Macao

I’ve never been a guy who enjoyed games involving resources. It just wasn’t my thing. Didn’t care if it was money, wood, prestige, followers, sheep or cucumbers – I didn’t want to find it, mine it, trade it, sell it or anything of the like. For whatever reason, that kind of play just didn’t trigger anything in me.

So then why do I love Macao? It’s all about resources. It even has the ultimate in resource cliches – little wooden cubes.

The theme, shipping stuff around the Mediterranean sea, is standard fare. (Side note: Holy distorted map there kiddies.) No, that didn’t make the difference.

What makes the difference, I suspect, is that Macao uses an outstanding game mechanic for determining which resources are available, how much of them is available and most critically, when they will be available. All players have equal access to the cubes. Dice are rolled each round, but the rolls impact all the players equally. The aspects that I like least about resource games, hoarding and haggling, are not in play.

This lets me concentrate on the miriad other decisions. Do I take that person, or build that building. Do I buy porcelain in that quarter (because delivering it would be easy), or jade over there (because it extends my chain of properties)? Do I move up the wall so that I’ll have first choice next round, or move my ship out of harbor to get a head start on my deliveries.

The learning curve is steep on this game, but it only takes one time through to understand it all. There are many choices to be made during your turn, but those choices are broken up into manageable chunks. The care the designer took to balance the cards really shows.

I highly recommend it, even to those of you, like me, who don’t think of yourself as a resource gamer.