Modern Art

While I can be a bit ambivalent toward card games, I generally love auction games, and JM introduced me to a gem of one last meetup, Modern Art. He also messaged me to let me know that it's on sale for half off at Barnes and Noble here in town and to admonish me for being so slow to update my blog. Sorry!

I did indeed enjoy the game and intend to pick up a copy ASAP.

Each player represents a museum and starts with a hand full of paintings by various artists. Following assorted rules, the players take turns auctioning their collections, receiving money from the other museums at the time of sale. Once five paintings from the same artist have been sold, the round ends.

At the end of the round, values are placed on the artists' worth based upon whose paintings sold the most. This sets a baseline value for subsequent rounds, and the game is on. The museum who manages to acquire the most money wins.

After the first round, the minimum value for the paintings has been clearly set, but occasionally I was allowed to purchase one for lower than that value. If that artist's work was worth $10000 at the end of round one, it will not be lower than that at the end of round 2, and it could go up in value to as much as $40000. Therefore, it makes no sense to let me buy it for less than the minimum $10000. By capitalizing on these mistakes, I ended up finishing with nearly twice as much cash as my nearest competition.