KREMLIN: Too repetitive?
Jeff McCoskey~
I'm always in the market for a good old-fashioned game of back stabbing.
Diplomacy is nice, but there are actual rewards to long-term alliances, and the
most fun (for us) is games that reward double dealing. Illuminati has long been
our yardstick.
A long-winded way of saying we finally bought Kremlin, and anticipated
much duplicitous fun. After only five games, a familiar pattern has emerged,
and we're a little concerned.
PATTERN: after some tense and bitter IP wars, someone gets control of
the KGB, who then begins purging the lower ranks of non-supporters. 75% of the
time, he ends up Party Chief when Aparatchik dies off. He then stacks the
structure with his people in KGB and Defense, and continues to thin the lower
ranks of non-supporters. As Party Chiefs die, some third party token Minister
has no choice but to nominate same faction and regime continues.
This goes on until one of three things happen: faction wins, faction
gets hit with a brutal series of health rolls, or faction inadvertantly promotes
a sleeper (ie another faction with undeclared IP that trumps the ruling faction)
to Party Chief (or KGB if Chief really ill). New faction starts over above.
This has led to games which are essentially one player doing everything
and the other three praying for a Red Flu or a sleeper to pay off. At least one
player every game has done nothing but watch all his politicians land in Siberia.
What are we missing? We have not yet moved to the Advanced Game, since
we're not sure we yet have the hang of the basic. The augmented tie rules do
seem to address this weakness, though the Politician stengths and weaknesses
just seem to exacerbate the problem. Do the Intrigue Cards address this?
Along the same lines, what other games of amoral mayhem should we be
aware of? Games we've tried & enjoyed to varying degrees: Illuminati
(the granddad of 'em all), Junta, Diplomacy, Cosmic Encounter, Dune, now Kremlin.
Tanks, comrades. JJMcC
--
Intel, Corp.
5000 W. Chandler Blvd.
Chandler, AZ 85226
a...@dmmh.no
In article <4vt773$1l...@chnews.ch.intel.com>,
jj...@ix.netcom.com (Jeff McCoskey~) wrote:
[Kremlin being too much the same each time]
I never played anything but the advanced game. If the basic game lack
intrigue cards, that is a lot of what you're missing.
You have several cards that can add much to the game of destroying the
leader. Several of the ministers can by cards be 'broken to the ranks of
the people', and a full set of 'purge cards' force the KGB head to purge a
specific minister (with bonuses) first.
There is even a card alowing the minister of ideology to do the purging
provided he first puges the current KGB-head.
One can also put points on Nestor... The magnificent reorganisations that
can be done with control of him is left as an excercise for the student :-)
My advice is to move along to the advanced game, and happy waving,
komrades.
Håkon Gaut
a...@dmmh.no
"Mane, simul atque expergefactus es, Pu" dixit postermo Porcellus,
"quid est primum, quod tecum dicis?"
"Quid mihi in ientaculum paratur? Tu autem quid dicis o Porcelle?"
"Dico: Scire avco, quid magni momenti bodie accidat," dixit Porcellus.
Pu meditabundus adnuit. "Est idem," dixit.
ex Winnie ille Pu.
Saint G
a...@dmmh.no
Tom Lehmann
Are you using the random setup? If so, change to the original edition setup
where the people are arrayed alphabetically (old guys towards the top). This
introduces some real health pressure on the early guys to hold on to win vs
the players who went for young guys to take over when they croak.
The only optional rules I use are the weak/strong ones printed on the map
board.
Another power politics game I like very much (more than Kremlin) is Shanghai
Trader which has been reprinted by Excaliber Games. Some players feel the
ending shot at the airport is too powerful/random but this can be fixed by
going to a D8 instead of a D6.
tom
David Reed
> What are we missing? We have not yet moved to the Advanced Game, since
>we're not sure we yet have the hang of the basic. The augmented tie rules do
>seem to address this weakness, though the Politician stengths and weaknesses
>just seem to exacerbate the problem. Do the Intrigue Cards address this?
Go to the advanced game. You have mastered the Basic Game. The Intrigue
Cards add a lot of balance to the game, including ways to get around the
KGB head. Once you have gotten the hang of the advanced game, get the
Revolution expansion. Now the game is devious, sneaky and _bloody_. When
someone is purged, they are shot (much more realistic, in light of
Russia's history in this area). There are three (count 'em) levels of flu
cards. And there are blank cards, so you can add more stuff to the game.
