Contrasting opinions on the multiplayer and solo games which feel very different to one another but a splendid campaign comes along to save the solo day in this jaunty mid weight Euro. Like a rondel? You are in the right place.
Maracaibo
Designer: Alexander Pfister
Publisher Game's Up / Capstone Games
Released: 2019
How to play:
Sailing around a questionable theme* as well as a 17th century Caribbean, players take turns to move their Ship up to 1-7 spaces around a sumptuously lovely board that takes in a variety of villages and cities where players can stop to perform a range of actions. These actions will largely involve.
• Fulfilling quests = victory points and other rewards
• Moving a separate Explorer meeple along an erm, exploration track = VP and other rewards
• Recruiting a plethora of characters to your ship from an ever changing deck of cards = end game VP and other rewards / ongoing abilities
• Engaging in combat (not against other players but against abstracted versions of the French, Spanish and English) – and when I say ‘combat’ I mean move up a track representing each nation you have fought for and gain VP at the end of the game.
• Delivering goods to cities – your deck of character cards also double up ‘Arnak’ style as goods that you can relinquish to make improvements to your ship via your individual player board = gain permanent ongoing abilities, points and rewards.
Four sails around the rondel doing some, none or all of the above and you are done. Count up the points, player with the most wins. The game also comes with a campaign mode – a kind of choose your own adventure story to work through which also changes the layout of the board. More on that later as it’s a really nice touch.
* I note that the recent expansion does some work to address / fix the base game’s theme of European nations colonising across the Caribbean - flipping the narrative instead to have those nations driving out their oppressors. But I do wonder after the criticism of Mombasa how this theme got the final sign off. That said, there has been smarter and better positioned people than me discussing and debating the theme of Maracaibo and I would encourage you to seek out their thoughts on this if you want to read more.
General Headlines:
Ok, I know this is meant to be ‘Headlines from a Solo Player’ but I think with this game in particular its important for me to talk about the multiplayer experience as well as the solo experience. As we will read later I think these are two very difference experiences that need talking about individually.
The multiplayer game is an absolute romp. Just a wonderful jaunty, breezy sail. Where it absolutely shines is in the decision to let players move up to 7 spaces ahead. Now this isn’t technically a race –and the slower your move the more you are going to get things done over the round. But as soon as one player has reached the finish then the round ends. So on one hand everyone may really only want to perhaps move 1 or 2 spaces at a time, vising all the cities and villages and taking all the actions and gaining all those sweet rewards and VP. But “AAARGGGHHH – that other player moved 6 spaces on their last turn and has streaked well ahead and if they do that again then they are going to end the round and I wont have got to do the things that I want to do so I am going to abandon Plan A and move 7 spaces myself just to keep up with them.” This creates real tension and momentum, a feeling of being compelled to move forward and gives some real brain burn about whether to follow what you want to do or go with what you NEED to do. There are moments where I may feel deflated that I couldn’t stick with Plan A. But the game doesn’t really give me time to dwell on it too much as before I know it the anchor has gone back up and off sail again.
I say brain burn. But this isn’t a game where I will be sat agonising with analysis paralysis – that propelling forward of your ship also keeps the game feeling really snappy. I could sit and debate every possible outcome but there is just something about the theme and movement of the game that makes me feel like just going along with the waves. Plus there is always something good to do so even if I have to pivot and quickly think through something that wasn’t my original strategy, Plan B will uncover some rewards. Lots of strategic choices to want to work towards, and lots of tactical pivots along the way. But all in all probably 60-75 minutes for a 2p game. It feels quick.
My only negative point with the game is the combat system. I say combat - its more an exercise in maths. Basically draw a tile, each nation you can fight against has a number, I have some points I can spend on combat, I spend the points against the points the nation has and then move up a track. Every few spaces on the track I earn a multiplier, that multiplier changes end of the game. Three tracks, three lots of maths. And while it works those moments of maths pull me out of the theme – here I am jauntily frolicking on the high seas picking up stuff and dropping stuff off and then all of a sudden I’m counting on my fingers trying to fill out a spreadsheet in my mind with my ships anchor fully dropped while I get my sums right. It’s the only jarring part of an otherwise spritely experience.
Solo Headlines:
You play against an Automa called Jean. Very easy to operate, she has a deck of cards which can be changed at the start of the game to adjust difficulty or to give her a particular focus. Flip a card, move her ship the indicated number of spaces, take the indicated action. Pretty smooth and low maintenance, and like I say her difficulty can be adjusted over 5 levels which will suit all player abilities. It’s well put together.
My ‘issue’ with the automa is less about how it plays and more about how it scores. You see at the end of the game it will score very heavily if it has done more individual things than you. It has more quest tiles than you? Well not only is it scoring for each of is own tiles but its going to score big because it beat the number of quest you have. Upgraded its own player board more than you? Its having its own points and then getting more for having beaten you. What this means in practice is that I am no longer focused on my own game and the things that I want to do. I am solely focused on what Jean is doing. Grabbing that quest might have absolutely no benefit to me whatsoever but I have to take it or else she will and that will mean I get punished at the end of the game.
In some other games an automa scores purely on what it has done which works for me. But here she scores for what I haven’t done and that just makes for quite a frustrating experience as a solo player. I like to sit and explore the depth of a game, find my strategies, exploit those strategies, get better and better and better at the game. But here I just need to stop the automa from doing stuff or doing stuff I don’t want to do in order to stop her scoring. Urgh.
That said, the solo mode isn’t a particularly bad experience. I have played it a good amount of times and will probably return to it. But after one or two plays it just becomes pretty dull not being able to play my own game. So be warned, the multiplayer of this game is a very different feel to the solo experience. For me they are two different games.
Before you solo players decide that this game isn’t for you based on what I have said above…
A quick word about the campaign mode:
A separate deck of cards that lead you through a story – plague, pirates, other twists and turns. And as you progress through the story you add (removable) legacy tiles on to the main board which change the game; Areas become stormy taking more moves to sail through, villages turn into cities, quests reveal themselves etc.
Players don’t have to commit to the story from start to finish - play with the campaign or without, work through it solo or mid-way through the story other players can dive in and also play the game without having needed to be there from the start.
The story itself is neither here nor there really. Its fine. A nice addition. I’d live without it but it is nice having it. For me though it’s that the story results in changes to the main board that is really awesome. It makes me want to play another game – curious as to how the board will change, what new challenges will be presented, what unexpected twists to gameplay may happen.
And that curiosity about the campaign is the thing that keeps me playing against the solo automa who I find quite frustrating. Instead of now being bothered about scoring against the automa, I simply use the automa as a player to work through the campaign with. Without the campaign I suspect I would have played 1 -2 games solo and put this back on the shelf and only played multiplayer. With the campaign, I keep coming back for more.
I’d like to see this style of campaign mode and changing board state in more games. A really welcome addition .
At a glance:
+ I love a rondel!
+ The game has a forward motion that makes it jaunty, fast and breezy
+ Lots of options and things to do add to that jaunty feel
+ Campaign and particularly the changing state of the board as you progress is superb
- Combat system is a little too reliant on maths which pulls me out of myself and the game too much
- You will find yourself having to play a very different game solo than you might multiplayer. And the multiplayer game is better or at least a more rewarding experience.
Final Score :
I cant settle on one final score given how differently the game plays for me so instead:
- Multiplayer: 9 out of 10
- Solo: 7 out of 10
- Solo with Campaign: 8 out of 10
Reviewed after 14 plays.
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