Too many rules

Is it even possible to have too many rules? We at GNN gave it our best shot this Tuesday at Sam's with a couple of AP-inducing semi-epics. Adam T, Adam H, Martin, Ian and myself joined our host around his kitchen table for our first Tuesday evening together in a few weeks. Martin, Sam and Adam T chose Pax Pamir while the rest of us chose Orbit.

In Pax Pamir, the game recreates an Afghanistan riven by divisions and subterfuge caused by the British and Russian forces. Sam had recently bought the second edition, with its charming textile map and large tactile pieces. There was a bit of setting up and rule learning/refreshing to be done and it all looked very complicated.

Not like Orbit, the game that we insist is like Ticket to Ride in space except it isn't really, which is far simpler. In terms of rules, that is. This time we avoided the familiar and newbie-friendly space agencies of NASA or ESA and set ourselves a real challenge. Adam was India (no feul) and I chose Japan (no points) while Ian had the Soviets. Then we put the planets in their astronomically correct positions and we were off. I was a little rusty, but Adam kept things moving. We needed a pause or two to check the rules. I forgot that on returning to Earth, a ship goes back to the docks, and Adam questioned my move of landing on a planet with a different rocket to the one that put me into orbit. It was a challenging game. Ian had only one feul for the whole game since it would've taken so long to put it up to two that he always had something better to do with his turn. This became a real weight around his neck in the latter stages of the game.

Adam looked smart in his three-feul three-speed ships and our only hope was that he'd pick up unfortunate mission cards. I got lucky with mine, getting two cards that I'd already done to offset the one that I couldn't. Ian kept reaching for cards like a madman who'd recently come to regret his lack of investment in fuel.

Adam 49 (including +15 in mission cards)
Andrew 24 (including +1)
Ian 23 (including - 9)

Pax Pamir was still in full swing. If "full swing" is the right way to describe a game in which no one scored any points at all in the first hour. After two hours, Martin had fallen behind 3-3-0 but then a costly mis-step from Sam gave him the win. I don't know what the details were but suddenly he had ten points and they were packing up saying how much they'd enjoyed it.

Martin 10
Sam 3
Adam T 3

In the space between end of Orbit and end of Pax, we three had a few jolly rounds of Love Letter to fill the time until Ian had to go and get a bus.

Andrew 2
Adam H 1
Ian 0

At this point, Adam T also left and the remaining four of us played Two Many Cooks or, as Adam dubbed it, Too Many Rules. After our collective brains had been frazzled by two heavy games, we found ourselves struggling with some of the finer nuances. Such as having to follow suit, except when you don't have to. And how some zero cards are actually tens unless you play them first in which case they are zeroes.

But we battled through yet another trick taker with a twist. Adam said it was all random and then Martin wins, which I think is possibly a game category on Board Game Geek. It was fun. No Texas Showdown, but fun. And Martin didn't win.

Sam 26
Andrew 22
Martin 21
Adam 16

And with that, the evening was over. Only four games played. Whatever happened to our stamina? Our verve? Our giddy reckless stumbling through one game after another? Nevertheless, a good evening and I'd like to get another game of Orbit in soon: I was surprised how rusty I was at it.  Thanks to all. Let's do this again soon.