I picked this one up for most of the reasons that you recommended it for. The old school single-mechanism focus, the interactivity, the US production, it pushes a lot of good buttons for me. Haven't gotten to actually play it yet (beyond running through it to solidify rules) and I don't feel pressured to, but that's fine. It'll be there.
Quick editing note: pretty sure the game is 2-4 players, not 2-5.
I quite enjoy this game. No, it isn’t going to set the world on fire, but it does what it sets out to do very well. It calls back to a day before Euro games offered VPs for engaging every single facet of the design and instead rewarded players for playing the core elements well.
I think the scoring system is a little convoluted but I *love* what it accomplishes. If you have control in one area but I kept a close race on you, I should be able to mess with your points a bit more than if I half-assed it just to get second place. Such a smart way of handling that.
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