Prestige - Your Rococo Estate Awaits!

Today, Ryan and I have a preview for you for a game called Prestige. And yes, before you ask, the points you score are prestige points in this game. It is set in the RCOO era, uh, which I wasn't aware of that was an era. I knew that it was a game. Um, and like that other game, this is going to focus on a lot of things you're doing to sort of like decorate an estate.

It's all about sort of the outward and inside appearance of what you're doing on your player board. >> Yeah. prestige that you're gaining amongst society by having the nicest house. And there's a few interesting hooks here, but one of the things kind of revolves around what you're even doing in the game.

You are building out your estate. And you're doing this in two forms. You're building the outward appearance, like you're actually building up your estate, and then you're decorating it. And both of these things are scored separately. It's two different scoring trackers, and the goal is to kind of get them close together.

So, you want to like build a big building and make sure it's decorated. But, you know, there's room for a lot of different strategies when it comes to that as well. >> Yeah, you could potentially build the outside very far. You want to build the inside and decorate it a little bit. Um, but it is interesting because people's scores can be closer than you think, even though their scoring markers are wildly different from one another.

>> Yeah. And those functions, those two different functions are carried out via a worker placement game with a few interesting twists. But there's, like I said, worker placement. You're also upgrading kind of like what's a tableau in front of you. You're building out your estate over here. You're placing your workers over here.

And you're collecting different resources that you're then spending to do all these different things. So, there are a variety of different mechanics. Some of these almost feel like little mini games amongst themselves, but they're all tied together to this worker placement system here. Now, >> I want to have a caveat because when we say worker placement game, you think, "Oh, you're going to place your workers out." Not in this one.

You place your instructors. We're going to use the word instructors to mean the people that you actually place out to take the actions. You do still have workers, but workers are more like a currency you're spending. A lot of the actions you're taking are going to have some kind of cost in both resources and workers or might even get a little bit more powerful if you devote more workers to that action.

I think it's important to make that distinction. >> Yeah. And that system is really interesting because you're not placing the instructors in the different locations even though you are interacting with those locations. You literally place them along this track. And as you can see, the track has these different segments.

And each of those segments represent one of the six actions that you can take in the game. >> Yeah. And the way that you're taking these actions is different for each one. But fundamentally, you're not just choosing the action that you're going to take. You're also choosing your place in player order for the next round.

And this is a big hook, I think, too. Like in this situation here, David took these two actions right here. When we reset for the next round, his workers are going to come before mine. He's going to get two actions in the next round before I even get one. Yeah. And so you're kind of planning out what do I need right now versus what do I need for next round.

And there's even a spot, these first four worker placement spots here don't really get you anything, but they guarantee that you're going to go first next round. So, if you take a couple of those, you might be forgoing some actions this round to take actions four in a row next round. And that can matter because there are definitely things that you're competing for in this game.

You're competing to hire these craftsmen to come over to your board. You're competing to put tiles out that represents like the influence of your estate. You're competing for some victory point conditions up here that you want maybe want to be the first to compete or to complete. So, there are a lot of reasons that you might want to go first, but I mean, you really need to take actions in a specific order, too.

>> Yeah. And even the places that you're going to go to that don't necessarily sort of enhance what you're doing. When you're collecting resources, when you're interacting with the marketplace, even those places benefit being the first person to go there because maybe you're able to get an extra bonus resource if you go to a certain place first to get wood, stone, or marble.

And likewise in the marketplace, you'd normally get two different actions. But if you're the very first person in a round to go there, you're going to get an extra action there. So you can spend a little money, do some trading, get the goods that you need to then do the building. >> Yeah. And so there are six different actions you can take, but only three are actually represented on this board.

There is this estate management here where you're expanding out your estate by putting out all these these little tiles. These tiles are great because they're going to help you produce, which is another action you can take. Every tile that you add to your state, you add a forest, you can produce more wood.

You know, that's just how it works. You come over here and when you produce, you're producing a number of goods, but you're spending workers to produce them. So, already you can kind of see how these things are tied together. The more you build out in your estate, the more you produce, the more you can gain when you take this action, but you're spending workers.

You're spending workers there. You're spending workers to build buildings. So, again, you're limited with these resources. not just the resources that you're gaining, which you can gain in a variety of ways, but also you get only 12 workers around and sometimes you have to spend them like for good. So that number is going to kind of dwindle as you're playing the game.

So I think there is kind of a lot that you're managing here in a game that you know keeps these things pretty self-contained. >> Yeah. And all of these things are wrapped in a structure of you're going to go through four seasons three times. So the the game lasts effectively three years, four seasons each.

