't mind Puerto Rico, although in fairness I've not played it in several years. I still think it's about the best worker placement game, and as such deserves a bit of credit if only for the sake of variety. Mind although it's a crowded sector, most of the competition is so poor that being the best isn't really that much of a stunning recommendation.

The thing I like about it as opposed to it's fellows is how you can never be sure you've made the right choice. In a lot of optimization games the players can sit during bouts of AP and actually work through all the options, see the payoffs, and choose the best one. In PR those choices are never obvious no matter how much maths you do.

Xlyce wrote:

Actually it is average, it is dry and feels limp.

San Juan is a better game because it distills the game down to the fun bit

Agreed 100%. And I like Race for the Galaxy even better because it adds just a bit more strategy.

Maybe I have just played Race with the wrong group. It seemed like a boring game so I just played random cards and ended up winning. Doesn't seem like that much strategy if a new player beats experienced players by playing fairly randomly to end the game.

flim_flam wrote:

Ska_baron wrote:

Sorry Barney, but Jeb already selected "dick eating." You'll have to select your next best option.

Malloc wrote:

Don't forget that by being the one to select eating dick, you have the option of giving a Dirty Sanchez to the player to your right as well.

-M

now THATS funny!

Hy-motherfucking-sterical

Notahandle wrote:

You bastard, now I'm hungry for a hamburger and fries...

At this point, I like San Juan a lot more than Puerto Rico, just because it's a little more low-key and a lot shorter. Puerto Rico is a good study in how a lack of luck can completely suffocate a game. San Juan fixes a lot of that just by virtue of being a card game.

I liked Race even better, but I never found anyone to play with, so I traded it away. The biggest problem with Race for the Galaxy is that it comes with four Rosetta stones to decipher all the cards. It's a solid system, but it's basically like learning a foreign language. After they added the second expansion though, I got the distinct feeling of bloat that you sometimes get with games, since the expansions are designed to all be used at the same time.

I started to like RftG less after I added the first expansion, but I kept going because everyone told me how awesome it was after I learned all the new cards. That never happened. Then I got the SECOND expansion as a gift and it completely ruined RftG for me. I re-boxed up the expansions and am going to try the base game again and see if I can get the love back.

I can't believe there's already a THIRD expansion. Jesus.