Closed economy games are always interesting in how they ratchet up the tension of when to blow your money and when to conserve it.

I do find myself preferring limited auctions (Ra’s sun disks, Amun-Re’s auction tracks, Hot Lead’s hand management) or closed/secret auctions (Orongo, QE) over open auctions (Medici, Nightmare Productions) as time goes on. They tend to be more brisk.

Orongo brings in an additional spicy decision of when to bid zero to replenish your personal economy. Great stuff!

I agree, Nightmare Productions at least hides its math better.

Ra is crazy good at 3p, but I could see Nightmare Productions being great at 3p as well.

On Nightmare Productions, the comparison to Medici is interesting, I need to play that one more. It felt a little too mathy to me my one play where Hollywood/Nightmare productions leans heavily into it’s theme, which is a nice change for an auction game. Another thing to note, Nightmare Productions/Hollywood plays really well at 3, some say it’s best at that count. I know Joel Eddy said he will only play it at 3. Where Medici is not good unless you have at least 4, better with more yet.

Though at 3 count it’s competing with Ra… just too many good Knizia auction games, hah. Not a bad problem to have.

I have the Spanish, Hollywood Golden Age edition of the game and it’s fun to see how starry eyed my older family members get when I pull it out.