So, 12 rounds, if you will. And in those rounds, you're going to be placing those five instructors to take those actions. And again, I don't know if we mentioned this, but the worker placement, you might not be able to see on the camera here, but some of these spaces are shaded such that in a two-player game, there's only certain amount of spaces available in some of those actions.

So, for instance, gathering resources, there's quite a few even in a two-player game, but some of these others, like building, >> there's only two spaces there. So in a round, if I use an instructor to build and then Ryan does something else and then I'm able to build again and then I instruct and build again, Ryan is not building.

So while there is no traditional blocking where I'm here, you can't come here, eventually there is kind of blocking where you can't come here anymore. And Ryan did that to me in the game that we played in this sort of like expanse territory where you're adding these tiles. And it's very interesting to see how someone can kind of like, okay, I'm kind of dominating here because he was able to crawl up here and get access to marble, which is really one of the only ways you can actually gain access to getting marble or using marble anyway.

>> Yeah, I think that is one of the most interesting things to me. The thing that really makes you think about the actions you're taking because it's really a lot of it is about setting up for that next turn like I talked about because you can do some things like these right here, these goals that you're completing.

You can really set up for a big turn where you're taking three actions in a row. It's like, I'm going to go get resources. I'm going to take those resources to the market. I'm going to sell my resources to make money and then I'm going to take the action to hire a craftsman. And maybe I'm hiring the craftsman that you were trying to take.

And again, that's an interesting procedure as well. But maybe I did that before you did that. And now you have to spend more money for your craftsman. So timing is everything. >> Yeah. And speaking of timing, Sue, one thing we didn't mention, as you go through those seasons, there's going to be these prestige cards here, which are effectively event cards that are going to dictate something that is happening during a particular season.

The cards here on this side are going to affect the spring and the summer, where the cards on this side are going to affect the fall and the winter. As you can see here, in the first season, I think we had a a point bonus for building a particular type of thing in our estate, which is another one of those little carrots that gets dangled.

Obviously, as you build out your estate, you're going to score for all the basic things you do that is going to maybe enhance some of them. It's also potentially going to negatively affect some things where you might have to spend an extra worker to do something that you would normally spend fewer on.

>> Yeah. Let's talk about this board, too, because I think we've talked about everything that's happening over here. This is kind of all how you're getting the stuff to come over here and spend it. And spending it is really what you're wanting to do in the game. Everyone has these two player boards.

One that represents your estate and one that represents your craftsman. And each craftsman comes with a tile like this that can be upgraded over the course of the game to a better version of that craftsman that's going to slot in. So each one of these is going to have multiple versions and each one of these is going to show you everything you can build.

You've got your master builder that can build things on the outside and then you've got specific craftsmen that are building the types of things that are going to come on the inside. So it's a multi-step process of building on the outside, covering some of these different rewards that are out here and then adding those decoration tiles over the top of these to have a completed decoration inside.

And all of this stuff is scoring points, but everything you're doing on the outside is scoring one scoring track. And everything you're doing on the inside with the decorations is scoring on another track. And that's kind of something you're balancing throughout the game. >> Yeah. And it's again, it comes down to not only those event cards, but just the kind of balance of scoring, like Ryan just said, as to why you're going after what you're trying to go after.

You might look at your board and say, "Oh, well, I don't have the craftsman I need to even do the floors yet." >> Sure. like you don't start with a craftsman that does the floors. So, you're going to need to pursue that if you want to do more interior decorating. The master builder is the guy who does the outside.

So, you can do a lot with him at first, but some of these tiles that you get to sort of enhance them or upgrade their tiles, the starting one, he can't even do the tower, which is the top of the outside. So, you're going to have to wait till I think what, year three before you can even year two before you can even do that.

>> They're kind of staggered as they come out. you'll it it kind of implies that they're getting better and better as time goes. You start with like a master builder one, then in year two they can upgrade to two, and then year three they can upgrade to three. Uh and when you get to the third level, they have some crazy uh special abilities or just they can build for a lot cheaper based on which one of these you're doing.

And you've got this whole set here where you can see what effectively become different action spots you can take. When you come out and do the build action, you're doing one of these buildings. Uh, and you'll notice even though there's separated into three sections, this just kind of corresponds to the first, second, and third level of your building.

Of course, you're going to get more points if you can build up onto the top level, but it's a lot harder to do so. Or you can just kind of, you know, build out the bottom and have a nice little onestory mansion. I mean, the chateau, right? >> Yeah. The craftsman are very interesting because like Ryan said, you can only build once at the beginning of the game.

