Ground Floor

from an image posted by user yzemaze on Board Game Geek

I got introduced to Ground Floor Wednesday night.  That was a fun game.  Earlier that evening I noted that I am leery of many Eurogames these days.  Its not because I don't like Euros.  In fact, I often do like Euros.  But I prefer flavor with my game and most Euros are really abstract games in disguise.  So when I hear worker placement, I figure its just some abstract math engine with farms or castles on the board.  I own that game in many forms already, I don't need to play it again.  Which is a shame.  I almost never tried Stone Age because of that and I like that game.

This is a long intro to saying that Ground Floor has little wooden cubes and disks and uses a worker placement mechanic, but the mechanics' tie to the theme (building a company) is well thought out and I really enjoyed it.

It also has some other mechanics in it.  Its got a widget engine in there as well (not uncommon in worker placement) but I felt a bit of tableau building going on as well.  One aspect of the game is that you can upgrade your office space as you go and that gives you better / different capabilities.  So as the game progresses each player has very different capabilities.  Also, that tableau -- your office, is where 99% of the victory points come from.

Perhaps no higher compliment to a game than that I really wanted to play it again.  But the night was late and I had to go home but I look forward to more plays.