by thatmadgirl
First of all, I really, really like this game. Echoing everyone about the incredibly high quality of the components, and how polished it is, and etc. Love it!I broke this out and played twice last weekend - first with six players, and then with three. I doubt this is a surprise to anyone, but it plays MUCH better with more players. It took a while for us to realize how the social/negotiation component came into play, but it soon became clear that it's possible to help someone or hurt them or mooch off of them, and it's not completely clear which one you're doing.
When we played with three people, we were in 3 teams of 1 nearly every round, which I'm not sure is typical, but seemed the most strategic for us in those specific situations. And the times when there were teams it was because whoever placed their token last was purposely getting in on what was clearly going to be a good blend. It was still fun from a strategy standpoint, but most of the social interaction was absent. We also used interns twice the whole game - I'm not completely sure how useful they are!
So just my two cents - great game for a large-ish group, not as much for smaller. Though I will give some major kudos to the designers for balancing it for smaller groups anyway, as the variations they have definitely helps.
Also, this is based on a sample of TWO games, so take this with a grain of salt.