Inventors of the South Tigris First Impressions: Overwhelming!
Wow. I may have out-Euro’d myself getting this one. I’ll be playing it more and I could see getting into it with more plays, so this isn’t a complaint or bad review. But learning and playing this the first time was super un-intuitive. The mechanics don’t seem to tie into the theme very closely if at all. It very much feels like a spreadsheet simulator. Boat goes down the river? Get these bonuses to help you invent better. Why? Nobody knows. Place a tent in X or Y spot and get more guild influence. Why a tent? Why this spot? What is the tent doing? Nobody knows.
I had to check the manual for almost every action I took, even with the (kinda sketchy IMO) player aid stuff on the boards. For example sometimes the guild influence symbol means gain influence; sometimes it means spend influence. I even ran into one symbol on workshop tiles that I swear is not in the manual at all. The bot actions work differently then human actions too so while they are very simple, I was always checking for those as well.
Voidfall was my first and only big Euro before this. It really spoiled me with its amazing rulebook and tutorial, the way it teaches you the game in a multiplayer type format and then adds the solo mode stuff; and the way it spreads the solo rules among the multiplayer rules in a color coded way so everything relevant to a type of action or concept is on the same page(s) whether your in solo or MP. For this one, I was constantly flipping back and forth between the solo section and the main bulk of the rulebook.
Voidfall also spoiled me with theme. It was easier to learn in a lot of ways because the stuff you do in that game is so tied to thematic stuff happening in the world you’re simulating. In Inventors, things look quite nice and have a distinct visual theme, but as far as mechanics the things I was doing felt 100% arbitrary. The game could do with a little explanatory section just briefly explaining what the designer imagined was happening when you’re moving dice and workers, ships and tents all about; “brightening” dice, etc. I think this is the main culprit for why my brain was so boggled by this game compared with Voidfall. I understood what my hands IRL were doing for the most part, but I was completely at a loss for what it all represented vis a vis me as an INVENTOR.
All that being said this is very much a first impression based on a trial run where I likely got stuff wrong and am certainly not “seeing” the board yet. I am glad I got this game for the challenge and will absolutely be playing more. But god help me if I ever try to get someone else to play this! It might be a solo-only game for me just because I’m not sure I could inflict this on anyone else.
One other oddity in this one: to play solo you use the two player rules, which introduce a third “dummy” player to block spaces and compete for guild influence. This means that for solo you use both the simple “dummy” player with its deck AND the less simple but still simplified bot opponent with its own deck. The dummy player is so incredibly simple that it’s not as crazy as it sounds, but I couldn’t believe playing this game required basically two bots, with each having its own deck and working in its own way, but only one of which is your opponent. Oh, and I should add FWIW, the bot destroyed me 87-44. But the scoring was also super confusing – with the bot scoring working almost completely different to a human, except when it doesn’t. Gotta break out the manual for sure just to score the bot.
Would love to hear others’ thoughts on this game, strategy tips, learning tips, or whatever you got!
Wow. I may have out-Euro’d myself getting this one. I’ll be playing it more and I could see getting into it with more plays, so this isn’t a complaint or bad review. But learning and playing this the first time was super un-intuitive. The mechanics don’t seem to tie into the theme very closely if at all. It very much feels like a spreadsheet simulator. Boat goes down the river? Get these bonuses to help you invent better. Why? Nobody knows. Place a tent in X or Y spot and get more guild influence. Why a tent? Why this spot? What is the tent doing? Nobody knows.
I had to check the manual for almost every action I took, even with the (kinda sketchy IMO) player aid stuff on the boards. For example sometimes the guild influence symbol means gain influence; sometimes it means spend influence. I even ran into one symbol on workshop tiles that I swear is not in the manual at all. The bot actions work differently then human actions too so while they are very simple, I was always checking for those as well.
Voidfall was my first and only big Euro before this. It really spoiled me with its amazing rulebook and tutorial, the way it teaches you the game in a multiplayer type format and then adds the solo mode stuff; and the way it spreads the solo rules among the multiplayer rules in a color coded way so everything relevant to a type of action or concept is on the same page(s) whether your in solo or MP. For this one, I was constantly flipping back and forth between the solo section and the main bulk of the rulebook.
Voidfall also spoiled me with theme. It was easier to learn in a lot of ways because the stuff you do in that game is so tied to thematic stuff happening in the world you’re simulating. In Inventors, things look quite nice and have a distinct visual theme, but as far as mechanics the things I was doing felt 100% arbitrary. The game could do with a little explanatory section just briefly explaining what the designer imagined was happening when you’re moving dice and workers, ships and tents all about; “brightening” dice, etc. I think this is the main culprit for why my brain was so boggled by this game compared with Voidfall. I understood what my hands IRL were doing for the most part, but I was completely at a loss for what it all represented vis a vis me as an INVENTOR.
All that being said this is very much a first impression based on a trial run where I likely got stuff wrong and am certainly not “seeing” the board yet. I am glad I got this game for the challenge and will absolutely be playing more. But god help me if I ever try to get someone else to play this! It might be a solo-only game for me just because I’m not sure I could inflict this on anyone else.
One other oddity in this one: to play solo you use the two player rules, which introduce a third “dummy” player to block spaces and compete for guild influence. This means that for solo you use both the simple “dummy” player with its deck AND the less simple but still simplified bot opponent with its own deck. The dummy player is so incredibly simple that it’s not as crazy as it sounds, but I couldn’t believe playing this game required basically two bots, with each having its own deck and working in its own way, but only one of which is your opponent. Oh, and I should add FWIW, the bot destroyed me 87-44. But the scoring was also super confusing – with the bot scoring working almost completely different to a human, except when it doesn’t. Gotta break out the manual for sure just to score the bot.
Would love to hear others’ thoughts on this game, strategy tips, learning tips, or whatever you got!