Findorff

For those of us who, like me, have remained loyal to FF, his recent designs have offered a few nice flashes — yes, we love the crocodile trains — but they often do not reach the place they promise. Findorff is exactly that sort of case: a game which, as you look at it on the table, seems to have the ingredients for something far more substantial than what it ultimately leaves behind.

At its core, it combines tableau building and action selection, with an economy that only just holds together if you do not inspect it too closely for logic. That is not a major problem: it serves the gameplay, and the game moves at a cracking pace. There are strategies to pursue, and its flow keeps the session lively without becoming sluggish.

At the same time, Findorff adds racing elements, making a very deliberate effort to avoid becoming a point salad. That choice, though, costs it some interest. The clearest example is the houses you build: although they are a central part of your presence in the game, by the end they seem not to do much of anything. An area-majority or set-collection element could have given them the weight they are missing.

I would not call it bad or dull, and it is certainly not a disastrous purchase. It simply reeks of missed opportunity — almost like a scenario that could have come out of 504. Unlike Free Ride, this one felt as though it had the foundations for a serious piece of work. In the end, though, I would probably rather play a friend's copy.