I've never played a rondel game.

Although I have to admit that Antike has looked intriguing in the past. More for the Civ aspect than any particular mechanic though. Unlike worker placement, the rondel doesn't seem to have become a fad as the same designer, afaik, is the only one using it. Despite a lot of people seeming to really like it as the next great thing when Antike showed up and then further declaring its greatness with Imperial. So why no other games using it? Was I misled about its revolutionary impact on game design?

I've played all 3. The rondel is ok, it speeds up play as your choices are limited.

Hamburgum is one of the worst games I have ever played.

Antike is an average game, but it's fake-war aspect is annoying. Combat is almost pointless as it just leaves you open to being crushed by an opponent.

Imperial is the best of the bunch, again it's totally fake-war but it's interesting. Except you can sometimes spend a long time without controlling a country.

Doesn't Nuclear War have the elegant Rondel mechanic?

I found the rondel games released so far to be completely forgettable. They give the impression that the designers got lazy once they included a rondel. As if they assumed the inclusion of that one mechanic was enough to make for an interesting game. Once the novelty of the gimmick wears off however, these games put you to sleep.

Now it is possible that the rondel is a good mechnic. I just stand by my assessment that there are no worthwhile games that use it.

-Will

mikoyan wrote:
"Doesn't Nuclear War have the elegant Rondel mechanic?"
No, that's a spinner!

Antike didn't appeal (too similar to other ones), Imperial sounded interesting, Hamburgum went back to being too similar. A friend concluded the same and bought Imperial. I've played it once, enjoyed it, and am thinking of getting it. (Any UKers want to trade for Cuba?)

I think the Rondel would actually work quite well in an Adventure/Combat type game, to track switching between different weapons/styles, and how you can't just switch on the fly. Thematically it seems to work better for that kind of thing than for a Civ/Empire building game.

I watched the "Boardgames with Scott" video for Antike, and I didn't really like his description of it. It seems like you score a bunch of points early on by buying techs, and then once those run out it's just a race to see who can kill off the most temples. And the combat itself looks really stupid and dry (basically eliminate guys from each side until one side is killed off). A simple Nexus Ops style dice combat system would be more thematic and interesting in my opinion.

Interesting idea Gstormer. Especially if you were swtiching between manuvers that had ancellory effects in combat.

I didn't care for Imperial. You tend to follow the pack and the choices on the rondel are obvious. We "tossed the die" at it after two hours of unrewarding play. Many of the Eurogamers I know love Imperial.

Antike rewards following your own strategy and often its worth jumping to the far side of the rondel to get a particuliar resource. Also the tension is greater because it is a balancing act between defending yourself, gathering resources and developing. I like Antile quite a bit and encourage you to try it.

Steve"IronRondel"Avery

Antike is fairly good but I wonder if ATers wouldn't prefer Mare Nostrum. Imperial is fairly good but I wonder if ATers wouldn't prefer Princes of the Renaissance. I liked Imperial when I played but would need to play more to work out if it is a good game.

Actually now that I think about it my idea for the rondel is really quite similar to Arkham Horror's (brilliant) slider system, where you can move the slider equal to your focus value, and moving it always improves one skill while reducing another.

I would actually be happy to play a game of Antike if someone just showed up with it. But my budget for buying games is fairly limited, so I would only buy a game I'm 90% sure I'm going to like a lot.

Citadel mentioned Mare Nostrum, and I was rather surprised to see this game on several Euro lists. From what I've read in the rules it seems like it has a bunch of AT elements (direct player conflict, dice based combat). Why is it called a Euro?

Mare Nostrum has a short playtime, the getting heroes/wonders for the win is Euroish, a lot of it is about resource gathering and trading, the combat is very simple and not that frequent. The simplification is what makes it seem very Euroish. It is somewhere in the middle between AT and Euros.

What the fuck is a rondel?

the barefoot killer wrote:
"What the fuck is a rondel?"
rondel |ˈrɒnd(ə)l|
noun
1 a rondeau, esp. one of three stanzas of thirteen or fourteen lines, with the first two lines of the opening quatrain recurring at the end of the second quatrain and the concluding sestet.
ORIGIN Middle English : from Old French, from rond ‘round’ ; compare with roundel .

EDIT- Guess F:AT can't cope with phonetic characters!

Couldn't resist posting the pedantic answer as commonly happens on That Other Site.
The bit I missed out is:-
2 a circular object : at the point where these paths join there is a rondel with a fountain.
Or better yet:-

boardgamegeek.com/image/322736