We began with a game of Tsuro while we waited for Anja to arrive. Perhaps we were all too aware of the leaderboard, but it seemed more cagey than usual. I was able to wipe out Joe and Sam in one go, but then spent the rest of the game running parallel to Adam, hoping to find a path to escape down that didn't send me skittering off the board. No such luck.
1. Adam
2. Andrew
3= Joe
3= Sam
Then, after some heavily self-conscious conversation about board games while Adam's non-gamer housemate did normal things in the background, the doorbell rang and it was Anja. We decided on the brand new experience of Airlines Europe. This game involves building routes across Europe which only score you points once you've got shares in them. Similar to Chicago Express, this can mean that you spend time and money on an airline only for someone to swoop in as majority share holder and take most of the points.
I got grey shares early on, and concentrated on those. Adam hoarded some cards, and sprang a last minute attempt at taking over purple. Anja had a portfolio that had a little bit of everything, whereas Joe specialised in only about five different companies (out of sixteen. Or fourteen.) Sam cleverly went for shares in a company that had no planes at all! Sounds like a money laundering operation to me, but it was enough to give him a tasty 16 points at the end.
There was lot of thinking and downtime between goes, which allowed us to enjoy Sam's range of unhealthy nibbles and Anja's liquorice (Sometimes sweet, sometimes salty! Try your luck!) and it also gave Sam enough time to take a photo from a chair and then bump his knee heavily into the table as he nimbly leapt off the aforementioned chair. The game was fun in a brain-melty kind of way. As the game came to a close, I had no idea who was first. But I soon discovered...
Sam 87
Andrew 81
Anja 80
Joe 66
Adam 60
The end of the evening loomed, but we convinced ourselves that one more game wouldn't hurt. So we chose 6nimmt. This game of bluff, double-bluff, counter-double-bluff and plain luck is a cruel slave and a terrible master. I don't think anyone's quite worked out the strategy, as shown tonight when everyone had a poor round. In the end, Sam squeezed past to score his second win of the night, to send him home rejoicing in his two victories!
Sam 35
Adam 42
Joe 45
Andrew 51
Anja 66
The Form Table shows Steve sitting triumphantly atop the charts, and congratulations to him! I sneak back into second with Adam a solid third and Sam in fourth despite that seven-point millstone around his neck. Meanwhile, Anja can reflect on her choice of that final game. As she ruefully said, you should never accept a game of 6nimmt at the end of an evening, which made her sound like an alcoholic blaming her hangover on that one last drink the night before.
| Points | ||||||
| Steve | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 9 |
| Andrew | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 12 |
| Adam | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 13 |
| Sam | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 14 |
| Joe | 3 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 14 |
| Hannah | 5 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 14 |
| Quentin | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Jonny | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Paul | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Anja | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 19 |
| Sally | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
Finally, the other scoring systems show that I was the winner overall on the old system, with Steve coming top of the pile in points ratio. Adam takes top spot on the Olympic-style leaderboard with Sam's late burst pushing him into second.
Well done Steve, Andrew, Steve and Adam. Thanks to our generous (and varied) hosts, Andrew for the write-ups and mathematics, and everyone for making Tuesdays jolly fun.
ReplyDeleteAirlines Europe: it had felt a bit like "Ticket to Ride with AP" to me, but after further reflection I'm more enamored of it and would like to try it again. It's a pretty game and I like the combination of open play and secrecy.
With the new season looming I need more surgery to blame my failures on. Any suggestions?
How's that knee holding up?
ReplyDeleteTerrible. I think the cartilage has amyitis.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your sentiments on Airlines Europe, Sam (actually I agree with all your sentiments, well done and thanks everybody).
ReplyDeleteAE is a funny beast - perhaps slightly ungainly. That board scattered with a seemingly random rainbow of tiny coloured planes at the end doesn't feel like an achievement, and of course it isn't really; the achievement is in the shares you have acquired and the size of each dividend - the board is just a means to that end, which is slightly counter-intuitive.
As Anja will testify, the idea that the score track has no direct relationship to the players scores is also something that requires a recallibration of the gamers instinct. But it's all pretty straightforward when you get to it.
In a way, it reminded me of Lords of Vegas, but the relationship of the state of the gameboard to the health of each players investment is much less opaque there - there is an inherent spacial imperative in Lords.
Still, now that we know whats going on, I'm all up for playing again; despite it feeling like a long game, we did manage two other games, so it can't have been a Colosseum-style evening-eater. And like Hansa Teutonica, Ticket to Ride etc. it's sometimes nice to play a game that goes round and round, without separate phases and a minimum of book-keeping.
Fun!
Metatarsals were all the rage a while ago, but I'm not sure what the current injury craze is...
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Andrew - a very good season on the true leaderboard, and well done Steve - out-ratioing Quentin is pretty spectacular!
I think I'd like Airlines europe with less players, as it was I got a bit bored in between turns and my attention wandered - which I'd like to blame for my poor showing.
I refer you to Airlines Europe
ReplyDelete