A game in our group usually starts with the player controlling the KGB
head taking a shot at Nestor. Then he tends to take a shot a the Sport
Minister, even if he has some points on him. (Like I said, we play a very
bloody game). It is very rare for the players to allow someone to control
the KGB chief for long. The Defense minister can balance the power of the
KGB chief as well. The question marks pile up, people age extremely
quickly, and the crosses mount. When the -3 flu coomes out, it tends to
clear the whole Central Committee! We have had games where the winning
player had one point on party official who staggered in the Chairman's
office on the 11th round, and didn't have enough people to fill the
cabinet.
I hope this helps. I need to pull out my set and post the variant card
set we made some time.
David Reed (dmr...@bihs.net)
G. Nichols
In article <4vt773$1l...@chnews.ch.intel.com> jj...@ix.netcom.com (Jeff McCoskey~) writes:
>From: jj...@ix.netcom.com (Jeff McCoskey~)
>Subject: KREMLIN: Too repetitive?
>Date: 26 Aug 1996 22:07:31 GMT
[snip]
> What are we missing? We have not yet moved to the Advanced Game,
since>we're not sure we yet have the hang of the basic. The augmented tie
rules do>seem to address this weakness, though the Politician stengths and
weaknesses>just seem to exacerbate the problem. Do the Intrigue Cards address
this?
[snip]
As others have said (and well I might add), the Intrigue cards are essential
to the balance of the game. You will also find that the more you play the
better people will get at placing influence points. The start is critical for
every player. Each needs to develop a strategy to approach the game. After
receiving influence cards, you now have the ability to develop a strategy and
place those crucial initial IP's. Though you will need to sometimes shift
strategies if a bizarre flu breakout occurs or someone gets hot with the
siberia rolls, a beginning and a end game strategy are important to start
with.
We love the Intrigue cards so much that we developed some house rules to make
them even more fun. Should get those up on my web site...
-Greg
_______________________________ ______ ____ ____ ______
Greg Nichols / / /
University of Michigan ___ ___/ ___ ___
Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library / \ /
room 100 ______/ \ _____ ______/
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1205
E-mail: gnic...@umich.edu
Staff HP: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gnichols/staff/index.html
GLG HP: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~gnichols/glg/index.html
"Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans..."
-- John Lennon
Psalm 100
Milton Soong
> PATTERN: after some tense and bitter IP wars, someone gets control of
> the KGB, who then begins purging the lower ranks of non-supporters. 75%
of the
> time, he ends up Party Chief when Aparatchik dies off. He then stacks the
> structure with his people in KGB and Defense, and continues to thin the lower
> ranks of non-supporters. As Party Chiefs die, some third party token Minister
> has no choice but to nominate same faction and regime continues.
>
> This goes on until one of three things happen: faction wins, faction
> gets hit with a brutal series of health rolls, or faction inadvertantly
promotes
> a sleeper (ie another faction with undeclared IP that trumps the ruling
faction)
> to Party Chief (or KGB if Chief really ill). New faction starts over above.
>
> This has led to games which are essentially one player doing
everything
> and the other three praying for a Red Flu or a sleeper to pay off. At
least one
> player every game has done nothing but watch all his politicians land in
Siberia.
>
Game, since
> we're not sure we yet have the hang of the basic. The augmented tie rules do
> seem to address this weakness, though the Politician stengths and weaknesses
> just seem to exacerbate the problem. Do the Intrigue Cards address this?
Yes, Do play with the intrigue cards. The "First Purge" cards pretty much
ensures that the KGB chief isn't the only person doing the purging.
--
-------------------------------------------------------------
Milton Soong
so...@apple.com
Milton Soong
> Another power politics game I like very much (more than Kremlin) is Shanghai
> Trader which has been reprinted by Excaliber Games. Some players feel the
> ending shot at the airport is too powerful/random but this can be fixed by
> going to a D8 instead of a D6.
> tom
If you enjoy this sort of thing, then I recommend WHite Wind's
"Elfenwizard", and Hans Im Gluck's (Imported by Mayfair) Quo Vadis.
Quo Vadis is a simple yet elegant power politics game that cam be finished
within 25 min. Elfenwizard is kind of hard to explain, but it's like
Kremlin with dice added.