Talk:Nimitz

2010 Ice Awards evaluation

I tried Nimitz last night with three players. We spent a considerable amount of time just trying to figure out how many pyramids to use for three players, and what size board was appropriate. We decided to use my 5HOUSE set and my Volcano board. When I discovered that pyramids could lay flat on the board, I switched to my chessboard bandana.

We took turns putting pieces on the board, wondering when things would get interesting. Placement was generally easy, and we didn't feel constrained by the placement rules until the last few plays. In my opinion, it would take many, many plays of Nimitz before the strategy started to reveal itself, possibly more quickly in misere play. We found that the Layer rules invoked when pyramids were stacked to be very confusing and weird.

The game rules badly need an explicit definition on how many Treehouse sets to use per player, and how big of a board those players should use. Without this, I cannot consider this design finished.

I think the game can be improved by reducing the number of degrees of freedom. Use N-1 Treehouse sets, where N is the number of players. Reduce the number of colors to four, and eliminate upright (and stacked) as an orientation option. By reducing the number of alternatives, it makes it harder to make placements, which will lead to more blocking plays and harder decisions. - Cerulean 14:05, 31 March 2011 (UTC)