You may also like…
Sale!
Lead the Netherlands into the Industrial Age in the latest version of the cooperative classic! It is the dawn of the Industrial Age in the Netherlands. For centuries, the country has relied upon a series of dikes and wind-powered pumps to keep it safe from the constant threat of flooding from the North Sea. But this system is no longer enough.
codester56
Good game, more challenging than standard Pandemic (including Iberia). Managing dikes and water seems fiddly. My feeling on this may change with more plays.
-xXx-
Like it but the game has some design issues which keep me from loving it. Everything about this production is beautiful, except they filled a map with tiny regions that are not very user friendly. Gameplay is either a walk in the park or ridiculously hard. There's no middle way, and this my main complaint about this game: it doesn't have a steady build up of tension. Rather, there's no tension at all and then all of a sudden you lose. Just like that. The reason for this: - Basic goals are very easy. - Extra goals are extremely hard, especially if you draw more than one. - Water cubes run out very rapidly. I've had games where we lost on turn 1 because too many cubes had to be placed during setup! - You rarely run out of cards, hence, no tension. - The balance between cube management and card management is distorted. Still, I very much like all the 7 roles, all of the events, the water flow, the pumps etc. If you can finetune the difficulty, look past the map and don't mind losing on turn 1 once in while, this game is very solid. Otherwise it's either boredom (too easy) or frustration (too hard). Despite its shortcomings, I find it more interesting than Pandemic but less pleasant than Fall of Rome.
bcnevan
Excellent reimplementation of Pandemic that is much more than a reskin. For example, via the operable pumps, incentives are shifted in a way that the players walk along a line that's close to both success and disaster. There's a trade-off between quickly building one of the game's four systems that are needed to win the game, and getting the most out of its bonus. Further, we aren't simply here to eradicate water--water can't be destroyed. Instead, we need to shape how it flows through the low lands so we can manage its increasing presence. So, the puzzle is engaging, there are thematic touches throughout, and those thematic touches provide a logical connection to solving the engaging puzzle. Finally, the game comes with a couple modules to mix up the puzzle more, so there's plenty of game inside the box.