Mike, I'm sure Robert would not waste his energies on a game he considered unworthy. As a designer you are no doubt taking great pleasure that people want to...
... Why best? It can be simpler: Start bids at $0 and have increasing bids. (Of course, privates should not count towards a paper limit, in which case negative...
... And I'll vote for the 1830 style auction, with two improvements: 1) Allow the first bid on each company to be at face value, as in 2038. 2) If a stock...
... It isn't though. I agree that forcing someone to buy something is usually not a good idea, but it doesn't really matter in this game. The alternatives only...
... The only force-out element in 1826 is that if everyone passes before the cheapest private (Pont et Chausees) is sold, the first player must take it for ...
... The 1830-style auction has two basic flaws, neither covered by your improvements. Unless the first private is much worse, at face value, than all of the ...
... Assume that Alcase and the Belge-share-private have already corrected lower nominal values. There is another more or less forced element: A player with the...
... Auction mechanisms, like models of the Universe, should be as simple as possible but no simpler. The fundamental concept of the Lawson mechanism is that ...
... 1860/Berlin is like Tresham should have designed 1829 / 1825. His games suffer from the great impact of the initial turn order, do not create a proper 1D...
... Well, yes. But this objection applies to most auction mechanisms. If the cost of a particular object is greater than its value to any player, somebody ...
... from Tresham's own design failures, if "failure" is not measured by pure counts of numbers of sold games? I think calling 1829 a design failure is like...
I notice that, while each person seems to object to one or more of the Privates in 1826 being overvalued, there's little consensus as to which ones it is....
... <snip> ... Let's suppose that "someone" ... David, I do not agree with your contention that a low Belge initial price is harmful. It means that more Belge...
Don't disagree, Nicholas, but I think it's fair to say that it's an inherently more fragile position. My experience is that Belge shares tend to fly out of its...
... For your design goal, Xris' mechanism is more appropriate then. ... However, this does not mean that a private need to cost at least the shares' stock...
... Sorry that I forgot to mention I had a 5-player game in mind this time indeed. (We play 1826 mostly with 5 because some of us need to play with many...
... doubtful in view of what can be done. In 2004 it is still a brilliant example of design, just not a design most of us would play now. Same way I would...
... So the 1825 PR works well. Or why would they believe that a game as complex and long as 1825 would be neither? Selling games is simple: Print a "For those...
... most "18xx" ... groups of my ... as too ... The game works well enough - it just isn't to your taste (or Steve's). But it will also continue to outsell...
... I disagree here -- we have a rather large group of boardgamers here in Atlanta, yet only a handful are willing to play 18xx. Many of the games played are...
... I'm not quite sure what you're getting at here. It's true that I don't particularly like most of Tresham's designs. Away from 18xx, Spanish Main and ...
Hmmm I think this is another example of groupthink, and how groups that play together get a perceived wisdom that needs to be challenged every so often. In the...
... I think that is a risky move if the Belge is trying to be unsociable and lock up the north -- you can eventually get in but you will have a long time of...
