Tammany Hall Kickstarter

[Patmos]

I found a kickstarter for a reprint of a "lost gem" board game Tammany Hall, Looks right up my alley, but I wanted to see if anyone here had actually played it, before I cough up 55 bucks?


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/872179144/tammany-hall?ref=category

[IngredientX]

I've seen folks play it. It doesn't look like my kind of game; lots of negotiation, politics, and backstabbing. Which fits the theme, but it's not the kind of mechanical strategizing I crave in a game.

[BaronHelix]

Theme-wise, I reaaally want to like this game. I will probably wait for The Five Corners instead, since a friend of mine wrote this review...

Average area majority game with a clever twist (the addition of the immigrant suits to grow power and limit purchasing is great in concept). Sadly, this game is far too chaotic and prone to caprice for my taste. It is extremely difficult to make predictions on what other players are going to do and the game is so tactical that often even I didn't know what I was going to do until it was my turn.

The scoring is all or nothing, there are very few turns, and often you will be challenged based on the folly of other players. Once you invest a turn you may need to invest another turn to defend it. The huge cost of effectively losing turns encourages players to duke out areas heavily. This means that often times other regions that were arbitrarily neglected score just as much and the player that wasn't attacked strolls into easy VPs.

Once you get behind on the token curve you might as well hang up your hat.

Players are required to self balance the system, attacking the leader. If you neglect to do so then it is a cake walk, if you succumb to that mindset then they person that is attacked the least wins. It is like the designer thought it was a good idea to port in the worst elements of multi-player war gaming into a bone dry abstract Euro.

[zuk]

So I've had thsi game on my radar for a while. I even entered the BGG contest. Then they sent out the winner and it was Mark Z. from NY, NY. I did a yippee! at first but then realized they spelled my first name wrong and I'm not actually from New York City (although originally I am). Anyway, I was hoping it was a "generalization" and a spelling error so I responded to them anyway and said that I was happy to win their game. :-)

They haven't responded yet...