CO2, pt 0

So, I decided to go with CO2 as the first solo game.  Setting up, in my mind, involves getting a grasp of the rules along with physically setting up the game.  As this is a fairly modern game, reading the rules takes a particular form:

[Reads rules]
"What?"
[Reads rules]
"What?"
[Reads rules]
"What?"

So I did that for a little bit, and turned to BGG.  I now have downloaded three player aids, and I'm working my way through a 45-minute video walkthrough of the game.  I'm starting to wonder if game companies are assuming they can write weird rulebooks simply assuming that the videographers and cheat sheet writers on BGG will pick up the slack.  (I'd have appreciated, say, a little sheet explaining what the kind of obscure glyphs on some of the cards meant in the rulebook.  No sign of them, but if you get the right player aid...)  Anyway, it's becoming more clear.  It's also becoming clear that this is by some distance my most rules-complicated Euro.  In terms of rules-complexity, it's even surpassing some of my wargames.  Teaching this to my grad student crowd looks like it may be a step too far, but maybe the Unitarians will go for it.

(Does anybody else remember getting a game, bringing it to the table, cracking it open, and playing the game with the rules right next to someone?  And it working?  I liked those days.)

I can say, tentatively, that this looks like the rare complex Euro that I'll actually like.  It has two of my favorite mechanics: Either everybody loses, or just one player wins.  The Republic of Rome Rule, I call it.  Second, you don't necessarily own what you build.  Building power plants takes three steps; you propose a power plant project, then you build the infrastructure, then you build the power plant.  But if you propose the project, that doesn't give you dibs on building the infrastructure.  You get rewarded for each step of the way, but actually doing the building--which is the most lucrative--doesn't depend on the player having done anything else.  The game seems to reward camping out and sniping other projects...but not everyone can do that, or else everyone loses since not enough green power plants get built.  Or so it seems.  (Tikal has a bit of this; it's huge in Roads and Boats.  I'm confident I've seen it other places...)

The big weakness of the solo game is that it's impossible to truly win; the level of CO2 in the atmosphere is going to get too high sooner or later, it's just a matter of how many points you score in the interim.  But I like winning!  There's some talk that it gets old; we'll see.