Passport-Packing Power-grabber Pax Pamir's Poetry

Pamir's - Pam Ayers? Yes?  No? - No. Fine.

Last night I introduced Adam H to the joys/hell that is Pax Pamir 2 as we faced off, two-player, over the historical future, if I can put it that way, of Afghanistan.

For the uninitiated, three coalition powers are hoping to claim the country - or most of it - for themselves: Afghans, British and Russians. The players are tribal leaders hoping to both manipulate events in their favour, and be sure to either A. be aligned with the strongest coalition when points are scored or B. be the busiest player (most discs in play) if no one coalition is dominant.

Although each turn is simple, it's a game of ifs and buts. You always have two actions, but can get extra ones if your cards match the current favoured suit. You can purchase cards from the market with an action, but you have to pay rupees to take them from anywhere outside of the left-hand column. You can play cards to your court (face-up on the table) but if you're playing a card with a region that another player rules on the map, you have to pay for the privilege. Your court limit is three, but you can make it bigger by playing purple (political) suited cards. Your hand limit is two, but you can make that bigger by having blue suited cards in your court. Red-suited cards break ties, but when the red suit is favoured, cards from the market cost more. And so on. It is all, to be fair, thematically sound, but it's also somewhat inscrutable with a fair bit to remember on a first play. I haven't even mentioned spies, who can sneak around the table and destroy opponent's cards, or how influence is measured come the scoring (patriot cards, gifts, prizes) or how you can change your allegiance at the drop of a hat, or how hard money is to come by.

Just like Martin and I on Tuesday versus Adam T, Adam H found himself cash-poor at times whilst I played taxes cards early and kept a steady trickle of rupees flowing. Adam aligned himself with the Afghans whilst I favoured the British, and my previous experiences helped keep my brain from imploding whilst Adam, in contrast, seemed to be getting a migraine. He wasn't helped by the fact the market was getting clogged up with Russian and British patriot cards that he didn't want, causing him to briefly change allegiance to the Russkies before later changing back to the Afghans. One area he was comfortable on was the map, where the Russians were nowhere to be seen and I had to keep chasing after the Afghans with British pieces to keep Adam from hitting an instant win when a Dominance check (scoring card) was activated. I managed to do so, and after the first Dominance card activated my tribe established a 3-1 lead.

actually from Tuesday, but I forgot to take pics

Adam was still scratching his head, but I sensed a sea change away from confusion and towards percolation. He realised he'd done something wrong - I hadn't spotted it, but then I was busy with my own plans - which was a worrying sign. He nearly won the second Dominance check, but was one rupee short of what he needed to pay for. I glanced down at my one hand card and saw I could play a spy with it, and outnumber Adam on discs in play (-discs are spies or tribes depending on their location) and having done so, I activated the next Dominance check for a sudden 6-2 win: any player four points ahead of other players wins instantly. I only wish I could say I'd planned it.

Adam professed not being enamoured but I hope this was first-play-blues. He did sit and stare at the board with the air of someone thinking next time... and reflect on the experience, so I hope that's the case.

I tried to make up for my indulgences and encouraged Adam to choose the next game. We pondered the alcove for a while before settling on the lesser-seen Tsuro: the tile-laying game of dizzy dragons where the last one standing survives. This is an old favourite of ours and it was a shame Andrew wasn't there to see it hit the table again - but we made up for absences by inventing a Team Tsuro variant: both of us had two dragons and two hands, which gave a potential for teamwork between partners: one could push the other into a convenient place to go 'on the attack' and push your opponents dragons into a corner, say.

It was quite lovely to watch - like two sets of dance partners twirling a ballroom intent on assassination. However Adam's end came first at his own hand, as he sent his white dragon flying into the void with little assistance from me. After that he was outnumbered, and my dragons forced him into a narrow corridor from which there was no escape:

Sam wins
Adam doesn't

We fleetingly discussed a third game to round things off, but with 11o'clock approaching and Sally also returned from her night out, we ended things there.