Another game I recently got to try courtesy of my friend FKL is a fairly light one called Gangster.Each player controls a mob in Chicago. The board is divided into different districts of the city, each one worth a certain number of points (at every score interval) for the player with the most gangsters in the district, second most, third most, etc. You use a limited number of cards to drive your car around from district to district, each card allowing only a very specific number of spaces to your move (meaning you can't always get to exactly the place you might most want to go). In a district, you can drop off your own gangsters to build your control, pick up a rival gangster (one at a time) and throw him in your trunk to cart off to another district or dump for dead in the river, or use special modifications to your car to take advantage of extra functions in the game.
The game does a pretty excellent job of evoking its theme. The idea of shooting or aducting rivals, spreading your gangs throughout the districts of Chicago, and driving around in your vintage car really sell the idea of "Gangster" every bit as much as the title promises.
The trick is, outside of the theme, I'm a little less sure who the game is for exactly. I did have fun playing it, but at the same time, I suspect I might have a lot less fun if I played it regularly. It doesn't seem to suggest a wide variety of stategies, or much complexity for an "advanced" gamer. Its arguably bizarre special modifications for cars and its definitely bizarre scoring system (where second place is sometimes best) make me think it's not the easiest fit for a "casual" gamer. I mean sure, these are easy concepts for a regular players of German board games, but there are several other games I could think of that would serve as better bridges up from the world of Sorry! and Monopoly.
I think in all, the game probably fits best in a regular group of gamers who would keep in on call, not to be played every week, and not to be played as the "main game" of the night. After your more "thinky" round of your-deep-strategy-game-of-choice, pull out Gangster for a lighter round of fun before your brains all totally degenerate to the level of an uber-light game like Geschenkt (aka "No Thanks") or TransAmerica.
Or put another way, I think I'd be willing to play again. And yet I don't plan on getting my own copy, and given that the closest person I know who has one just took it back to Canada, I'm not sure when the next that might happen could be.
3 comments:
Hey, you'll just have to fly over for a game whenever you feel like it. :)
Seriously, we treat that game exactly like you described: it comes out once in a while as a semi-filler, and we like it that way.
As for TransAmerica, I'd be interested in knowing what appeals to you in the game -- I thought it just played itself. I never had to make any sort of meaningful decision. Bleh.)
FKL
TransAmerica does indeed come perilously close to playing itself. I actually can't say I'm that crazy about it. But for whatever reason, it does come out every now and then as a "no energy" game very late on a game night.
FWIW, it would also make a good game for teaching a young child to play that's far better than the standard American fare.
I used to rate games based on when in the evening you'd want to play them. A big game is like 7 pm. You want to be fresh for that one. Something like Geschenkt is what you use to keep somebody from leaving at 1 am. "Come on, just one little game of Geschenkt!" This Gangsters game is about 10 pm on that scale.
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