Last Train for Yuletide

With Christmas threatening to erase all our fun with festive cheer and public holidays, Sam, Chris and I managed to squeeze in one last night of board games before Santa takes over the world.

I got to Sam's house a little late, and found Chris and Sam nearing the end of a game of A Castle For All Seasons. This game of worker placement and bonus-building has been a semi-success in GNN towers. It would be an unqualified success if we could just work out what to do with one bonus building that always seems to be the decider in who wins. We really should check on Board Game Geek. Anyway, Sam won, beating Chris who scored a respectable 60ish points on his first go compared to Sam’s 80+.

After this, we discussed what to play. We decided it should be something that Chris had played before, but didn’t own. After a little debate, we went for Railways of the World again. To be honest, I was a little sore after my recent third place and I was desperate for a chance to put things right, so when it was suggested I tried to be nonchalantly keen on the idea in case my eagerness put people off.

We used the Mexico map, and I was in charge of distributing the cubes across the various cities. I didn’t do a great job. Most cities had cubes of the same colour, unable to move until the later stages of the game. We all sat and stared at the board, a little baffled as to where to go at first. But there were two New Industry cards in the first round, which Chris and I used to good advantage, creating two new coloured cities to deliver to.

It seems that Martin had an influence on Sam’s and my tactics (that's semi-regular GNNer Martin, not Martin Wallace). At the end of the last game of RotW, we counted up our number of bonds and he said “Wow, we usually finish with fifteen!” With this in mind, this time the two of us were less frightened by the looming debt, and went for broke. In fact, in the first round Sam had to take a bond to pay back the debt caused by his other two bonds, which I think is a first. Chris, meanwhile, kept a close hand on the purse-strings and completed the game with only one bond.

It was pretty tough out there. We all scored bonuses for routes or cards, we scrambled for engine upgrades and tunnel engineers, and we made awful puns on a train theme: “I’m getting up a head of steam now,” “I just need a platform to build from,” “I’m going loco!” But before too long we we’d run out of puns and were just saying anything related to trains: “High visibility jackets!” “Shrink wrapped sandwiches!”

I was totally invested in this game. I even turned down Sam’s offer of some Waggon Wheels because they weren’t thematic enough (and also because they’re quite nasty) and I took photos of the board every couple of rounds, so if I lost I could go back and pinpoint where I went wrong.

It remained close on the score track, but Sam’s eleven bonds dragged him back into third. In the end, the result was decided by a choice Chris made right at the very start of the game. When he got two baron cards, he discarded the one giving a bonus for most money and instead went for one that gave bonuses for owning hotels. As it happened, he ended the game with most money, and hardly any hotels came out at all. If Chris had got the bonus for the money baron, he would have ended level with me on points and, of course, won the money tie-breaker.

Andrew 63
Chris 57
Sam 53

What a game! Even with a starting position as miserable as the one we had, it still offered possibilities for fun and profit. I am in awe of Chris’ amazing powers of wealth-generation. If I ever want to start a company from scratch, I’ll be asking him for advice.

And it still wasn’t even ten o’clock. We decided on a new game for Chris: Love Letter. We told him the rules, and we were off. It is, like A Castle For All Seasons, one of those games that you need to play once before you can really understand it, but Chris did well.

Apart from the time when Sam read the rules according to Sausage & Mash rules (read some text but substitute any word stating with “s” with “sausage,” and any word beginning with “m” with “mash” remembering to keep plurals, verb and adjective endings intact, i.e. “-ing”, “-ed”, “-ly”) the highlight of the game was one short lived round when I, on a whim, used a Guard to accuse Sam of having the Princess.

At this point Sam hadn’t even looked at his card and he said “If I am the Princess, I’ll be very angry.”

He looked at his card.

“I’m very angry,” he said as he revealed the Princess.

Next was Chris, who then accused me of being a Baron. I sighed as all my good work was undermined: I was the Baron. Chris got a win on a freakish stroke of luck (or maybe he’s psychic? Actually, his final score would suggest not...)

Sam 3
Andrew 2
Chris 1

After this, I left, preferring to head down Gloucester Road before the pubs shut. Chris and Sam stayed for a couple of rounds of Biblios. Sam texted me the scores:

Chris 7
Sam 5

Sam 13
Chris 5

A lovely way to finish the GNN term before Xmas (unless any one else can squeeze something in?) and I was certainly buoyed up by my win on RotW. On my way home, I strode past the stragglers and pub bouncers with the confidence of a man who knows how to move wooden blocks over cardboard hexagons. Surely this is the level to which all people aspire.