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Again a good turn out boosted by the Buffalo group. Apparently they like playing with us. By my count there were 20 people present for part or all of the day. Stuart Smart, Bill Peeck, Frank Mestre, Tom Dunning, Jeff Erinson, Bob
Read, Mitch H, Brian Thorp, Jacob Yaple, John Parungao, Jack Morell, Jennifer Thomas, Nick Anner, Chris, Rex Coats, Mike Cardwell, Steve Cuyler, Nestor Arce, Dianna Winslow, and Rob Winslow. Mitch, Brian and I gave this tile-laying game a try. The game played well and quickly, we made only one minor mistake early on. Mitch moved away from the center fast, while Brian and I were stuck near Tonga (the starting island). A few turns later and Brian and I had both moved out away from Tonga, and I had founded a royal island. Each of us in turn founded at least one island, and by then Brian had a commanding lead in the number of boats on board. A few moves later and Mitch and I had reduced Brian's lead, but time was running out. A last minute play by Brian took Mitch and I off of Huva Hoa (worth 4 points), giving him the lead.
Final scores were Brian 21, Steve 19, Mitch 15. Had Brian not made that last move, the scores would have been Steve 23, Brian 21, and Mitch 19; so it was a pretty close game. Overall playing time was a little under an hour with 3 new players, not a bad time limit for our meets at all. I'd like to see how the dynamics change with more players, and the game supports up to 6, so I'll bring it along again next month. This is a new release of the "crayon" rail games by Mayfair. The map is Russia from the Polish-Rumanian border to beyond the Urals. But it does not include Siberia. North to South it goes from Murmansk to the Caucasus Mountains. There are some really interesting modifications in this game over the other versions of the same system.
We had 5 players and as it was the first time for many we took 4 hours to finish it. And of course we did not read the detailed rules and so were surprised a couple of times. I think I have explained the system to everyone before, but basically the game is a
transportation competition game.
Product production locations and cities are on the map. Cards are drawn that determine how much you make for delivering loads of a certain product to a city. You have to build (by drawing it on the blank map) a rail net that lets you connect the two places. Building rail costs money. To win you have to connect a certain # of major cities (5 of 6 in this version) and collect 250 million rubles.
First we discovered that some of the event cards were actually special loads. For example you got 30 million rubles if you delivered tanks and uranium to Murmansk in response to a Nato threat. There are the normal tax card and rivers flooding and derailment disasters.
However there was one card called the fall of communism. When this was drawn every one lost 20% of their money due to devaluation, you had to start paying 2 million rubles to cross into the new
Russian Democracy, and the special delivery load cards changed. Each has 2 events one if the country is still communist, and the second if its democratic!
Our first game of Russian Rails was highlighted by some wild action at the end. Toward the end of our game Frank Mestre was leading and had gotten within I think 3 or 4 million of the 250 needed. People started to dump cards to try and end communism and cost him 50 million. Unfortunately Frank stalled, and I actually made the delivery to win the game.
However, everyone after me had a turn still and I think Tom Dunning drew the communist ends card. So I lost 55 million, Frank 48 million and the others less and the game went on. Eventually I managed to gather enough money to win, with Frank second and Tom Dunning third. Mike and I gave this new Avalanche Press mini game it's first test. Price is $20.00 with small map of European Russia and 150 counters. & turns represent June to Dec, 1941. Combat uses alot of dice ala Europe Engulfed method but this
creates a wider variety of results. In most ratio based games a 7to1 attack would be auto victory for the attacker but in this system heroes are made and the "7" attacker may miss while the "1" hits the attacker.
Our game played to the last turn when the German soldats in desparate winter weather successfully overcame the defenders of Fortresses Leningrad and Sevastopol. Mike's experience with the Soviet strategy served him well trading space for time until a Clear weather roll in October gave the Axis one last exploitation onto the
open steppes.
The game took 5 hours, 2 more than claimed by the publisher but was tense and fun 'til the end. I think both Mike and I enjoyed a return to a small game where rules were brief and only a couple questions arouse. Alhambra was played twice with Bill Peeck and Stuart Smart tying for first in one, and Bill Peeck winning outright in another. And yes I said I did not know how to play the game at least 10 times. My first time and of course the opponents were experts (Nick Anner and Tom Dunning). An interesting game. I would probably like to play it again. So many games so little time. Nick and Tom tied for first and I think Nick one because he had more money than Tom at the end. |