Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery

I had my first playing of this new game today. It was billed as a somewhat meaty game with game mechanics from Struggle of Empires, Caylus, & Puerto Rico. But it didn’t really combine those mechanics into something more interesting than the sum of the parts. I think that this is what gave me a negative impression during my play. I kept thinking fondly on those other games and wanting to be playing them instead.

Also, it was quite long for what it was and it took us 3 hours to play the game after the rules were explained.