Today, I examine games classified as 'point salads' in a format I'm calling The Good, The Bad and The Whatever.
Last week, I played 5 Tribes for the 1st time. And that is most definitely a points salad. In fact it seems like a majority of the games I've played for the 1st time these last few years are points salad. Including, but not limited to: Aquasphere, Castles of Burgundy, 5 Tribes, Libertalia, Terra Mystica, etc etc.
In fact, the game I designed (and shelved), Yellow Journalism probably also qualifies as a point salad.
So what makes a Point Salad a Point Salad?
A game in which nearly every move advances your score is considered a points salad. The 'etymology' is imagine yourself at a salad buffet. You can take a little of this and a little of that to build your points.
The Good
The best point salads games inherently have multiple ways to win. I like multiple ways to win.
I mean, I really like that in games. A one dimensional game is boring. Most point salads have multiple paths to victory.
A points salad game has lots of moving parts/conflicting mechanics. It's inherently re-playable, at least a few times. They are complex and will take a couple runs through to figure out the strategy.
The Bad
Not all, but a good amount of point salad games lead to analysis paralysis. And not a minor case either. Too. Many. Options.
The implementation of multiple paths to victory usually fall short. After only a couple of plays, typically several moves become the pickled beets of the salad bar; no one ever takes them. This is a huge huge deal for a game built on choices! If about half the choices are obviously sub-optimal, the game devolves into a race for the other half.
The Whatever
A point salad occasionally has wildly divergent connotation with board gamers. Seems like a bunch of people have decided there's a lot of people wrong on the internet.
It is a mechanism. That's it.
Like...
Most of the games that are ranked high per BGG, that I don't really like are "Area Control" games. Does that make Area Control games stupid? No it means that your friendly neighborhood blogger is wrong on the internet.
But I'm not really wrong either. I would be wrong if I refused to play a new game simply because one of it's mechanism's is "Area Control" or if I went into said game embittered and waiting for it to suck.
to me, Point Salads, Area Control or whatever kind of mechanisms occur in a board game are like musical styles. I love punk/ska, but there's plenty of awful punk/ska out there. I don't like country and western, but there's plenty of really good C&W too.
As you of course know, Stefan feld is one of my favoritest board game designers and I think all of his games are quintessential point salad. And just when I think some of his games reuse the same mechanic and are getting a bit stale - he comes out with something new and I love it.
ReplyDeleteAnyway - his best games address the pickled beets problem by having multiple actions within a given round. This way actions don't need to be completely balanced because there is a tiered auction, and I can get more of what I want while you battle from the prime spots. Castle of burgundy has tiers within the tiers :) town spots are I believe the best, but if you're less picky about which ones you get, you can hold out...or take them deep into the round.
Anyway, yes, I like them too :)