Angler Management

Adam and Andrew both arrived on the doorstep at the same time, with Uwe Rosenberg's latest pre-industrial sustenance game pre-agreed and laid out on the table. I(Sam)'d played through it by myself yesterday, and lived up to my new GNN moniker by mistakenly setting up for two. No matter: everyone was new to the game and no ill effects were had.

The game in question is Nusfjord, where each player runs a small fishing company in north Norway. It takes all the elements of classic Uwe games but with two twists - 1. there are shares in companies and 2. it doesn't take three hours to play.

Much of what happens is familiar from Agricola and the like; you're placing workers on a centre board and trying to build an engine really. Aside from some minor kinks - elders give you your own worker-placement spots but demand fish; you can feed all the elders for gold - the main deviation from the standard Rosenberg smorgasbord is the shares - each player has five, and as unissued shares count against you in the final reckoning, you really want to issue them if possible. But doing so means other players can grab them before you get them yourself, meaning you have to pay them fish every round, and lending Nusfjord a slight feel of Uwe being daring - breaking away from his multi-player solitaire, but in a somewhat inhibited way, as the shares, though worth considering, didn't feel pivotal enough to be, well, pivotal.

That said, when Adam, Andrew and I sit down to play an Uwe game, there isn't going to be much complaining, and we all enjoyed it for it's relative simplicity and speed, playing in just over an hour - including rules explanation! Mmmm.

Obviously, Adam won. Don't ask me how. I got two of his shares early on but he shrugged off the catch-tapping in the manner of a man born to run a small fishing company on the Lofoten Peninsula in the 18th century.

Adam 26
Sam 23
Andrew 18

We packed it away making approving noises and perused the cupboard, eventually settling on The Quest for El Dorado. This was new to Adam, but it's not too onerous to explain or perceive, so after a brief overview of the cards, we were off!

I surged into the lead, geographically-speaking, only to be caught by the others a third of the way to the mythical city.

After a round of faffing and hedge-betting, not much had changed:

Then I was off again! Only this time Andrew not only kept pace, but surged ahead. I tried to block Adam off, but he snuck by too. As I languished near a cave, looking inside for unlikely help in the form of a discarded compass, they both made it to El Dorado! And Andrew won the tie breaker convincingly!

Andrew - completes the quest
Adam - also completes the quest, but in less pioneery fashion
Sam - faints at the sight of water

There was just time to bash out a quick game of NMBR9, which remains as brilliant as ever, despite Andrew flipping the nine itself on the first card.

Adam 91
Sam 80
Andrew 73

And with that, we were done.  A good night, thank you gentlemen!