Backlog 365: Day 12 - Magnifico

For Backlog 365 I plan on playing one game on my backlog everyday this year and write about it. For each game I will decide if I want to put it on my "Shelved" list (games that I plan to come back to and play in depth) or put it on the "Retired" list (games that I will delete or sell and move on with my life).

• January 12
• PC
• Time Played: 34 minutes

Ah, here we go. A game I had no idea I owned, and have no clue what it is. When I drew Magnifico, I decided that I wouldn’t peak at the Steam page so that I’d jump into the game completely blind. My guess, before starting Magnifico, was that it was going to be game about magic – maybe an action RPG or some match-3 with a magic theme. And… it’s a board game, about Di Vinci (kind of). Oh, I get it Magnifico, as in a Venetian nobleman. Man, I swung and missed on that one.

I know I have a few digital board games on this list, and it’s going to be hard to make a decision on these games. It’s really hard to tell if you like a board game until you play it a couple of times, but I’m not going to have the time to do that. Making it even harder is that many of these digital board games have little to no tutorials, which makes reading the

game rules necessary to understanding and playing the game. I don’t know how I’m going to make a good decision on these games. After playing Magnifico, I realized my best bet is going to be to take an educated guess about the game based on how it resembles other board games and how I feel about them.

Magnifico does feel familiar. There are a few ways to get victory points each time; outbid your opponents, control the most territories, have the most castles, and so on. During the game turn you take over territories, either empty or through player combat (hit/miss dice rolls), and build units. The first to a set number of victory points wins. The auction/development mechanic reminds me of The Princes of Florence and Power Grid, and the combat/movement definitely has a Risk/Axis and Allies feel. However, this was a marriage of game styles that I don’t really think I needed. The other main question I feel I need to ask when it comes to digital board game is – Does the translation to digital hurt the game? In the case of Magnifico, I really think that I would enjoy the physical game much more. It seems like the physical act of moving armies and using coins to make bids would greatly add to my enjoyment of this game. Therefore, I am going to Retire Magnifico, but I leave open the possibility of buying the physical game.