Magazine
- Board's Eye View
- 2 minutes ago
- 2 min read
In Magazine, from Mandoo Games, the 2-4 players are competing to edit and publish magazines. In this digital age, print periodicals may feel like a relic of a bygone era but it's a theme that's always lent itself well to board games, from the old Waddingtons game Scoop, first published in 1953, to the rather more recent Age of Comics (Lirius Games). Magazine is designed by Andrea Martini, Lorenzo Martini and Alessandro Zappi.
This is a eurogame that brings together several standard eurogame mechanics and so different ways of scoring. It's a set collection game but there is also worker placement and the opportunity for engine building as you 'publish' magazines that give you ongoing effects and benefits.
You'll be buying articles for your magazine, but to develop and profit most from these you will want to tie them in with the demand as represented on the season tracker on the board. Some prospective articles will be more obviously valuable than others so you'll ideally want to have first dibs at the selection. The designers tho' have taken full account of the big advantage of going first by generously compensating players who go later in turn order. And you're given the choice. Do you nab that first player position or plump instead for the points, money, extra worker or wild card tile on offer for going later?
It's a worker placement action to publish a magazine, and you get to choose whether to claim the immediate reward for publication or benefit from its ongoing effect. A couple of well-chosen publications can give you a productive little points-scoring engine...
Money can prove to be a tight resource in the game - we wish publishers in the real world paid the $2000 minimum for every pitched article in Magazine! - so players always have to balance their desire for points against the need to ensure they are bringing in sufficient cash. Tho' there are multiple potential paths to victory, the decisions you take in Magazine are all finely balanced. It makes for a satisfying game, and one that you can play comfortably in an hour.
