Octopus Overlords

Colonial: Europe's Empires Overseas



Players:

Qantaga - England (Blue)
Vorret - Spain(Red)
El Guapo - Dutch(Orange)
Isgrimnur - Italy(Black)
Grundbegriff - France(White)
SpaceLord - Portugal (Yellow)

Game Resources:

Signup/Overview thread here.

Excel document of the game state is shared here.

A video chat with the designer at Essen

Ryan Metzler of the Dice Tower takes a look at the game.

An unofficial "revised" rulebook can be found here. There's also a errata sheet provided by the designer on the 'Geek.

Each Endeavor Phase, each player will PM me the cards they will play, in order from first to last.

Guide to opening moves:

(stolen from my post on the signup thread)



As you can see from the above image, Africa and the Middle East are the easiest areas to explore. (Difficulty 2-4).

IMPORTANT: There's a misprint, and both The Levant and Egypt do not have Prestige tokens, and thus cannot be Explored. To place disks from Treasury there, a player will just need to use the Viceroy action.

The orange Resources are the most plentiful by far in the game. So while they are good for Merchant actions, it's almost impossible to hold onto a Monopoly in orange. However, note that when a Monopoly is broken(meaning the 2nd person to control an orange), the player breaking the Monopoly drops 1 spot on the Diplomacy track. So being the first to grab an orange Resource is definitely an advantage.

Notice that both The Levant and Egypt have large Native Powers(6 and 5). As stated in the Conqueror action, it takes a number of disks equal to the NP of the territory before a Colony can be placed.

So, I'd suggest the following choices in the first round:

Scientist(to either improve Sailing to make Exploring easier, or Logistics to allow more disks to be moved to territories using the Viceroy action)

Financier: Since each player only starts with 3 Treasury, everyone will need more money to do much of anything.

Explorer: Notice that West Africa has both Gold and Black resources, and is easy to Explore. Gold is the best available resource. Don't be surprised if you have a fight on your hands if you try to enter West Africa.

Viceroy: I'd make sure you choose this action to be later in the turn than Financier, especially if you want to use Scientist to advance your Logistics to 2. A single Explore-->Scientist(Logistics)-->Viceroy action in Arabia, Ethiopia or West Africa can prepare you for a Colony to be founded via Conqueror.

I've decided to set up an AI player for the game, playing Black. If we have another interested, we can have them jump in if they wish.

The first turn, the AI will make choices randomly between two options.

Some AI Rules:

An AI may not injure a human
An AI must obey orders...

Err, whoops.

AI Rules:

They always allow their goods to be shipped, unless the requester has 7 or more Prestige.
They never Viceroy to take over a player-controlled Resource, unless their Resource was taken first.
They will play the Rebel to spark Uprising if a player seems to be winning, and there's a 40%+ chance it will destroy all tokens on the resource.

AI Behavior:
As their first chosen card, the AI will choose to play Scientist, and then flip a coin between:

Logistics
or
Sailing

The Logistics AI path will be: Scientist:Logistics, Financier, Viceroy, Merchant. During last Chance, they will gamble on a 4-Difficulty Asian or African territory. If they make their roll, they will choose to spend a Treasury, and gain a Unrest token there.

The Sailing AI path will be: Scientist:Sailing, Explore(they will explore a good that will give then a Monopoly), then Financier and Viceroy to put 1 Treasury on their Explored area. If they failed the Explore action, they will claim a open Resource, most likely the Levant.

More rules to follow...

Turn 1 Begins

Player order around the table was determined randomly(except for the AI), and is as follows:

White: France - Grundbegriff
Yellow: Portugal - SpaceLord
Blue: England - Qantaga
Red: Spain - Vorret
Orange: Dutch - El Guapo
Black: Italy - AI Player


(If no one has a Monopoly majority, then I will be first player on turn 2. First player isn't always good, by the way)

Each player needs to respond to a PM. I've already selected my 4 cards.

Once I get everyone's actions, we can do this thing!

As the first player, France starts with 2 Treasury instead of 3. Grund, please choose accordingly.

Game Status, Turn 1, pre-Endeavor Phase

Excel Record Sheet : HERE

France - Grundbegriff
Treasury: 2
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

Portugal - SpaceLord
Treasury: 3
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

Spain - Vorret
Treasury: 3
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

England - Qantaga
Treasury: 3
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

Dutch - El Guapo
Treasury: 3
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

Italy - AI player
Treasury: 3
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

Quick note:

I gave the Endeavor cards letters to make things a bit easier on the forums, see the listings in the signup thread called "Endeavor Phase Description, Parts 1-3":

Card A: Explorer/Ambassador
Card B: Trader/Financier
Card C: Scientist/Missionary
Card D: Viceroy/Rebel
Card E: Merchant/Governor:
Card F: Sovereign/Conqueror

When PMing me the cards, give me the card letters, NOT the role. You pick one of the two roles when it's your action. You don't want me to have an unfair advantage, do you?

