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Annotated Games: 4 playersThis game was played during early game testing of Nova Suecia and revisited to test the addition of positive and negative tax effects. To test different strategies, the governors (named after the real governors of Nova Suecia) played as follow:
The following abbreviations have been used for the district types:
Turn 1Without any bidding, the governors acquire the districts they're interested in; a trade post to Minuti, a mine to Kling, a farm to Ridder and a forge to Printz. They receive one each of the starting colonists (at the cost of 1 gold) and place their starting log cabins in their districts (at the cost of another 1 gold). There is no overproduction of fur, nor any underproduction of grain, so Minuit and Ridder produce 4 goods and earn 4 gold each. Kling produces 2 ore and demands 5 gold from Printz, who in turn sell them externally for 8 gold. In the taxation, Minuit is worried about no player having any interest in paying for Tobacco (which would negatively affect his trade post) so he pays 1 gold for Missionary and another 1 gold for Tobacco. Kling pays 1 gold for Metal and Ridder 1 gold for Agriculture and since Printz completely refrains from paying any tax (he's still bitter on Kling), all areas receive equally much and thus equally much of the positive and negative effects. The other 4 areas (Overseas, Internal, Dutch and English) all get 1 gold each from the variable effect so there are neither prosperities, nor disasters this turn.
Turn 2Turn 1 ended with a surplus of 4 grain in the colony which are exchanged into 4 colonists. With the 4 previous colonists and the 4 new colonists arriving, the governors have 12 colonists at their disposal. The bidding is more aggressive this turn. Minuit and Ridder start and protect their interests by bidding 1 gold each for a trade post and a farm respectively. Kling is first outbid by Printz for a forge but raises the bid and gets it for 2 gold, leaving only a plantation to Printz. (The fifth card was a tobacco workshop - worthless since no tobacco spin is in play yet.) Printz expects no trade with Kling so he removes his mine log cabin and allocates all colonists to his plantation. All governors build log cabins in their new districts and both Kling and Printz store their goods to raise the prices. The tobacco price increases by 1 for the 1 non-trading plantation while the metal price increases by 2 for the 2 non-trading forges. Note that with only 6 grain produced and 4 grain in the colony, the shortage of 2 earns Ridder 2 extra gold but also makes 2 colonists leave Nova Suecia. In the taxation, both Minuit and Ridder pays 3 gold, hoping for prosperities in their interests, (trade posts and farms) while Kling is happy with 1 and Printz continues his 0 tax strategy. This does indeed give missionary prosperity (3 + 1 from tobacco - 1 from metal) as well as agriculture (2 + 3 from missionary - 1 from tobacco). On the other hand, disasters strike both metal (1 + 2 from agriculture - 3 from missionary) and tobacco (1 +1 from metal - 2 from agriculture). An interesting bidding is to be expected next turn.
Turn 3No grain surplus in turn 2 meant no new colonists but 4 more grain and colonists arrive from Sweden, bringing the total number of colonists to 14. With missionary and agriculture prosperity and the metal price at 6, the bidding is even more aggressive. A trade post, a farm, a metal workshop, a plantation and a tobacco workshop are at stake and the 3 first will be valuable this turn. Printz has least to gold to compete with but boldly places bids anyway to raise the prices before claiming a free plantation. Since Minuit and Ridder paid the most taxes, they get the benefit of hiring colonists first. Ridder hires 4 colonists but Minuit can only afford 3 and the same goes for Kling so Printz gets to hire 4 colonists instead. Both Minuit and Ridder enjoys good production thanks to the prosperity. Ridder's 15 grain gives 1 surplus grain to the Colony while (1 more than the 14 colonists) while Minuit's 15 fur gives 3 surplus fur to the Colony (3 more than the 12 districts). In addition, the 3 fur are returned to Minuit to use in the taxation so he can be satisfied with the turn. Both Kling and Printz had to sell to the current market prices to get cash but are now in a better position to manipulate the prices. In the taxation, Minuit allocates all 3 gold received from the trade post surplus plus one own; 1 to Missionary and 2 to Tobacco with the plan to trigger another Prosperity and another 1 to Overseas Supplies to get more colonists to his trade posts. However, Ridder aims at crossing his plan by allocating 2 gold to Metal (negatively affects Missionary) in addition to his 1 gold to Agriculture. Both Kling and Printz allocate gold to their interests (2 to Metal and 1 to Tobacco respectively). The results surprise many as not only Missionary misses the prosperity (1 direct gold and 3 from Tobacco but -3 from Metal) but also Agriculture (1 direct gold and 1 from Missionary but -3 from Tobacco). The next turn will be the turn of the metal and tobacco traders but will also see more colonists and grain from the overseas supplies.
