Post originally by Mark Green at 2005-02-02 09:39:15
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The only problem I had after playing this game a few times is that it seems that the starting decks are rather unbalanced. Basically, no matter how we swapped the players around, the Vulca won every game.
The main reason for this seems to be that the Vulca have a few rock-crushing cards that can instantly turn a battle. For example, after a long drawn-out battle won by the Hoax, the Vulca simply leads with an 8 of Fire. There's nothing the Hoax con do about that one.
Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2005-02-02 09:59:42
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I think the decks are quite balanced, and everything I've seen online seems to agree. The Vulca is just a little easier to play.
Ways to counter the 8-fire include: Mutant; one of the cards that lets you play multiple support; Henk Highflier who lets you ignore the other character; etc. Retreating is also often a valid option if you think it costs your opponent more of his invested resources than you (and particularly if there are less than 6 cards out).
Post originally by Chris Farrell at 2005-02-02 16:01:05
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I certainly haven't found this to be the case. The Vulca are a little easier to play, but not vastly so.
Given this is Knizia we're talking about, and not the usual run of the mill Fantasy Flight stuff, imbalance is vastly more likley to be a perception than a reality.
Post originally by Jake at 2005-02-03 04:41:01
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Hey Shannon,
Again a well-written review. Some small corrections/additions:
- Apart from the English and German versions, there's also a Dutch version, published by 999 Games. In this version, the card names are English, but the rules and card text is translated and is Dutch.
- You mention that the basic decks have only 3 special symbols. This is not true, there are a few cards with yet other symbols. These, however, are ignored for the basic game. Example: the Heroine of the Great Plains in the Vulca deck is a Mimix card that has the 'Pair' icon.
Then some opinions:
- I really really agree with the 'overpriced' comment. The player board is wholly redundant, the Dragon mini's could as easy have been some wooden tokens.
- I found the gameplay strangely dull. Sure, cards are a valuable resource. There are few ways to alter the number of cards you play and draw in an effective way. More than once one player won or lost a duel with only card in play. Not because the other 'willingly' retreated, but because he just didn't have the appropriate card /at that moment/. Blegh.
- (This can be the result of a bad translation.) I found the rules awkwardly explained, and there are quite a few rule questions at first. What does "Hank Highflyer Hawk" exactly do?, for example. It also speaks volumes that there are 11 'Special Rules' that are 'superseded' by card text.
All in all, I found Blue Moon to be a bit of a disappointment, and I certainly wouldn't give it a 5/4 score.
(I'm still planning to write my own review but I want to play some extra test-games.)
Sure, it can be that I "don't get" the game, but I wasn't satisfied by this Knizia game.
Post originally by Shannon Appelcline at 2005-02-03 16:26:23
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I tend to agree that the rules are a bit overly complex, as partially shown by those 11 special rules. I actually read the entire online FAQ through before I played it for the secodn time, and thus cards like Hank Highflyer Hawk were a bit more obvious.
To a certain extent, this is a natural outcome of any customizable card game where you have a large number of cards interacting. I use to do all of Chaosium's support for the Mythos CCG, and as I offered up rules explanations for interactions of cards, sometimes it felt like a very unstable house of cards.
But, yeah, I was disappointed by some of the convuluted rules that have appeared in Blue Moon, given that it was put together by Knizia and they had a chance to look at the whole game before they released anything. In particular, Hank is a card they never should have released because it's just too confusing.
On the gameplay: I think you may be missing an entire aspect of the game, whereby winning or losing a duel isn't as simple as whether you have the cards, but also whether you want to use the cards and whether you think your opponent's investment is larger than yours. The majority of the time, the game involves one player going through their whole deck, and so the way you win is by making better use of your entire deck of cards than your opponent does.
Know when to hold them, know when to fold them, that sort of thing.
Post originally by Mark Green at 2005-02-02 09:39:15
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The only problem I had after playing this game a few times is that it seems that the starting decks are rather unbalanced. Basically, no matter how we swapped the players around, the Vulca won every game.
After dozends and dozends (over 100, not quite 200) of recorded games played by me and friends of mine Hoax and Vulca both appear as pretty strong decks. Slight advantage for the Hoax.
Above average also: Khind.
But every deck was within 45-60% wins. Only the Flit had less than 30% wins (out of nearly 40 games), so there certainly is a balance issue with them.
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