Comments taken from Newsgroup rec.games.board
Subject: Vinci [was Re: Chariot Lord]
From: tim@eecg.toronto.edu (Tim Trant)
In article <19991016174822.19118.00000184@ng-fb1.aol.com>,
BoulderG wrote:
>
>Another game in the tradition of "Civilization", "Britannia", "Hispania",
>"History of the World", etc. is Eurogames very resonably priced "Vinci, The
>Rise & Fall of Civilizations".
>
>The map is a bit bright and stark but it grows on you and there's enough wood
>to make it a legitimate "German" game (from France). Players come onto the map
>as civilizations with different skills and attributes and attempt to spread out
>over as much of Europe as possible before having to declare their empire in
>decline and then come back as a new civilization. 3-6 players (with alternate
>rules for 2 players and even solo play), age 12 up, 2 hours.
Here's another positive opinion about Vinci. We played it for the
first time last weekend, twice, with 4 players each time. With a very
experienced game group, the first run took less than 2 hours, and the second
was finished in 1'20": none of that 6 hour boredom in this game, but it could
go as long as you want because it's played to a given total score. It's
strictly one-player-at-a-time, but the turns are quite short because combat is
diceless. The flavour comes from the pairs of special ability chits which
distinguish each empire (AIEEE! Barbarians with Currency!), and there are
always six different pairings to choose from, although there's a clever VP
adjustment for skipping over earlier less attractive pairs. A five-player
game should work well too, as empire manpower is reduced as the number of
players increases to keep the board counter density about the same, but with 6
players the downtime between turns MIGHT start to be a problem.
I'm tempted to add just one minor house rule: the "first player"
position will be auctioned off, instead of allowing luck to determine who
chooses the first empire.
The components are quite good: the map does look a bit scary when the
game is first opened, but it works very well when the game pieces are in
place. The trait markers are the usual excellent euro-game die-cut counters.
My only quibble is with the round-sided manpower pieces (original Airlines
style), which just love to squirt away when I try to pick them up for
movement.
So if, like me, you've always liked the idea of a multi-player "rise &
fall of empires" -type game, but have been put off by the slow pace and inter-
turn boredom of other related games, then this is one you should definitely
try out.
Tim
--
Tim Trant Electrical & Computer Engineering
tim@eecg.utoronto.ca University of Toronto
Subject: Re: Vinci [was Re: Chariot Lord]
From: faidutti@imaginet.fr (Bruno Faidutti)
In article (Dans l'article)
<1999Oct19.114508.15916@jarvis.cs.toronto.edu>, tim@eecg.toronto.edu (Tim
Trant) wrote (écrivait) :
>snip..snip
I heartily agree. What makes Vinci a great game is that it appeals both to
"hard" gamers, because it reminds them of Britannia, Civilization, Hotw
and such games, and to occasional games, because it's relatively fast
paced and has very simple rules.
The almost unlimited possibilities of different combos of two civilisation
chits make each game different, and this also is great. I've played with
six players, and really wasn't so long. We played in 80 points, and
finished in about 2 hours. I was second, with keeping the same
civilisation throughout the whole game (it was double medicine, probably
the only civilization with which you can do that). I agree with you,
Barbarian with Currency is something terrible. Double highlander is also
terrible.
I don't find the board so scary. It's sober, but not bad. What I find
really horrible is the painting on the box cover... and this makes me a
little anxious since I've a few games to be published by Descartes.
--
Bruno Faidutti
124 rue de Belleville
75020 PARIS
faidutti@imaginet.fr
http://wwwusers.imaginet.fr/~faidutti/
Subject: Re: Vinci [was Re: Chariot Lord]
From: aarondf@bu.edu (Aaron D. Fuegi)
Tim Trant (tim@eecg.toronto.edu) wrote:
: In article <19991016174822.19118.00000184@ng-fb1.aol.com>,
: BoulderG wrote:
: >
: >Another game in the tradition of "Civilization", "Britannia", "Hispania",
: >"History of the World", etc. is Eurogames very resonably priced "Vinci, The
: >Rise & Fall of Civilizations".
: >
snip...snip
: Here's another positive opinion about Vinci. We played it for the
snip...snip
I didn't enjoy Vinci as much as some others have. I find a number
of very interesting mechanisms in it (the Civ ability handicapping is
excellent) but overall wasn't enthused. My troubles were:
1) Down time - turns can be very slow as players optimize their moves. I
normally play quickly but in this game several times found myself bogged down
trying to find the perfect move and many others did the same as it is generally
best to make whatever move scores you the most points right Now and not worry
too much about the long term and this leads to serious optimizing.
Fortunately, for the most part you can plan your turn in advance. The game
isn't that long really but for me it did feel long.
2) Too easy to get the leader. Players are entering the game with new Civs
all the time and can easily attack the leader - in our game this didn't happen
much till the very last turn but certainly could be an issue.
3) Just not that exciting or interesting decisions. While I really like the
Civ Ability tokens, the other elements just aren't interesting enough for _me_
but there is nothing wrong with the game itself and I am sure many others will
very much enjoy this game.
: Tim
Aaron
aarondf@bu.edu
http://scv.bu.edu/~aarondf/ (the Last Homely House)
Subject: More VINCI comments
From: sacentaur@aol.com (SACENTAUR)
Just ran through a 5-player session of VINCI. Considering that I was the only
one who had experience with this game, a short demo and then a full contest
took a very reasonable 3 hours. More annoying interpretaions crept in (the
rules and tile descriptions are sometimes not specific enough), but we enjoyed
the game a lot.
The heart of this game is the Civilization tiles, and we saw many intriguing
combos. One player used 'Barbarians' and 'Rebirth' to play out another high
scoring turn, then declared Decline and snatched a juicy set of Civ tiles (with
two +2 VP pawns on them from prior passovers) off the track for next turn.
I was able to milk 'Livestock' and 'Militia' to control the fertile belt in the
north-eastern part of the board and rack up VP's. It was also interesting to
play the 'General' and the 'Specialization' combo (23 pawns!)...lots of
conquest, but little defense.
'Medicine' and 'Slavery' was an interesting pair for another player who gained
steady VP's before Decline.
'Mining' and 'Weapons' helped another fellow control the resources in the
Balkans for some nice points.
The virtually unlimited potential tile combos should keep this game fresh.
There were some turns that literally took 1 minute because the player's course
of action was rather obvious. However, balance is superb, and the final tally
was very tight. Some neat options and strategies presented themselves
throughout this game.
I can recommend VINCI without reservation...heck, you can even play it
solitaire!
STEVE
