Tonight saw Sam and I meet up for a quick games night, and among the options Sam brought was Last Train to Wensleydale. We decided that, as gamers, giving it another chance was the proper thing to do. The rules were still as fresh in our mind as a recent blind date that went terribly wrong. But maybe there was a spark there that needed revisiting.
So, the board and all its fiddly bits were set up in double quick time. We needed to consult the rule book occasionally to make sure that there wasn't another two-player variant we should be aware of, and sometimes there was. But mostly this time everything went pretty smoothly.
The only downside was now that the bidding section wasn't really that competitive, with eight options and only two players battling for them. Apart from the occasional hiccup over the rules, everything made much more sense this time. But between being too fiddly for four players and too sparse for two, perhaps three players is the sweet spot? Further investigation is needed. But, for the record Sam won, 40-something to 30-something.
And then we played Biblios!
First time round was the usual set up, and Sam won. Then we tried a little idea of mine. Before the game begins, roll the dice so each colour's starting value is random. "Anarchy!" you may think. But, no. Instead it made for a slightly different strategy as some colours were desirable from the start. It wasn't different enough to make me win, but I was a single solitary card from victory. Such bitter sweet defeat! Oh, the delicious regrets that board games leave you with! Pardon me while I swoon.
Showing posts with label Last Train to Wensleydale. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Last Train to Wensleydale. Show all posts
Thursday, 4 October 2012
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Maybe Beeching had a point
A new season, a new game. Last Train to Wensleydale finally took it's place on the hallowed tabletop of GNN. None of us were familiar with it, but we were prepared for a few hours in the company of a challenging Martin Wallace game we'd never played before.
Host Joe talked us (me, Sam, Adam) through the rules. In this game, the point is to build railways across dales and through valleys in order to deliver stone and cheese and serve passengers. However, in doing so, you leave a trail of unprofitable railways behind you that you have to sell off to the local council. We played as we read the rules for each phase, which meant that we weren't really sure of our targets at each stage. And Adam wasn't yellow. That was really confusing.
At the end of round one, after much fiddly adjusting of counters on so many sliding scales it looked like something used to produce a Pink Floyd album, we found ourselves a quarter of the way into the game without much more of an idea about what to do next. I was in the lead, simply because I was lucky enough to choose the option that no one else chose. I went into the expensive valleys looking for stone, while the other three ran into each other on the plains, searching for cheese.
By the end of round two, people were glancing at the clock and thinking if we stopped now, we could play something else. And so it was that the game was curtailed, with me in a commanding lead, and the other three separated only by their railways companies' profitability.
Andrew 18
Joe 9 (profit -2)
Adam 9 (profit -3)
Sam 9 (profit -4)
I think I liked it, but I think I was in the minority. Maybe that's because I got a little bit of the board to myself. Or maybe I'm more forgiving of Martin Wallace's self-indulgance. To maintain the Pink Floyd theme, if Tinners' Trail is Dark Side of the Moon, and Brass is Wish You Were Here, then Last Train... is Ummagumma. The over-ambitious one that never quite fulfils its promise.
After this, we used Adam's Spin The Bottle app to chose between three games: Ticket to Ride, Seven Wonders or Downfall of Pompeii. It chose Pompeii, so we set it up and had a quick run through of the rules.
Then we set about populating a doomed city, mostly with our own relatives apparently, before Vesuvius erupted and we all panicked and ran to the exits. A sort of board game version of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. Oh, what fun we had, sending our opponents' meeples into the tiny plastic volcano of doom while trying to guide our own meeples to safety. In the end, Sam was the winner, with the last three of us relying on the tie-breaker rule of "least dead".
1. Sam 8 survivors
2. Adam 7 survivors (6 dead)
3= Andrew 7 survivors (8 dead)
3= Joe 7 survivors (8 dead)
Ah, the thrill of a season's opening fixture! Only slightly dampened by Last Train's inscrutable opacity. Mmm, I like those words.
In the meantime, the tiny form table looks like this...
Host Joe talked us (me, Sam, Adam) through the rules. In this game, the point is to build railways across dales and through valleys in order to deliver stone and cheese and serve passengers. However, in doing so, you leave a trail of unprofitable railways behind you that you have to sell off to the local council. We played as we read the rules for each phase, which meant that we weren't really sure of our targets at each stage. And Adam wasn't yellow. That was really confusing.
At the end of round one, after much fiddly adjusting of counters on so many sliding scales it looked like something used to produce a Pink Floyd album, we found ourselves a quarter of the way into the game without much more of an idea about what to do next. I was in the lead, simply because I was lucky enough to choose the option that no one else chose. I went into the expensive valleys looking for stone, while the other three ran into each other on the plains, searching for cheese.
By the end of round two, people were glancing at the clock and thinking if we stopped now, we could play something else. And so it was that the game was curtailed, with me in a commanding lead, and the other three separated only by their railways companies' profitability.
Andrew 18
Joe 9 (profit -2)
Adam 9 (profit -3)
Sam 9 (profit -4)
I think I liked it, but I think I was in the minority. Maybe that's because I got a little bit of the board to myself. Or maybe I'm more forgiving of Martin Wallace's self-indulgance. To maintain the Pink Floyd theme, if Tinners' Trail is Dark Side of the Moon, and Brass is Wish You Were Here, then Last Train... is Ummagumma. The over-ambitious one that never quite fulfils its promise.
After this, we used Adam's Spin The Bottle app to chose between three games: Ticket to Ride, Seven Wonders or Downfall of Pompeii. It chose Pompeii, so we set it up and had a quick run through of the rules.
Then we set about populating a doomed city, mostly with our own relatives apparently, before Vesuvius erupted and we all panicked and ran to the exits. A sort of board game version of shouting "Fire!" in a crowded theatre. Oh, what fun we had, sending our opponents' meeples into the tiny plastic volcano of doom while trying to guide our own meeples to safety. In the end, Sam was the winner, with the last three of us relying on the tie-breaker rule of "least dead".
1. Sam 8 survivors
2. Adam 7 survivors (6 dead)
3= Andrew 7 survivors (8 dead)
3= Joe 7 survivors (8 dead)
Ah, the thrill of a season's opening fixture! Only slightly dampened by Last Train's inscrutable opacity. Mmm, I like those words.
In the meantime, the tiny form table looks like this...
| Points | ||||||
| Andrew | 3 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Sam | 1 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Adam | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Joe | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
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