Backing Age of Steam

I’ve been a big fan of Age of Steam for a long time now, at least a decade I think. I was thinking about the new kickstarter, but may just go with the new Steam that’s supposed to be coming out soon.

Cube production has always been a sticky spot in AoS. The traingame crowd will leap to its defence in comparison to Steam, but almost every new map tries to fiddle with the janky and uncertain rule in some manner. Steam’s auction stocking may be imperfect, but it’s a better implementation than many expansion maps have managed; if cube production is important in a round, take the damn action already.

That said, I’m curious how Wallace fiddles with the design for the new edition. He’s a gifted designer, and I would be surprised if he doesn’t again improve on this classic.

Wallace is an excellent designer but god awful developer. He's someone who would have benefited from an old school Avalon hill full production and development arrangement. It's like how Berg has floundered outside of the old system since his development and polishing work is garbage.

Wallace could also use a few courses at the Chad Jensen university of rulebooks. But almost every designer could.

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/2164351/res...ications-my-aos-post

Yeah, this is some ugly shit one way or another.

If Phil Eklund and Martin Wallace each got $100K, who would lose it the fastest?

Msample wrote: If Phil Eklund and Martin Wallace each got $100K, who would lose it the fastest?

At least in Phil's case the Invisible Hand of the Free Market did it, not his poor decisions.

Yeah, well Wallace just promised to shut his mouth for good if Bohrer pays off $30k owed to Wallace creditors. Sounds like a bargain to me.

Msample wrote: If Phil Eklund and Martin Wallace each got $100K, who would lose it the fastest?

Ed Carter.

Legomancer wrote:

Msample wrote: If Phil Eklund and Martin Wallace each got $100K, who would lose it the fastest?

At least in Phil's case the Invisible Hand of the Free Market did it, not his poor decisions.

Phil chose Ship Naked/GameSalute to fulfill his games two years ago. Poor decision as it turned out, hardly surprising given their track record.

Well, will wonders never cease?

boardgamegeek.com/article/31492904#31492904

Woah. Weird. Hope he didn't get a horrible deal.

Looks to me like someone threatened legal action against him and he realized he didn't have a leg to stand on.

Could be. Let's hope it's more amicable than that.

Doesn't this, though, devalue any potential re-release of Steam? Isn't part of the cachet of Steam that it's "official Martin Wallace"? Steam (as it exists now) does have gameplay differences, and it has obvious visual differences as well, but AoS is now visually amped up, and the rules variances between AoS and Steam, while of interest to the initiated, aren't as great as the differences between either and RotW, and the latter has an obvious "luxe" appeal.

(This from the guy that has Steam and has currently pledged for AoS and has restrained himself so far from RotW even though he's secretly sure people would really, really like this. And who owns Chicago Express, Kansas Pacific, and Paris Connection.)

jpat wrote: Doesn't this, though, devalue any potential re-release of Steam? Isn't part of the cachet of Steam that it's "official Martin Wallace"? Steam (as it exists now) does have gameplay differences, and it has obvious visual differences as well, but AoS is now visually amped up, and the rules variances between AoS and Steam, while of interest to the initiated, aren't as great as the differences between either and RotW, and the latter has an obvious "luxe" appeal.

(This from the guy that has Steam and has currently pledged for AoS and has restrained himself so far from RotW even though he's secretly sure people would really, really like this. And who owns Chicago Express, Kansas Pacific, and Paris Connection.)

Just go find some 18xx players. You know you want to.