Category: (Toy)
8 new, starting at $43.99
Container is a game about big ships and big production. Each player will play both the producer and shipper of goods. Players will decide which products they want to produce, and which of the OTHER players' goods they want to ship out to a remote island. During these phases, players will be able to set the prices for their goods and try to maximize their cash! Once the goods have reached the island, players will play the part of the purchaser for their tiny island. Players bid for the goods arriving each day by ship, and the highest bidder collects these goods for conversion into points at the end of the game. Sounds simple? It is! But the real challenge is turning heavy industry production into goods for your island. Your government is willing to subsidize your purchases, but just how much money do you want to give to your competitors for that lovely crate of goods your island desperately needs? Please Note:On-line retailers are not included in Valley Game's pre-order special for the detailed plastic containers.
One of my favorite gamesReviewed by Festizio, 2009-04-15
I have a group of friends who all enjoy strategy and German-style
games. I got Container a few weeks ago, and it has already become
the group's favorite.
The rules are fairly straightforward, but the supply and demand
market forces are unforgiving if you don't understand them. My
brother has a degree in economics, and I have a minor, and we both
love this game.
Container - A lesson in economicsReviewed by David Bresnick, 2008-11-28
Disclosure: I purchased Container a few weeks ago and since then I
have been able to play 4 or 5 games. All the games I played were
4-player, so my knowledge of the 3 or 5 player experience is
inferred only.
Container is a Euro-style board game. For those unfamiliar with
this genre, Eurogames are generally defined as games involving no
player elimination, low randomness and only indirect player
conflict. You are a shipping company owner, producing, trading and
stockpiling goods as you strive to turn the highest profit. The
theme of the game, shipping containers to a mysterious island, is
about as abstract as the game is itself. It does a good job of
giving some sort of structure and metaphor to the game actions,
while not being too distracting.
Physically the game is simple, but elegant. The boards are sturdy
and visually clear, the containers are made of wood and shaped as
one would imagine. The factories and warehouses are wooden as well.
The boats are pretty notable, as they are very nice to hold and
made of a very sturdy material. I'm uncertain if it's plastic or
some sort of stone, though plastic is much more likely. Color,
however is my only complaint. There are five colors of resource:
White, Black, Orange, Tan and Brown. Unfortunately,
Orange/Tan/Brown are all very close in shade and can be tough to
tell apart. Colorblind players or players with impaired vision
might have some trouble here.
The rules of Container are pretty straightforward. The nicely
printed rulebook looks thick at first, but it's actually just
reprinted in many languages. The rules are concise, well-worded and
clean; there won't be any hour long arguments about a poorly worded
statement, nor will there be days of pouring over the rulebook
before you get a handle on how to start to play. Here's a rough
overview of game play, please note that some details are
omitted:
Container simulates a multi-tiered market structure, which I'm
going to walk through very carefully because it's a little
complicated. A player produces goods, which he assigns a price to
and stores in a factory. Other players can purchase those goods
from said player at his asking price. Once purchased, those goods
are re-priced (with a markup, of course!) and placed in the
purchasing player's harbor for resale. Each player has a boat which
he can "sail" from harbor to harbor, buying goods at each harbor.
When the boat is full, or when the player decides it's time, the
boat heads for the central island. Upon arrival, the goods are
auctioned off to the highest bidder - although the player has the
option to keep the goods for himself if he pays the highest
bid!
Scoring at the end of the game is simple - whomever has the most
dollars wins! Cash-on-hand is counted, as are resources you own but
haven't sold. The key to scoring, however, are the containers
you've purchased on the center island. At the beginning of the
game, each player is given a hidden scorecard that determines how
much each color of container is worth to him. The endgame value of
each container varies from player to player, and as this
information is hidden it can be tough to predict who is looking for
which resources. Additionally, the first step in scoring is to
eliminate the container type of which the player has most, forcing
players to adopt a strategy more complicated than "collect the most
of my most valuable container". Diversification is key to
victory.
The player-oriented nature of the game means player skill will
shape your game experience to a large extent. While expert players
are not required for fun, beginning players can bring some
difficulties to the game. One player in an early game of mine had a
bad habit of putting together boatloads of goods he wanted, then
buying them himself. Because he was giving up the income from
selling his boatloads to others, he quickly found himself deep in
debt, and basically broke. Unable to buy or produce goods easily,
the economy got worse and worse for the other players. Eventually
we had to "bail him out" by deliberately buying goods from him.
Once he had some capital he was back in the game, and the economy
got itself started again.
I'm not going to sugar-coat it, your first game of Container will
probably be rough. The market system is complicated and it's tough
to know how your actions will manipulate it. When and what to
produce, how much to spend on goods, bidding on incoming boatloads
of containers - all of these choices are going to be pretty
difficult the first time you run into them. This is because the
general "flow" of goods and money is very player-dependent, as both
price and availability of goods are determined by you and your
compatriots. With a little bit of thought and experience, though,
you should be able to keep your head above water. Keeping a good
eye for profit, as well as remembering that dollars are victory
points (i.e. when you pay someone for their goods you are also
shifting the final score), will see you through your first few
games.
Overall, I really like Container. It reminds me of other economy
games I've played (Puerto Rico comes to mind) but with its own very
unique direction. Like those other games, decisions can both be
evaluated for immediate gain, or speculated upon for future profit.
However, the closer player interactions in Container mean that you
need to be thinking about what the other players would find
beneficial as well. You can price your goods however you want, but
you need someone to be willing to buy them! While the initial
learning curve is a bit rough, it's not as daunting as it first
appears, and if your playgroup doesn't have an aversion to numbers
or business acumen, I'd recommend it.
