Loot, Ingenious and the Good Doctor

People who know me know my appreciation for Reiner Knizia's game designs. At one time, I probably would have said that the Good Doctor was my favorite designer. While that particular attitude has cooled in recent days, I still find that knick designs a solid game.

I had that feeling recently reinforced when I had the opportunity to play Loot for the first time. For those of you who don't know, Loot is a simple game of trump and the winner gets a card that has a value that adds up to determine the winner. In thematic terms, you are trying to capture merchant ships by sending your pirate fleet out to stop them. If you've ever played Nobody But Us Chickens, the game play is similar, but Loot has much more strategy and arguably a better theme. I really enjoyed my first experience with Loot and hope to pick it up soon.

Tonight, however, Julie and I played Ingenious yet again. And is our custom, we played a best two out of three match. I discovered tonight that Ingenious isn't so Ingenious after all. While I'm not opposed to luck in a game, a game should provide a means to win even if Proverbs 16:33 happens. Such is not the case in Ingenious. If I fail to draw any yellow stars, or only one or two early in the game, my score will remain low and there is nothing I can do about it. Luck can conspire to keep me from winning what is otherwise a fantastic strategy game.

Don't get me wrong, I still like Ingenious. But that occurred to me tonight while playing and because of that, I need to either change my perception of the game as being a solid strategy game or accept that it has more luck than I might otherwise like in my solid strategy game. I suppose in the end it really doesn't matter because I still really like the game and would recommend it highly to just about anyone.

But that doesn't mean I can't nit pick it, right?