Thanks to the combination of holidays, Great British Bake Off and illness, David, Jon, Peter M and I were the sole attendees at Bromsgrove Board Gamers this week. After a quick round of Love Letter: The Hobbit- The Battle of the Five Armies, we settled down to play Progress: Evolution of Technology. 45-90 minutes? Hmm, maybe not. We started shortly after 7.30 and had finished by 10.30! Of course we were learning and playing this for the first time, but it was a long old technology slog. While we had a good time, I feel that there are 3 fair criticisms to this game:
1. It felt like a civilisation game stripped down to just a tech tree. Tech trees are a great way for gamers to 'research' technology which helps them in the wider game, but this was the entire game. You researched something to help you research the next something.
2. Way too long. Advice on some forums suggests 2-3 players might be the sweet spot. Of course we were learning it so it will have taken longer, but the game dragged, particularly towards the end when we had more actions. Each person has to spend a significant amount of time working out what to do and can't plan ahead the entire turn.
3. Almost no player interaction, certainly not direct interaction. This sounds hypocritical because I've been enjoying Roll for the Galaxy so much, but the lack of interaction in this game made it feel a bit stark to me. The only time you really take interest in the other players is to discard cards in a certain order (to hinder your opponents) and what techs they have researched (to see if there are any more cards in play).
Love Letter
David 2
Jon 1
Peter H 1
Progress: Evolution of Technology
David 39
Peter H 36
Jon 22
Peter M 22
Love Letter
Jon 4
David 3 (maybe- will consider downgrading to a 2 on appeal)
Peter M 3
Let's leave it there. David showed his qualities, first with victory in Love Letter and then coming out on top in Progress: Evolution of Technology and he's my gamer of the week.