Blue Steel

You would think, after over ten years of gaming and blogging, that I would have seen everything related to board games. Amazing comebacks, games where everyone was beaten by our resident dummy player Dirk, absurd dice roles that rewrite the laws of probability. But tonight saw something new: for the first time, I left a games night without seeing the end of a single game.

It started normally enough, once you adjust the definition of “normal” to allow for the presence of Katy. There were seven of us: Sam (host), Adam T, Adam H, Joe, Katy, Ian and me. Katy came in and sat down, pulled a roll of toilet paper out of her bag and asked if she could swap it for one of Sam’s. The air of general bemusement wasn’t really cleared by Katy’s explanation: something to do with making a zine (called Fecal Matter, I believe) and it’s better to photocopy from Sam’s brownish toilet paper than her own white toilet paper.

Except Sam doesn’t have brownish toilet paper, he uses the same brand as Katy. She wailed in despair. Sam’s offer to put out a request on the local chat group didn’t seem to cheer her up.

But what about the games? We decided on a bold mission. Two epic games, both expected to last 2 hours. Sam, Adam T and Adam H played Arcs - a sweeping space epic that I somehow failed to photograph properly. Ian, Katy, Joe and I played Anno 1800, a new Martin Wallace based in the Industrial Revolution.

Anno 1800 is an engine builder of sorts, where you build things that help you build better things. The idea of the game is to play all the cards from your hand, the problem being that in order to do that you will inevitably need to pick up more cards.

The two rules explanations ended and the seven of us set out together on our very different routes. I was enjoying it, happy with my ability at reusing my men without having to waste a turn holding a “festival,” where you get all your men and trade/exploration tokens back. And then I noticed the time. It was already 9.30. I only had five cards left in my hand but they all needed me to have some pretty rare resources to get rid of them.

Katy invented the sausage (“Come and use my sausage!”) and then she explored the New World. Ian had cheap steel on sale - the tile was coloured blue and this became known as Ian’s Blue Steel - a Zoolander reference. I invented dynamite with a combination of pig, bricks and goods. But cards weren’t really being played by anyone. We needed fur coats, gramophones and something that looked like a mounted cannon. There was clearly a long road ahead of us.

In Arcs, Adam H was mostly attacking Adam T, but then found that he had outraged the population and now couldn’t repair anything. Something like that. “The more I understand, the slower I get,” mused Sam.

Finally, Joe realised we’d been playing a rule wrong. We were supposed to flip a tile over when we bought it and that would have doubled its output. Well, at least it was the same for all of us. Nevertheless, as the time hit 10.15 and no one was even close to finishing the game. My heart sank. I had to make a decision, and told everyone that I was bailing. Maybe once I could go on as long as it took, but not these days.

They promised to keep my board in the game for trading purposes and would count up my score at the end.

I left both games still in full swing. A whole three-hour session without a single result. Amazing.

I leave it to Sam to finish the story...

*            *            *

The story ends with a victory for Katy! Beyond that I cannot enlighten Andrew (or anyone) further, as my mind was being blown by Arcs, which is a trick-taker in the sense that an articulated lorry shedding it's load of playing cards as it crashes in slow-motion is a trick-taker. I got a couple of snaps.

The geographic nub of Arcs is the 'Reach' - the board - where we take actions getting in each other's way. The card system uses a trick-taking mechanic in a similar way to Brian Boru: everyone gets actions, even if they play off-suit, but leading is best as you get (usually) more actions, and you also get to declare an ambition. 

Ambitions are a way - the only way - of scoring points, by leading their conditions come the end of the round. But 'understand what's happening' isn't an ambition that rewards you on the score track, unfortunately, so even as things began to swim slowly into focus, I was finding it harder to click the metaphorical cogs together, and being left behind in every sense apart from owning a bunch of relics. I used my relics to get cards, but they may as well have been sat on a mantelpiece. Arcs is tough. Arcs is nasty. Arcs is bonkers. The Adams did some kind of passive aggressive ownership exchange of goods and ended it shortly after Andrew had left.

Adam T 37

Adam H 30

Sam 20

Then the Adams both left too, and we played So Clover!

It wasn't a bad effort at all - we only came a cropper on Joe's clover courtesy of an unlucky red herring. Some fun clues but after a night of epics, one round was all everyone could manage. 

22/24

And that was that!