Hamburg (Bruges) Review - Chairman of the Board

[@TracyStreet-o3c]

This game is just fantastic - the replay-ability is off the charts. Love it - thanks for the review.

[@MrJmarzetti]

Thanks for the review. This is one I have wanted to try.

[@veedeviceable]

Love Bruges/Hamburg. I feel fortunate to have the original version (for the art), but the gameplay here looks great as ever! Certainly worth having in any euro fan collection.

[@nickadams8460]

I backed this one and I think it is going to be like all classic Feld’s and will continue to reward you over the years. I, probably like many watching these videos, buy too many games! Many of them become disposable after 1-3 plays for me. But I suspect in 10 years time I will still be dragging out Hamburg for at least my once per year play! There is just SO much content in those cards.

[@Straddllw]

I have the original Bruges with Twin Cities of the Zwin expansion. It was the game that got me into Stefan Feld and euros by that extension. I believe I was playing purely thematic games before then.

[@ImpossibleWhopper111]

Any plans on selling it?

[@TheBestcedric77]

Les cartes sont solides ? Ou il faut les sleevés ?

[@pete7421]

Do you have a preference between Amsterdam vs Bruges? If so, why? Are they different enough to necessitate owning both?

[@ChairmanoftheBoard]

I'll be dropping my Amsterdam review later this week. They are definitely different enough to warrant owning both. Spoiler alert, Amsterdam is just as good.

[@pete7421]

@@ChairmanoftheBoard Omg. Im made a mistake. I meant Hamburg not Amsterdam. 😂. I mean to ask your opinion on Hamburg against the original, Bruges.

[@ChairmanoftheBoard]

Oh ok haha. I haven't played the original Bruges but I think the main difference is that the original had mixed decks of cards. You definitely won't need to own both

[@jankogo]

I am on the fence on this one. I have the original Bruges with the expansion. I vastly prefer the artwork in the old one, but like the new card system and the player boards in the new version. I think you could play with separate colour decks in the old version if you just count your actions properly.

[@ImpossibleWhopper111]

Any plans on giving the old bruges a new home? 🫴

[@greginfla_1]

Sorry if I missed it in video, but have you played the original?

[@ChairmanoftheBoard]

No I hadn't. I was hunting it for years. Clearly unsuccessfully.

[@-beepledeeple-9738]

Hoping to pick this up when it’s not so pricey

[@ChairmanoftheBoard]

Yeah it's pretty silly

[@greginfla_1]

Wow surprised how many people own the original version. It was a hard game for me to get. I have gotten soured some on Bruges because of the complete randomness of card selection. And I am not a no-randomness in game player. So it was surprising to hear some of the comments saying they prefer the card selection of the original.

[@drowles2926]

I can't tell you the number of times I've been screwed while digging through two different decks trying to get the right color of card to make my euro dreams come true... and never get it. And I STILL would rather have it that way than be able to just pick the color of card that I want. I had such a weird, negative reaction when I saw that in the video.

[@KenDudd]

I did like Hamburg, but I didn't love it. Firstly, I have the cards with text, and I can't imagine playing with the symbol only cards. It would be an absolute nightmare and I can't quite believe they went with that (though I assume it was for language independance and to save money). One of the other things is that the decision on which colour card to pick just doesn't really hold much weight and is a bit of a boring decision. Yes, you can choose a colour card to build a wall section, reduce the disasters, or to get a certain colour worker, but the content on the cards is fairly random, so you can't play into a particular strategy and most of the time we pretty much just got one of each, or maybe two of one, and the rest different. I vastly prefered Amsterdam. I thought the decisions were more meaningful, the dice rolls and choices were more impactful, the cards were more tightly designed, the space for strategy was higher and the delivery and market sections were more interesting. Also, did it occur to anyone else that the main board is almost completely irrelevant to the game? It has one track and places to put stuff, and that's it. . . Seems like a really poor use of real estate.

[@ChairmanoftheBoard]

If I remembered correctly, they were going to do a bunch of smaller boards rather than one big one

[@deepdivemusicreactions]

it's a art design mess, but the game is great. hope to get Brugge copy somehow somewhere

[@bushibayushi]

I vastly prefer the looks of Bruges. Plus, I hate the fact that you can draw every colour you want in Hambug - you can abuse every combo you happen to make and you just feed your engine in the most simplistic way. Yes, the draw in Bruges is more random, but this forces you to adapt and problem-solve at every step of the game and THAT is super fun ;).

[@drowles2926]

I totally agree with this. There was kind of a hope that you could get the cards you needed to make your little building engine/card combo work and it felt really exciting when you got it. Tough if you didn't, for sure, but that was part of the whole deal. Seems like that bit of excitement would be missing.

[@a-c-m]

AVOID ! Queen Games has massive production problems and their games are regularly missing pieces. Nonetheless, Queen Games still knowingly sells these defective games. And thereafter, they are refusing to provide the missing replacement parts.