Coal Baron Review - with Ryan Metzler

[@DavidRoush1689]

Glad to see a dice tower review of this game... I think it is a great family euro. We play with open hands to eliminate the memory aspect.

[@fredericmethot8952]

Ryan, I believe you made a small mistake in your explanation. When you move the elevator up or down, it cost you one point no matter how far it travel. So in your example, when it goes back up from the second sub-level it cost you only one of your point, not two. (page 5 in the rulebook)

[@wolflarson71]

Three rounds but 48 tiles, 4 suits, and two, three or four colors on each tile. Maintaining majority is crucial so those with superior memory have a distinct advantage. Also, not a lot of room for clever play. I really wanted to like this since Vikings is one of my favorite games but this one just let me down. Hoping Nauticus is better.

[@nahailyenvanakkor]

Quite a few complaining about the memory aspect but it's such an easy fix, just play with open hands. Changes nothing, simply eliminates that particular element of the game.

[@Freyalder]

I was super excited when I glanced at this because I thought it said 'Carl Baron' and I wondered why the dice tower was reviewing Carl. Then I thought it might be some amazing game... then I realised.

[@lordsplodge]

Scoring is fine both mechanic-wise and thematically (it's the amount of coal shipped per shift in the round) and as for memorising, well you should have a rough idea who has shipped what type of coal by what method - it's only three rounds. A very good, smooth, worker placement game. Oh and it's called Glück Auf, no idea whey they felt the need to rename it for the American market.

[@walt776]

Because most Americans would have no idea what Gluck Auf means.

[@lordsplodge]

walt776 I'm British and so don't natively speak German yet the games called Glück Auf over here. Doesn't appear to be hurting sales.

[@walt776]

Marcus Boyce I meant it as more of an indictment of America's lack of linguistic skills. But to be honest, from a U.S. perspective, "Coal Baron" is the catchier title because coal barons did play a big part in our history.

[@lordsplodge]

walt776 I suppose. Still It's an extra expense for the publishers to rename it

[@drylndsurf]

If this is a coal mining game, why did they represent the coal with yellow cubes? Wouldn't black have made a lot more sense? Maybe black was too hard to see.

[@lordsplodge]

There are four different qualities of coal (like coal is graded in real life) and the colours make it easy to identify what you need (and is a nice bonus for colourblind people like me - Yellow, Brown, Grey and Black are easy to tell apart) and whilst that breaks the theme a little at least the best quality coal is black cubes.

[@EwanCoates]

Not sure if this is an example of accidental or esoteric theming, but the choice of yellow for the lowest-grade coal reminded me of fool's gold (pyrite - also forms as cubes) which I guess is undesirable in a shipment of 'pure' coal.

[@lordsplodge]

Ewan Coates accidental but cool.

[@jasonupton2765]

I'm not a fan of the scoring phases- they don't thematically jive in my mind. I'd probably get this game and create my own cash based variant. VERY CREATIVE.

[@wolflarson71]

The scoring ruined it for me as well. Didn't care for having to memorize what opponents collected.