Thrashdome: Friedrich vs Napoleon's Triumph

Maybe the line up is a bit unfair, as NT is a development from NaMarengo, whereas Friedrich is the precursor to Maria. I guessed that more people will be familiar with Friedrich and NT, so I picked those. I'd say that the sequels in both cases are close enough to the originals to lump together.

Friedrich.

After sleeping on it, I edited my post to switch my vote to NT.

I own and have played both. Though I enjoy Friedrich quite a bit (and have wanted to play it again lately), Napoleon's Triumph feels like it has more untapped potential. My only 2 plays of it proved that everything is still coalescing in my brain--at some point the rules and restrictions that now serve as an obstacle to smooth play will fade to the background. When that point comes I think it may well strike me as a brilliant game. For now, it's just probably brilliant. I'm conflicted about whether to praise or condemn the rules--spare: yes; intuitive: no; easy reference: no (constantly hunting for something that I swear I read, but can't remember where because it's half a sentence buried in a long paragraph). I wonder where Sag would come down on them, in light of his recent article.

Both of these games have a lot of tense, silent pondering instead of loud trash talk, but that's OK.

On the promise of things to come, I vote: Napoleon's Triumph.

Never played Friedrich. I own Napoleon's Triumph. There must be a reason for that, I guess.

I have no interest in the American Civil War game that Simmons is developing, so I guess it's the Napoleonic setting that attracted me to Napoleon's Triumph (and Bonaparte at Marengo, which I bought but did not play), rather than the blocks. I'm moderately more interested in the eastern front game he's developing, Stavka.

TOTALLY UNINFORMED VOTE: Napoleon's Triumph, for whatever the reason is that I bought it and not Friedrich.

I'm out, I've only played Maria, which is like Friedrich, but not exactly. So I abstain.

Chapel wrote:

I'm out, I've only played Maria, which is like Friedrich, but not exactly. So I abstain.

Chicken

The rules in NT are shit. And while I appreciate the elegance of the system, it reminded me of Stratego. Once you know where the other guys elite units are, or your own units are on the downward attrition path, it seems to be relatively a foregone conclusion.

Vote:

Frederich.

But neither one is one I have the desire to play again.

This is an easy one. I'm voting for Friedrich. It's one of my favorite games.

Friedrich. Both are great games, but the card game aspect of Friedrich appeals more to me.

Interestingly, this one has gone to the hilt. Voting has come stuck at eight votes each. This gives me the responsability to decide.

It's not something I like, because I haven't gotten round to playing NT. That means it'll boil down to my preference for multi player games, ie Friedrich, which I have played.

Jur wrote:

It's not something I like, because I haven't gotten round to playing NT.

Want to do some PBEM before making your casting vote? NT works reasonably well via email so long as you can keep up a decent exchange rate of log files during combat.

MattDP wrote:

Jur wrote:

It's not something I like, because I haven't gotten round to playing NT.

Want to do some PBEM before making your casting vote? NT works reasonably well via email so long as you can keep up a decent exchange rate of log files during combat.

That's a great offer. I wish I could take it up, but I know from experience is that I will drop out at some point because I don't like the pressure of having to go online every day to keep the game going. I'm a bit too mobile and restless at the moment to keep my part of the deal. But it's much appreciated.

Heck! I even forgot to start up the new Trashdome in my hurry yesterday!

Let's fix that first