City of the Great Machine Board Game | Cooperative Gameplay | Review

Join Anthony and Frances as they play a full 2 player cooperative game of the City of the Great Machine board game.

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[DontNickMe]

Love this game. So much variety of playstyles and modules if you add in the expansion

[bgm-]

Finally, I just finished the entire video. You guys did a great job, and yes, that was close!
So, here's four final comments, mostly for other interested viewers:
1) Quite often it seemed like the AI moved to a location which either caught you by surprise or really wrecked your plans. Remember that the players can look at the discarded Servant Movement cards at any time. And considering that there are only 10 movement cards in the deck (all unique) (not counting the three optional "broken down" cards), it becomes easier and easier to forecast which districts the Servants will move to as the deck dwindles.
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2) It seemed like you waited too long before regularly taking the "Incite" action (to raise the discontent). As you guys pointed out during the final thoughts, there's a delicate balance between raising the Discontent too much/too fast and too little/too slow. Each has its advantages and disadvantages. But as you get later into the game, the disadvantage of having the Discontent too low is a tough hole to climb out of. And as I mentioned in my previous post, a few more dead guards would've definitely helped to mitigate the low discontent for the purpose of Rioting!
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3) Regarding what you said during your Final Comments about how playing against a HUMAN Great Machine player (in One vs Many mode) would raise a lot of havoc for the Revolutionaries, remember that in OvM mode, the Great Machine needs TO PAY for all his Servant's actions! Whereas the AI doesn't need to spend any resources to move the Servants or for them to take actions, a human Great Machine player does! And especially in the beginning of the game while discontent is low, the Great Machine player will be TOO BROKE to create the same sort of havoc that the AI might. That's a great way the designers have "leveled the playing field" so that playing against a human GM or against the AI GM would be a similar experience for the human Revolutionaries.
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4) You also mentioned how playing it co-op wasn't as fun for you (Anthony) because of how the three Hero characters are controlled. It's easy to overlook, but the solo/co-op rules say that unless otherwise specified, everything about the solo/co-op game is to be played according to the core rules. This means that for the co-op game, the Revolutionary players are supposed to each pick (and control) their own Hero. For a 2-player game, the odd (third) Hero would be controlled by each player on alternating rounds.
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Finally, for the record, I'm on Anthony's side regarding the affinity for this game. Though I enjoy it BOTH solo and one vs many. I've never tried it co-op, but since the rules are the same for both, I don't think there's really a distinction to be had there.

[GuppyJ]

Nice play through guys. Team Anthony myself for these kinds of games (sorry Francis). Really enjoy this game and definitely play it solo.

[a-c-m]

Great video ! I have to say, "City of the Great Machine" is at the moments hands down my preferred solo game (so I side with Anthony here...). Really great theme and art work, and also very quick to set up (which is important for solo games and the key reason why it is hard to table "Robinson Crusoe" for solo - it seems to be only worth the effort setting it up for coop but not for solo). And I also like the mix of strategy, tactics and randomness. Pure Euro games where you just try to run um a high score aren't that exciting for solo gamers. Also good to have interesting victory conditions (3 riots) and not just a point salad.

Haven't played "City of the Great Machine" as one vs many yet and I would be keen to hear your views (in particular Frances' views !) once you had a chance to do so as well !

[bgm-]

One note for those who are watching but may not be familiar with the game... the Missions aren't used when a human is playing as the Great Machine. When both sides are played by actual players, then the Revolutionaries have access to their riot tokens from the very beginning. The Missions are optional and added only for the solo or cooperative modes.
ANYWAY, this is SUCH a fantastic game! I'm in the middle of a solo game right now and have GOT to say that the solo variant for this game is superb! It's interesting, engaging, immersive, and robust. I don't have time to watch the entire video in one sitting, so I'm sure I'll be back to comment more when I get around to finishing it!

[bgm-]

OK, I'm about 30 minutes in (only have time for @20 mins per day)... up through your 3rd round, I believe. Here's a few more comments based on the action so far:
1) You guys are making the game hard on yourselves by keeping everything so expensive. The number of guards at each district dictates how costly everything is for the Revolutionaries. The cost of moving and taking actions depends on the number of standing guards. So, the more guards you break, the better your economy will be! Based on my admittedly short experience with this game, you want to shoot for breaking at least one guard per round. And probably shoot for breaking two guards per round for the first two or three rounds. Granted, it does cost Trust to break the guards (typically, spending three Trust will give you a 66% chance of breaking a Guard... so, yes, there is a delicious risk involved). But as long as those guards remain broken, the Trust you'll save during the next two or three or four rounds will more than make up for the initial cost!

This also means that if all the guards of a district are broken, then moving out of and taking actions in that district is FREE! For instance, those two Famous Citizens you guys revealed that cost you four Trust to do so, would've been free if you had previously broken those guards (or half price for breaking only one guard), PLUS, you would've been able to reveal ALL of the citizens in that district for free! Not to mention that broken guards in a district yield an almost guaranteed successful riot, which is your PRIMARY goal, after all. OK, I beat that dead horse to death. Except I hope to see you doing some guard breaking during your next few turns! :)

2) Speaking of making the game harder than it should be, at 24:55, when Phantasmer drew that Guard Patrol card (add blue guard), you should NOT have also done the Servant's District action. Placing the blue guard is ALL a servant does when resolving that card.

3) I'm not sure if this would make the game easier or not, but the rulebook SUGGESTS placing the Servant Turn Order so that Phantasmer goes first, then Judgementor, then Lex. Based on the random nature of how their action cards are drawn it typically won't make a difference, but given how each servant has their own prioritized list of actions, having the Phantasmer run through his list before the Judgementor runs through his may give the Revolutionaries a break once in a while. Though again, while the servant turn order is up to the players, I got the feeling that the suggested turn order is intended to make things just a tad easier for new players.

4) Finally (for now), I'd characterized the Hero's movement as "programmed movement", not "hidden movement". I only make a nitpick point of this as I've heard several people say it's hidden movement, when it's not, really. So, for those who don't like hidden movement games, it'd be a shame for them to pass up the opportunity to give this superb game a shot!

Whew... I expect that I've spent all my commenting capital for this video, so I should be pretty quiet for the remainder of the video! :)

[Apeshower]

I am coming around to thinking some of these games that have a ‘AI’ that is able to scupper your moves is more about good game design. Certainly in this case as I think it fits with theme.
If another player predicted ( or guessed) your moves in a versus game you would consider that good play and say well done, through gritted teeth! So if the game does it via automa deck like this does, pretty regularly, I say good game design. Even if it pisses me off on occasions…..

[Skorrigan]

What a boring game. Thank you guys for saving my money and trouble selling this. 👻