Speaking of Volcano.... I love the game, but I've been chewing on a
problem that seems to come up a lot in my games.
In a game with more than two players, your success depends quite a bit
on what the player who goes immediately before
you does - and what state they leave the board in. Some players will go
out of their way (perhaps even forgoing a good
eruption for themselves) to deny the next player a good move; others
will just aim to collect more pieces for themselves,
and not care what moves they're leaving open. Yet other players will now
and then do a random move to 'open up the
board and see what happens.' While the latter is a perfectly legitimate
tactic, it does give the next player a noticeable
advantage.
In the group I'm in, we have a mix of the above play styles - including
one player who is quite fond of the 'open up the
board' moves. It's to the point where the person sitting next to him is
much more likely to win. I don't really fault him- like
I said, it's a legitimate style of play- and besides, I get a bit
impatient with the 'overly defensive' approach, so I can't complain
about the opposite.
Is this a problem with Volcano itself? I find myself wondering if it
would help to have a mechanic to reverse, or randomize,
the turn order. It's hardly the only game where turn order has such an
effect, but it seems more prominent in Volcano.
Bart Janssens
Double-Duty Lab Rabbit