Re: [piecepack] Black Pawn Trucking playtest/review

[Massimo Biasotto <massimo.biasotto@...>]

Ron Hale-Evans wrote:
> Well, I just played a game of Black Pawn Trucking, by Phillip Lerche,

Inspired by your intention to review the game, I too played the game
yesterday. I agree that it seems to be a very nice solitaire, with a fair
amount of luck but a lot of decisions as well.
Here I give my opinion on your questions and quibbles, plus some new ones.
(waiting for clarifications from the author).

> 1. The rules read, "Moving your truck consumes fuel, which costs
>    money. It costs $1 per city moved through (including your
>    destination city) plus $1 per good carried (in the Goods In Transit
>    box)...".  So if I have a truck carrying one good and I move
>    through three cities, do I pay $4 ($1/city + $1/good) or $6
>    ($2/city, because I'm carrying a good)?  I played it the former
>    way, as that's the way the rules seemed to read literally.

I had the same doubt, interpreted it in the same way, and I'm pretty
sure it's the right rule. The game seems already very difficult and
playing the other way would be impossible.

 > 2. The rules read, "If there are less than 4 goods on the map you must
>    pay $4 and roll the 4 dice to procure new delivery contracts", but
>    the Turn Summary on the playmat reads, "If there are <3 goods on
>    the map roll 4 dice and pay $4 to place new (raw) goods on the
>    map."  This seems to be a rules conflict.  I used the <3 rule.

I used the <4 rule; not much difference here, just a little bit easier
beacuse with more goods on the board you have more choices and possibilities.

>    Actually, I didn't use that either, or I would have gone through
>    all the coins in the cup.

What do you mean? You are supposed to go through all the coins, eventually.

>    I see this now, but I can't help
>    thinking a description of play in the rules (e.g. "Because of this
>    rule, you will eventually go through most or all of the coins in
>    the cup") would be useful.

Exactly.

>  By the way, what do you do when there
>    are <3 (or <4, depending on the correct rule) goods on the map, but
>    the cup is empty?

Nothing, you continue playing until delivery of all coins.

> 3. I think you should pay _after_ you move your truck, not before.
>    It's less confusing that way; you can count the spaces you're
>    moving as you move the truck.

I played moving the truck and paying after, but _before_ delivery, and
just taking a loan if I didn't have the money.

> 4. I think the instructions for placing and moving the pawns on the
>    money track should be more explicit.  For example, it is not
>    initially clear why there are two money tracks, and why you
>    shouldn't place both pawns on the same one. (The instructions say
>    to place one on 0 and one on 10.  The bottom track has both.)

I found this a bit fiddly beacuse I was constantly fluctuating over
and below 10 dollars, so I had always to move both pawns, and I never
reached 20 dollars.

> 5. Hey, since this is Great Britain, shouldn't the money be counted in
>    pounds instead of dollars? :-)

Yes, and maybe in future it will be counted in euro :-)


A couple of new questions

1) When you deliver a raw good, the rules say to flip the coin and place
it on the destination tile. But then you have to load every coin present
on the tile where you stand, so what's the point of placing it on the tile?
I just flipped the coin leaving it on the truck (or did I miss something?).

2) When you deliver a raw good and flip the coin, and the coin value is the
same as the tile where you stand, you can't immediately deliver the finished
product, can you? I played that you always need to move the coin to a
different tile in order to deliver. Is this right?


Finally, my total score was -38 (12 dollars left, and 5 loans to pay),
and the game seems to me a bit too difficult. I can't see how you could
finish with a positive score. But I can't really judge after only one play.

A nice game, I will try it again soon.


Massimo Biasotto