I've only played King of Siam once, Susan, but it was a really good game that went down to the last action. I was very impressed. The threat of a British victory definitely played a role in the game and affected the players thinking. I really want to play this again to see if the game always plays out this well.

I want to like King of Siam ... I really do. There is no denying that the game is very tense throughout, and the outcome is in doubt until the very last round. That's all good.

The bad news for me is that I really doubt just how much control one has. It seems that it is VERY easy for opponents to undue a previous move and change the board radically. Things just change WAY too quickly.

I've played three times now, and feel that the semblance of control is illusory.

I will say that the accusations hurled against many Eurogames, claiming that the games are just about pushing wooden cubes around a board, apply in spades to this game!

Greg,

I will be very disappointed if I end up coming to the same conclusion as you. I was hoping that I just wasn't yet seeing the clever strategies in the game. I guess I'll find out after I've played it a few more times.

It is definitely an exercise in "cube pushing"!