Later, some of those tiles actually allow you to build twice with one action. So, you're able to have a really good uh plasterer and he's able to do the stucco work on two different rooms at once, which is going to be something you're going to want to do. You're going to want the game to ramp up that way.

Otherwise, for instance, in a two-player game, you're literally only going to be building probably once, maybe twice if you jump on two builds in in one round. >> And you're going to learn a lot about the process of building wood paneling on your walls and about your stucco ceilings and your marble floorings.

You're going to be able to build some statues and some columns. Uh some you're going to be able to decorate even the outside of your house to make it look a little nicer the facing that people see from the outside. So all these things like we've talked about multiple times, all of these things factor into your scoring.

You're looking at these two different scoring discs. And I think the the big thing here that we do need to at least talk about a little bit is how it scores because I think that is an just an interesting premise. You score points based on how close your two are together, which is interesting. It's not about crossing them.

It's not like ArcNova where one starts on one side and one starts on the other and you cross them. It's literally two scoring discs that if they're exactly together, you'll add them together and you don't lose any points. But the farther apart they are, the more points you lose. So if you've done nothing on one category and everything on the other and they're 50 points apart, you're losing a ton of those points.

>> Yeah. Just as an example, now this isn't an endgame state, but with our scoring markers where they are, these are Ryan's and these are mine. mine, one of them's at zero, one of them is at 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. So I'd add the two together. 14 plus 0 is 14. And the difference between those is 14. I'd have that, which is seven.

So I take 14 minus 7. My score is currently seven. Whereas Ryan, what do you have here? Is that 10? >> That's eight. >> Eight minus four. So >> eight plus four. >> Eight plus 12. >> And the difference is only four >> minus four. Eight. So he has eight points. So there is a little math there, but it's much easier than what I think I even just described it as when you're doing it just at the end of the game.

>> Yeah. So again, there's multiple strategies. I mean, I can see a strategy where you're just so far ahead that you don't mind taking the points hit because you're still going to beat everybody, but you need to be looking at what other players are doing. You need to be looking at maybe what they're scoring or or if they're kind of keeping their things together and you know they're going to get a lot of points.

The score itself can be deceiving when you start to think about how you're going to be taking negative points. And there's other points you're earning earning during the game. There's some competition, like I said, for some of these bonus tiles. If you can complete these goals, you're going to get extra points.

You're going to get some bonuses here and there. Stuff that's going to add in afterwards. So, even if you're taking a big hit on points from being far apart, if you've done a lot of goals, you're making those points back up as well. So, I think what that does, it gives you a lot of freedom and flexibility to decide, I'm going to play a game where I'm keeping them, I'm just two points, two points, two points, two points, keeping them neck and neck, or I'm going to really rely on like in-game scoring, you know, and you you have those options available.

>> Yeah, you you could alternatively just go up high on one and then the next. Now, if you did that, I think you'd have to do the exterior probably first because you have to have you have to have the exterior before you decorate it. >> That's that's fair. That's a fair >> You couldn't do it in the opposite.

So, all that is kind of you're getting all these points kind of as you're building things, but like David said, you're playing over the course of the year and you're playing three years and then they do give you a score pad to kind of do that in-game scoring. Now, there's one thing I should mention, too, and this is kind of neat.

There's no feeding people in this game, but there's feeding the house. >> Yeah, you need to warm your room, which is interesting. >> Keep it heated. So, at the end of the round, unlike feeding people for every two rooms, every two rooms, you have to discard one wood. And if you can't, for each wood you can't discard, you're going to lose some points.

>> So, I've seen feeding people in a Euro game before. I think this might be the first feeding a house. You're heating up the house to last through the winner. It's an interesting idea. >> It's also one of the only games I think I've ever seen that uses both a score track >> and a score pad because those negative points that I just mentioned, you track those on the score pad.

You don't reduce those with with the point markers which is an interesting thing you have to keep track of because at the end of the game you use that score pad starting with that calculation that we talked about. >> And the last thing I want to talk about and this is not anything to do with the gameplay itself but look at how dual layered everything in this game is.

I just app I'm a person that could really that really appreciates all of the dual layering on these boards. >> This is a very goodlooking game. This play the main board in particular is one of the most robust looking uh reminds me a little bit of brass in terms of some of the detail of the artwork. >> Oh yeah, the artwork is very detailed.

>> Um so yeah, this is Prestige from Skeleig. If you have any questions at all about it, please make them in the comments below. We'll get down there and answer whatever we can. Until next time, make sure everyone has fun at the table and we'll see you then.