Turn 4Turn 4 sees plenty of colonists; 14 colonists from turn 3, another 5 from the grain remaining in the Colony and 8 from the overseas supplies gives 27 to choose from. On the other hand, with an agriculture disaster it may be difficult to feed them all. Thanks to the prosperity, the metal price has now reached level 7 and so has the tobacco price, since only 1 of the 2 plants was engaged in external trade last turn. Kling is most aggressive in the bidding and secures external metal trade monopoly with the acquisition of the metal workshop Översidoland for 2 gold. Minuit takes the mine Strandviken for 0 gold, although with little hope of getting any share of the metal trade, while Printz and Ridder claim the two tobacco spins Upland and Korsholm. With the missionary in normal state and the agriculture in disaster state, both Minuit and Ridder gets less than expected, while Kling uses his monopoly to not only sell 3 metal from his first workshop for 24 gold but also to store 3 metal in his second workshop to raise the price. Printz does similarly with his tobacco districts but with lower prices and less colonists, he is still behind. In the taxation, Minuit takes the last chance to catch up by throwing in gold to Missionary and (to avoid giving Agriculture too much positive effect) Tobacco but Kling defends with gold in Metal, leaving all areas in normal state. Ridder's gamble to save money and trust other players to support Agriculture paid off but the real winner is Printz with prosperity in Tobacco and 14 gold to spend. But will it be enough to gain on Ridder and Kling with 22 and 21 gold respectively? Minuit is last with only 16 gold little hope of good trades. Internal order suffers from disaster but that's less important since all players will want to empty their warehouses in the last turn anyway.
Turn 5The final turn sees some interesting discussions. Being far behind, Minuit agrees to supply Kling with ore (1 produced, 1 from the warehouse) for the high price of 3 gold each. Kling agrees since it's the only way he can utilize all his hired colonists. Printz on the other hand chooses to return both 2 of his colonists and his 2 cabins to reduce cost, keeping only the 3 colonists necessary to produce 3 tobacco from 3 of the stored plants. The other 3 are sold for 8 gold to Ridder, who is happy to allocate colonists to his tobacco spin from his farm, since the food shortage of 3 (12 produced and 4 in the Colony for the 19 colonists) gives him another 3 gold. In the taxation phase, all except Minuit think they are in the lead and do not want to risk too many disasters (which would lose the game for all) so Ridder spends 2 gold and Kling and Printz 1 gold respectively. When all has been summed, Printz and Ridder share the victory with 36 gold each, followed by Kling with 34. Minuit ends last with only 29 gold.
To summarize, there were many lessons learnt in the game. The specialization in trade posts and farms did give Minuit and Ridder high and stable early incomes but as the metal and tobacco price increased, Kling and Printz were able to catch up. Minuit tried to increase the output of his trade posts through tax payments but lost the guessing game twice (turn 4 and 5) and consequently the game. Ridder's farms were better suited to counter disasters, as they earn extra gold at food scarcity, but it was his decision to switch to tobacco and strike a deal with Printz that earned the two the victory. Kling played aggressively from start by denying Printz trades with the objective of controlling the metal business himself. The objective was reached but he paid with his reputation and was unable to reach any agreements with the other governors. He learnt the hard way that if you're the only one making revenue in a business, you're also the only one bearing the costs (i.e. paying taxes). Printz had a disastrous start as Kling pushed him out of the metal business but made a remarkable recovery. This is partly due to the fact that the other governors' tax tactics benefitted the tobacco business he was forced into but he was also successful in saving his gold and storing his goods. He didn't hesitate to drop colonists and cabins that wouldn't give any return and his final trade agreement with Ridder helped him reach 5 forts and a 2nd place. Overall, the game shows that there is no obvious "optimal strategy" in the game. To focus on one business can be beneficial in the short run but some kind of diversification may be necessary. The taxation is a powerful but unpredictable weapon and both tax payers and free-riders had their moments. The colony balance is fragile and the governors often found them dangerously close to not having enough gold to pay for their colonists and goods. If Minuit had had more luck with his taxation tactics, it would have been a close race between all four governors. It may be a bit complex to follow all possible consequences of one's actions but there is depth in the game and I'm happy to see that my very first game does have interesting qualities! |
Annotated gamesComplete test games are presented under Annotated Games.
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