Easton Cowboy

Saturday night. After a day of moving soil what I should have done was go to bed early, but I was awake enough not to cancel the incoming Adam and Ian.

There was a little discussion over what to play, with the main choices Flamme Rouge or Great Western Trail. I was happy with either, but when Ian warned Adam that the latter was long, his mind was made up: Great Western Trail it was.

I explained the rules as best I could and we began. The game though is slightly Rosenberg-esque in the options you have - you can travel as far as you like on your first turn, and up to three 'steps' thereafter, so it feels like you are being directed to a buffet rather than served a first course.

I won't go thorough the vagaries of GWT which have been covered in great depth recently, but my plans of exploring the buildings some more sort of evaporated early on. I didn't build a single one. We all bought cattle, and grabbed station master tiles. But during the second half of the game, Adam either hit on or realised a long-planned strategy of shunting his train as far up the line as he could. I'm sure I did this before and lost, but maybe I misremember. Or maybe I just didn't do it as well as Adam did. As the game end hove into view, it was clear Ian and I were duking it out for second. And Ian proved to be the clear winner in that particular melee:

Adam 101
Ian 84
Sam 67

I remain bamboozled as to how to join the cogs together on this one, but I do like it. Adam, as Adam so often does, had no such qualms and seemed to be in his element; herding, trading, and most enthusiastically of all, shunting.

We still had some time, so we bashed out a couple of quick games of For Sale. Adam won both of these too, with Ian and I sharing second in the opening game and me bumped into third for the second. I should have gone to bed at seven...

Cowfight at the OK Corral

Thursday night club was on, and although Ian couldn't make it, Joe stepped in and slipped into his seat with ease. He'd brought Gold West with him, but I wasn't mad keen on that. Then he suggested Great Western Trail, and I wasn't mad keen on that either.

"What does Sam want to play?" Andrew wondered aloud, but as I had no agenda/idea, after discussions we returned to the idea of Great Western Trail, and ended up setting it up. Having done so - we were off!

This was my fifth play of GWT and you'd think that might give me some small advantage, but I remain inscrutably bad at it. I decided early on to try and build a hand of good cattle, but doing so costs money, and it's cheaper if you have more cowboys, but cowboys cost money... and so on. I pictured Martin doing some sort of Stewart Lee-style comedy routine based on the diminishing returns of plaintive optimism... although the game experience is far from that. Every turn has the potential to be lucrative, but I found myself making largely sub-optimal moves to a great degree, with the exception of the turn when I hired three (three! count 'em) workers, causing Joe and Andrew to make impressed noises.

The noises were mostly cowboy based though, as Joe started something of an accent theme to the evening. He was taking long enough over his turns that we - or I - felt obliged to rib him about it, but secretly I was worried that he might know what he was doing.

In fact in mid-game I thought it was a battle between me and Joe - Andrew had almost no workers and seemed to be dawdling on a scenic walk rather than driving cattle. But at the game end he sped up, hurtling his train down the track and delivering to the well-monied distant climes of Sante fe and so on... the 24 points he got from cattle delivery delivered him to a very convincing first place.

Andrew 81
Joe 67
Sam 64

Despite my crestfallen and slightly ruddy face come 10.45, I really enjoyed GWT - like Railways of the World, it's game you can have fun losing - and unlike Railways, you can delude yourself you're doing better than you are.

Cheese a Devil Woman

One thing I do remember from Tuesday evening was a brief discussion about how baffling the notes made in the drunken haze of a games night could be the next morning. And so it was that today I found myself staring at the words now being used as this article's title with little idea of what prompted me to write it down in the first place.

Last week's Solid Six turned out to be a little flakey this week: with Martin unable to come and no one else to take his place, we were just five. Sam the host, Ian, Joe, Katy and me. At the appointed time Sam was out collecting his son from martial arts training so the four of us entertained with a jolly game of Mamma Mia.

Joe's copy of Mamma Mia seemed to have an

exclusive expansion pack

Midway through the game, