Industrial Waste musings

I must say I'm quite enamored by Industrial Waste. It was a good acquisition, as it is certainly a game for my liking. Thanks Tommy!

What's better, my opinion of the game has improved with every game. Yesterday's game certainly opened my eyes regarding the loans. I wouldn't avoid a loan anymore, if I needed the money urgently. You can always pay it back and even if you don't, being disadvantaged by one loan isn't that bad if the loan gives you the extra oomph it can.

I think money is of utmost importance in the game. Getting as many innovations as other players and focusing them well is important, but I believe it is the money that usually makes or breaks the game. You're going to be pretty close to the other players if you've played well enough.

I'm not too keen to fix the raw materials auction card, either. The problem, some claim, is that after you advance your raw materials use, the auction cards became less useful. I don't see it as a problem, yet. However, I might want to fix the bribery card. It just feels so useless... After all, losing one step of the factory growth is just one point in the end and few million euros during the game. Maybe bribery should prevent the money loss, too - you pay one million to the right guy to avoid paying five millions in penalties to the government, that makes sense.

For something completely different, see Rick Thornquist's weird Industrial Waste session. Now that's bizarre. It's a good example of trouble: take a loan without really getting anything out of it. If you have to take a loan to survive, that's bad - taking a loan to expand is a much better thing. Also, I think the guys were paying way too much for raw materials. There are very few situations where a bunch of raw materials is worth ten or so.

Anyway, Industrial Waste is an interesting game. I'm looking forward to see how they take it in Jyväskylä. After all, they like Puerto Rico a lot and St. Petersburg even more - Industrial Waste should be a sure thing.