We're waiting on Grund to send in his 4 Endeavor card selections, then we can begin.

SpaceLord wrote:We're waiting on Grund to send in his 4 Endeavor card selections, then we can begin.

Sorry to be the bottleneck. It'll take me a bit to read the rulebook and thread, but I'll submit cards as soon as I can do so non-randomly.

Grundbegriff wrote:

SpaceLord wrote:We're waiting on Grund to send in his 4 Endeavor card selections, then we can begin.

Sorry to be the bottleneck. It'll take me a bit to read the rulebook and thread, but I'll submit cards as soon as I can do so non-randomly.

I'd check out my "Opening Moves" post above. If you're reading the rulebook, here's a few things:

We are using Privateers, although I've not mentioned them much in my posts.
We're using Advanced Colony rules as well.
We're not using the Nations variant, so all colors/nations are generic.

Thanks for those clarifications.

I'm strongly inclined to like this game, because it reminds me of Imperialism II

Q1:
The rules state that the West Indies are adjacent to New France, and that the Guyanas are adjacent to New Spain.
New France is obviously adjacent to New Spain.

Are the West Indies adjacent to the Guyanas?


Q2:
"The player with the First Player token starts every phase and round...."

In phase 4, the Naval Forces phase, recruitment takes place "Starting with the First Player and going around...."

However, in phase 3, the First Player phase, the current First Player gives the FP token either to the next player in clockwise rotation or to the player with the most monopolies.

So does the Naval Forces phase start with the current turn's original First Player (regardless of phase 3), or does it start with the current turn's new First Player (if a new one is identified in phase 3)?

(If phase 4 refers to the new FP, then the current turn's original FP might never enjoy his turn advantage in the Naval Forces phase.)

"A colony offers the following benefit's to it's owner:"

The misuse of apostrophes in the rulebook is irksome. Hire a proofreader, people.

Grundbegriff wrote:

"A colony offers the following benefit's to it's owner:"

The misuse of apostrophes in the rulebook is irksome. Hire a proofreader, people.

So, you are implying that the benefit does not in fact possess the to it is owner?

Qantaga wrote:

Grundbegriff wrote:

"A colony offers the following benefit's to it's owner:"

The misuse of apostrophes in the rulebook is irksome. Hire a proofreader, people.

So, you are implying that the benefit does not in fact possess the to it is owner?

Not until the number of misused punctuation marks exceeds the Native Power of the sentence fragment.

Grundbegriff wrote:

Qantaga wrote:

Grundbegriff wrote:

"A colony offers the following benefit's to it's owner:"

The misuse of apostrophes in the rulebook is irksome. Hire a proofreader, people.

So, you are implying that the benefit does not in fact possess the to it is owner?

Not until the number of misused punctuation marks exceeds the Native Power of the sentence fragment.

I have placed my hand.

Turn 1 Endeavor phase - Action 1:

Each player reveals:

Grundbegriff:
Trader/Financier

SpaceLord:
Trader/Financier

Qantaga:
Scientist/Missionary

Vorret:
Scientist/Missionary


El Guapo:
Trader/Financier

Since both Grund and I have chosen Trader/Financier, and there are no goods to ship from the Market, I am just going to give each of us 10 Treasury, and a Loan.

The action is on Qantaga.

Spain's scientist will also advance Seafearing, but I had the idea first, england's spy stole it from me.

Unsurprisingly the Netherlands will also be taking 10 gold and a loan.

AI player:
Italy chooses Scientist as their first card, then chooses Logistics for their first track improvement.

Turn 1 Endeavor phase - Action 2:

Each player reveals:

Grundbegriff:
Scientist/Missionary

SpaceLord:
Scientist/Missionary

Qantaga:
Trader/Financier

Vorret:
Explorer/Ambassador

El Guapo:
Scientist/Missionary

AI Player:
Trader/Financier

Game Status, Turn 1, Phase 1, Action 2

Excel Record Sheet : HERE - will be updated once someone has Explored or played Viceroy

France - Grundbegriff
Treasury: 12
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 1

Portugal - SpaceLord
Treasury: 13
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 1

Spain - Vorret
Treasury: 2
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

England - Qantaga
Treasury: 2
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

Dutch - El Guapo
Treasury: 13
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 1

Italy - AI player
Treasury: 1
Merchant Fleets: 2
Naval Forces: 1
Resources: 0
Prestige:0
Loans: 0

Grund (probably) needs to announce what Progress track he's advancing, then I need to do the same.

