[Board/Tactical Game]: Reef Encounter, reviewed by ShannonA (5/5)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11989.phtml

Shannon Appelcline's Summary:

One of the best strategy games of the year, this beautifully produced game by Richard Breese belongs on any serious strategy player's shelf.

Go to the full review for more information.

[generalpf]

First of all, excellent review, Shannon.

I played 6 games of Reef Encounter on SpielByWeb.com before playing my first face-to-face game. I found the SBW version to be much clearer and easier to play than the cardboard version, namely due to the colour matching and the aerial view.

You're dead-on with your comment on replayability. After a few games, I started feeling like each game was the same as the last. There are two strategies to use: blitzkrieg and slow control. Each has its merits and may not be viable based on what the other players are doing.

Still, it's an excellent game, and I urge everyone to give it a go when SBW comes back online.

[Blackberry]

Strategically, I think there's a similarity with both Tigris & Euphrates and Acquire -- namely that you can get really tied to your "own" coral fields and forget about what the other players are doing with theirs. This is the mistake I've made so far -- I totally forgot that you can consume your own corals as well as expand other players' corals. I think that's vital.

[clearclaw]

Originally Posted by Blackberry

I totally forgot that you can consume your own corals as well as expand other players' corals. I think that's vital.

Much of the game comes down to moving tiles from behind your shield to in front of your shield. It is this process that gives you tactical flexibility.

[clearclaw]

Originally Posted by generalpf

You're dead-on with your comment on replayability. After a few games, I started feeling like each game was the same as the last. There are two strategies to use: blitzkrieg and slow control. Each has its merits and may not be viable based on what the other players are doing.

The core strategies are the same as any other set collecting card game and centre around hand management, probability control and control of game rhythms. Your extremes of blitz and slow build are endoints on one of the scales there, not the whole set. There are many points inbetween those endpoints as well as scalars for board versus tile influence and hand capability versus board presence. A simple example from three games ago here: On the third to last turn of the game I built an 18 tile coral in the colour the supposed leader/winner of the game had carefully locked down to 3/4 dominance, on the second to last turn I ate that coral and built a 13 tile coral in the colour the other contending player had locked down to 2/4 dominances. Up until that point I'd been dawdling, letting the other players build and mess about on the board, and almost entirely concentrating on controlling their play through the draft pool while building up my before-the-shield tile stashes. No slow build, no blitzkreig, just patience, prediction and timing.

[clearclaw]

Originally Posted by RPGnet Reviews

My only real concern with the game is that the start is a little slow. Since shrimps can protect up to five polyp tiles, the first several turns are often pretty staid growth rounds where not a lot interesting can happen. I would have preferred to see a more mature setup which would have shaved time off of a long game and would have removed the less interesting gameplay.

The early game, pretty much the first two or three turns is generally nothing but tile drafting. While this stage may seem uninteresting, it is at this point that the players start revealing what tiles they drew in the game setup and which of the various basic game patterns they intend to follow in the game. It can be a very subtle and careful period, a sort of game before the game.