My mooting of The War on Terror was greeted with a round of indifference - maybe I should have worn the balaclava - and instead we set up Joe's new purchase - Martin Wallace's Tinner's Trail. As entertainingly explained on the box (along with honest nods to games he had purloined mechanics from) the game was closely based - as close as any game can be without drowning in rules (I'm looking at you, High Frontier!) - on the tin and copper-mining in 1800's Cornwall. Each player is basically prospecting for the resources in question and contending with fluctuating sales prices and a shitload of water in the mines.
The game is made up of four rounds and in each round players use up a limited (ten?) amount of spaces on the time track, building a mine taking up two spaces, pumping out water taking one space, and so on. In WallaceWorld boats and trains not only improve the production levels of your mine, they also dry it out a bit too, so these were popular. Other tools at your disposal are miners - always handy - and adits, draining systems that link between mines and both increase the mine's capacity and decrease it's water levels.
Despite Stanley's repeated requests for me to go up and sing him the dinosaur song, I managed to get off to a decent start by grabbing a slightly less damp mine than most and removing all of the water. I didn't get around to actually removing any copper or tin though, so Joe and Andrew made the early running on the scores; trading their hard-dug cash in for investments, the things that actually win or lose you the game after round four.
Joe was aditting like crazy, not building very many mines, while Andrew and I prospected a bit more and spread our mines across the board. After round two I reaped some cash in and made the first big investment, but round three saw Joe the most productive miner as his adits had their moment in the underground sun. Come round four we were all in the money, but Joe had left an unoccupied mine looking very attractive and after a bidding war that took the price up to record levels I swooped in to grab the tin and copper and make a third big investment, enough to cement first place:
Sam 139
Joe 107
Andrew 76
We all thought this game was great - very nice looking, great mechanics, and enough interaction to keep things interesting without feeling like you're in a war. And not too long, either! Well done, Wallace.
We rounded the evening off with a game of Roll Through the Ages. At this point Joe (little Joe) decided to wake up again and I spent a bit of time going up and down the stairs to soothe him to sleep. However I can't pin my woeful performance on him this time; changing strategy mid-game from getting-developments-as-quick-as-possible to getting-loads-of-workers-who-don't-do-much did for me. Andrew and Joe contested this one closely, both of them building lots of cities and taking the odd disaster minus-point in order to push their developments on. Andrew took first place though, with his Empire scoring a whopping 15 points for him:
Andrew 35
Joe 29
Sam 15
Leaderboard:
The two results above mean the three of us stand, like football managers who can only manage a draw when a win was vital, level-pegging on the leaderboard. Early days yet though. And maybe next week I can play a whole game without infant interference!
The (world's most boring) Leaderboard...
| Played | Points | Ratio | |
| Joe | 2 | 8 | 4 |
| Andrew | 2 | 8 | 4 |
| Sam | 2 | 8 | 4 |
Infanteference. Wyse Word! Well it should be.
ReplyDeleteYeah I think Tinners' Trail is a real charmer; lovely bits, a very well integrated theme and not too brain-burny. Even the auctions seemed to find their level quite easily. All that and Cornish Pasties. Lovely.
I was trying out a strategy of making unowned mines attractive to instigate a bidding war between the other two, but it didn't really work.
In that last round, by the time I'd got my developments in place and began bidding for the mine I'd just drained, I realised, and Sam did too, that if I took it I wouldn't have the time points to actually mine it.
Perhaps I should have pushed that last auction a bit harder and taken it anyway — depriving him of the points even though I couldn't have them myself. He might still have got it, because he had more money than me, but I'd have made him pay more. Ah, hindsight.
Between the two games, the scores completely flipped, with Sam coming first then last, and Andrew vice-versa. Me, Mr consistant, Mr middle-of-the-road, coming 2nd in both, proving that the opposite of average is . . . average. Or something.
I liked Tinner's Trail, despite losing badly. And I think Adam, Jonny and Quentin will be kicking themselves when they find out they missed the "taste sensation" of Sweet and Sour Puffs!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad all my experience in the one-player version of Roll Through The Ages paid off. Getting Quarrying in the first roll was a big help to me.
oh yes, the Sweet and Sour Puffs. Perhaps they contributed to the first adult sleep-walking episode of my life last night... or maybe that was Wallace.
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