Qantaga's *probably* going to take out a Loan, then Vorret needs to decide whether he's going to claim a spot on the map, or move to a diplomatic spot where he can't be attacked.

Then, El Guapo will probably need to decide what he's going to research.

With just 1 Treasury, the AI player will obviously take out a Loan.

I assume track improvement must go space by space. For example, I assume it's not permitted to move from 0 to 2 in Seafaring simply by paying 3 in a single turn.

If that is correct, then I'll use my Scientist to spend 1 on Seafaring.

Grundbegriff wrote:
Q1:
The rules state that the West Indies are adjacent to New France, and that the Guyanas are adjacent to New Spain.
New France is obviously adjacent to New Spain.

Are the West Indies adjacent to the Guyanas?


Q2:
"The player with the First Player token starts every phase and round...."

In phase 4, the Naval Forces phase, recruitment takes place "Starting with the First Player and going around...."

However, in phase 3, the First Player phase, the current First Player gives the FP token either to the next player in clockwise rotation or to the player with the most monopolies.

So does the Naval Forces phase start with the current turn's original First Player (regardless of phase 3), or does it start with the current turn's new First Player (if a new one is identified in phase 3)?

(If phase 4 refers to the new FP, then the current turn's original FP might never enjoy his turn advantage in the Naval Forces phase.)

Yes, the West Indies are adjacent to Guyanas.

And yes, it's possible to not get a first player turn long enough to go through a Naval Forces phase. It's actually a disadvantage to go first, since you might skip building as the last player if your "enemies" do. Regardless, if players have money(meaning there's a lot of cooperating on trading, it's almost automatic to sacrifice at least one Treasury a turn for more Naval power.

What is the point of places on the board, such as Congo and Amazonia that have a difficulty (6 in each case) but no resources and no native power?

Grundbegriff wrote:I assume track improvement must go space by space. For example, I assume it's not permitted to move from 0 to 2 in Seafaring simply by paying 3 in a single turn.

If that is correct, then I'll use my Scientist to spend 1 on Seafaring.

You're correct.

I'll improve Logistics, paying 2.

Another note on money: Players can trade only Treasury during the game. Deals made for the future are not binding.

SpaceLord wrote:And yes, it's possible to not get a first player turn long enough to go through a Naval Forces phase. It's actually a disadvantage to go first, since you might skip building as the last player if your "enemies" do. Regardless, if players have money, it's almost automatic to sacrifice at least one Treasury for more Naval power.

It's funny that the instructions emphasize that "It's usually good to go first throughout the game."

Grundbegriff wrote:

SpaceLord wrote:And yes, it's possible to not get a first player turn long enough to go through a Naval Forces phase. It's actually a disadvantage to go first, since you might skip building as the last player if your "enemies" do. Regardless, if players have money, it's almost automatic to sacrifice at least one Treasury for more Naval power.

It's funny that the instructions emphasize that "It's usually good to go first throughout the game."

It's not a 'hard' disadvantage to go first, you can basically cause everyone else to feel obligated to spend money during Naval Forces. However, during the main Endeavor phase, you'll have quite a bit of info on what everyone else is planning to do that action. When someone is close to victory, turn order becomes imperative, because you can potentially win or prevent someone from winning with your action.

I agree the original rules contain lots of typos/sentence snafus. I'm actually helping edit the 2nd edition rules.

SpaceLord wrote:I agree the original rules contain lots of typos/sentence snafus. I'm actually helping edit the 2nd edition rules.

FIX THE APOSTROPHE PROBLEM!!!

Sounds like an entertaining gig.

Anyhow, it's probably good that the "First Player" status is a disadvantage, since the greatest monopoly holder must become the First Player. It's a balancing factor that might be important.

Grundbegriff wrote:What is the point of places on the board, such as Congo and Amazonia that have a difficulty (6 in each case) but no resources and no native power?

Each of them is a single Prestige when successfully Explored, and they're adjacent to many other territories, giving a +1 to Explore those territories. They're not great by any means.

The adjacency bonus of +1 doesn't stack, right? No point in aiming for multiple adjacency?

Grundbegriff wrote:The adjacency bonus of +1 doesn't stack, right? No point in aiming for multiple adjacency?

Yes.

Qantaga will take a Loan, I suppose.

Regardless, Vorret, you're the first to venture out and find new lands. Where ya goin'?

SpaceLord wrote:

Grundbegriff wrote:The adjacency bonus of +1 doesn't stack, right? No point in aiming for multiple adjacency?

Yes.

Yes, it stacks, or yes, it doesn't stack. Yes there's a point, or yes, there's no point?