Drop the Pilot

Friday night. Gloucester Road heaves to the rhythm of people on their way to pubs and restaurants and also to me, on my way to Sam’s for a quick game or two.

I had been inspired by the Bracknell bunch, and their tales of derring-do over a game of Lords of Waterdeep, so when I suggested it as the first game of the night, I was glad that Sam agreed so easily.

I remain endlessly impressed with the effortless way the pieces come out of the box while you set up. It’s almost as if you can pour it over the table, and it’s ready to play. But game box ergonomics aside, what about the game?

Well, bearing in mind my constant mispronunciation of “Plot Quests” as “Pilot Quests”, you’d have thought I was clueless, but I had focused early on these Plot Quests as a means to getting bonus points and cubes and how to chain them together. Thanks to these, in one round I managed to complete three quests in a row and catapult myself around the score track, building up a lead that Sam never caught, especially not after he realised he’d picked up the wrong quest in one round, and ended up completing a quest that scored no points at all, but got you two points every time you played an intrigue card. Not much use in round seven out of eight.

The fabled "fifth bowl" of Lords of Waterdeep

Perhaps the biggest laugh was when a Plot Quest came out that promised money every time a player took a black cube. Well, I already had a Plot Quest that gave me a black cube every time I got money. How we chuckled over the image of a game that’s ground to a halt because a player is trapped in an infinite loop of getting gold, then getting black cubes. We imagined him sitting next to a huge pile of black cubes and cardboard chits, while his opponents pop out to buy more black cubes. However, any chance of it being a viable sketch on a TV comedy show was ruined by the amount of time it’d take to set that joke up. Basically, we’d have to explain the rules of Lords of Waterdeep.

Still, we found it funny.

Andrew 228
Sam 199

Since it was still early, we dug out San Juan. This is the new light game with a deep heart. Short, but complex. Sam got his production buildings down early, while I put out violet buildings, again, trying to maximise an early bonus card, and I got a gold mine which didn’t really help. Sam traded well, and the tower meant he could save up his cards. I completed twelve buildings first, but Sam really won it on the “?” cards, getting bonuses for all his buildings.

Sam 36
Andrew 28