Today's game was Railways of the World. In particular, the eastern seaboard of the United States. When Adam and I arrived it was already set up, and Joe talked us through the rules. This did not take long, since it resembles another game (Age of Steam) quite closely in that the main part of the game involves building tracks and then transporting goods along those tracks.
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| Good bits. |
I am not very good at Age of Steam, and so it was with Railways of the World. I simply don't know the best way to balance building things with moving things. And then there are the cards giving you extra scoring options to bear in mind. This lead to some sombre pauses during the game as we all weighed up various options.
Joe did his level best to distract us with the new snack crack, Honey Mustard Pretzel Pieces, which is like having an awesome party in your mouth. It certainly worked on me,but Adam is made of sterner stuff... Fimo, I believe. During the game, he snaffled bonus points and stopped others from getting theirs while calmly fulfilling the criteria for his end of game bonus.
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| Endgame - my unfulfilled Railroad Baron card is thrown down in disgust, and only Adam has breached the Apalachians . . . |
As we finished we wondered if we hadn't made a mistake somewhere as we ended with tens of thousands of useless dollars in our hand. Perhaps our bidding for first place had been too timid. I say "our". I mean Joe and Adam. I was usually first. Fat load of good it did me.
Adam 92
Joe 79
Andrew 63
I enjoyed it, but I'm a long way from understanding it. Or Age of Steam. Or Chicago Express or Trans America/Europa or Ticket to Ride. Any game with a train in, and I feel compromised. No idea why.
Meanwhile, we enter the last week of the season with the Form Table looking like this...
| Points | ||||||
| Steve | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Adam | 1 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 11 |
| Joe | 2 | 2 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| Andrew | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 12 |
| Hannah | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 14 |
| Sam | 2 | 7 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 18 |
| Anja | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 18 |
| Quentin | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Jonny | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Paul | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Sally | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
I really liked Railways of the World - it felt like a new flavour of Age of Steam rather than a completely new game. Seemed quicker too, although that could be that there were only three of us.
ReplyDeleteI think the long thinking pauses were perhaps because we were playing a huge (6 player?) map and had so many options - it might be quicker on the smaller Mexico map with fewer people...
Would love to see how congested it gets in a full-on six player game though! Maybe Septcon?
Oh and the Honey Mustard Pretzels were amazing - the point at which Andrew stole the bowl and ran off to pour the rest down his throat might have been the turning point of the game... He never made back the goodwill!
ReplyDeleteThey were just crumbs!
ReplyDeleteDo the honey mustard pretzels come with the game? Either way, looks fun. I haven't played a 'proper' train game in ages. We really must break out Last Train to Wensleydale. That's the game I mention to friends and they assume I've made it up, but it's real and it has fifty million meeples.
ReplyDelete