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June 09, 2004

Games: Attika

Played Attika for the first time face-to-face 2 player and as I expected I really enjoyed it that way (I had played a few times on BrettSpielWelt and enjoyed it but the inability to see the gestalt of the game at once I found really annoying and made me make quite a few mistakes). The multiplayer game, although it hasn't happened yet in my plays, has too much potential for problems due to one player threatening a connection victory and then the other players doing a mix of not noticing, not reasonably being able to respond, choosing not to respond either to let the person have a chance to win or hope someone else does something about it. Even the possibility of this happening hurts the game. With 2 players, there's none of that. If your opponent threatens a connection, you either do something about it or give him a chance to win.

However, I am also convinced that with the basic rules, in a 2 player game the first player has a significant advantage. I think the 2nd player needs to get at least one more extra card (start with 6) and possibly even two more extra cards. We played last night with one more extra and I felt I had the advantage going first and the disadvantage second. Jung was just learning the game and played well but I still had a fair advantage in the first game. The second game was much closer and also much more vicious (as I expect the 2 player game generally will be with good players) with lots of blocking plays but I managed the win in the end. Jung would have been one or two turns behind if he hadn't tried (unsuccessfully) to block me on his last move.

The extra viciousness of the game in 2 player is probably a small negative for me but not as negative as the multi-player aspects of that version. With multiple players, you will generally not want to make a move which hurts someone else if it also hurts you. In 2 player, that move is a good one as long as it hurts you less and this leads to a much more aggressive style of play with tiles constantly next to each other over a long border.

Anyway, excellent game which as a 2 player game I can recommend to the right people unreservedly. The multiple player game is also very good but only if played with a certain style of play where players see connection threats and try to block them in a rational way, not forcing another player to fall on his sword to stop a connection (an action which such a player should in no way feel obligated to do even if the person will 100% win the game if he thinks he will almost certainly lose even if he makes the block, given the very high cost).

Posted by aarondf at June 9, 2004 04:44 PM

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