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Valletta box art

Valletta

Game ID: GID0375059
Game Info
Year
2017
Collection
Rating
Mechanic profile
Not enough video data yet
Vibe profile
Not enough video data yet
Description

In 1566, Jean Parisot de Valette, 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, laid the foundation for Valletta, the future capital of Malta.

In Valletta, players take inspiration from Jean Parisot de Valette in order to procure raw materials; hire merchants, bricklayers and roofers; and build their own version of the magnificent capital, with its mighty bastions, baroque buildings, and a right-angled street network. Cultivate your contacts with the Order of Malta to improve your reputation.

Players are supervised in their work by de Valette, who patrols his streets as a building inspector. When he reaches the end of his patrol, the game ends and a winner is determined.

Description

In 1566, Jean Parisot de Valette, 49th Grand Master of the Order of Malta, laid the foundation for Valletta, the future capital of Malta.

In Valletta, players take inspiration from Jean Parisot de Valette in order to procure raw materials; hire merchants, bricklayers and roofers; and build their own version of the magnificent capital, with its mighty bastions, baroque buildings, and a right-angled street network. Cultivate your contacts with the Order of Malta to improve your reputation.

Players are supervised in their work by de Valette, who patrols his streets as a building inspector. When he reaches the end of his patrol, the game ends and a winner is determined.

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All mentions
Browse transcript mentions, sentiments, pros/cons, mechanics, topics, quotes, and references.
Total mentions: 2
This page: 2
Sentiment: pos 1 · mix 1 · neu 0 · neg 0
Mentions per page
Showing 1–2 of 2
Video V3-CH-w4uqw Review at 0:33 sentiment: positive
video_pk 67174 · mention_pk 163155
Valletta video thumbnail
Click to watch at 0:33 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
positive
Pros
  • Lots going on in the box
  • More engaging than typical small indie games
  • Unique objective of escaping after getting the relic
  • Satisfying dice rolling
  • Clear and concise rules
  • Easy to learn
  • Plays great
  • Controlling two players is a piece of cake
Cons
  • Can be brutal
  • Can get messy very quickly
  • Enemies have tough abilities and increased health
Thematic elements
  • dungeon crawl
Comparison games
  • Iron Helm
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • cooperative play — Can be played solo (taking two characters) up to four players.
  • Dice rolling — Used for attacking, with rolls of 1, 2, or 3 doing at least one damage. Extra dice can be gained under certain conditions.
  • Experience points — Gained by defeating creatures, which can be traded in to increase health or perform other actions.
  • Health tracking — Characters have health, and if the wound marker catches up to the health marker, the player is done.
  • Item/scroll collection — Creatures can drop scrolls or items upon defeat, which can be used for experience points or special abilities.
  • Level exploration — Players descend through four different levels to find relics.
  • Line of sight/Range — Attacks are limited by range, with different characters having different ranges.
  • monster abilities — Enemies have their own abilities that affect gameplay.
  • Player characters — Four characters to choose from: fighter, archer, cleric, and thief, each with different abilities and ranges.
  • set collection — The game involves collecting relics to win.
  • Turn Order — Players decide who goes first each turn, and enemies also have activation phases.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • This is probably one of the best games I played in a long, long time.
  • Go get this. This is a classic.
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
Video O4Nr4sbZAUo The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast Review at 0:00 sentiment: mixed
video_pk 3998 · mention_pk 11642
The Secret Cabal Gaming Podcast - Valletta video thumbnail
Click to watch at 0:00 · YouTube ↗
Overall sentiment (raw)
mixed
Pros
  • Theming is well-integrated with Valletta's historic city-building
  • Deck-building is used in a unique, non-trivial way
  • End phase mechanic adds compelling late-game tension and scoring
  • Conflict around scarce valuable buildings due to the Jean Parisot de Villette mechanic
Cons
  • Limited card variety leading to reduced replayability
  • As a lighter euro, it may lack depth for heavier euro players
  • Deck replenishment and card balance could be more varied
Thematic elements
  • city-building, deck-building, resource management
  • Mediterranean city-building in Valletta, Malta, during the era of the Order of Malta
  • historical flavor embedded in a procedural deck-building engine
Comparison games
none
Mechanics (from transcript analysis)
  • Adjacency discounts — Building costs are reduced if adjacent to owned properties.
  • Character-driven synergy — New employees provide additional actions and create synergies with existing buildings.
  • deck-building — Players manage a personal deck of worker cards, discarding and reshuffling to perform actions.
  • End phase deck crawl — At the end, players shuffle discard into their deck and go through it once more for late scoring.
  • Resource management — Gathers wood, stone, money, bricks, etc., used to construct buildings and upgrade them.
  • Worker/employee cards — Each card provides actions and resources; hiring and firing affect future options.
Video topics + discussion points
No key topics recorded for this video.
Quotes (from this video)
  • I really do like Valletta
  • it's an excellently designed game
  • it's probably a little bit too much on the lighter end of the scale for me
  • the end phase... shuffle your discard piles back into your deck and run through that entire deck one last time
  • the end phase is the best, the best I love it
  • this is the epitome of paying attention to the players fun
  • I think this is a good one to check out
  • it's got a good set of mechanics, it's got a unique set of mechanics and it works really well
  • they paid attention to making the game fun first
References (from this video)
No references stored for this video.
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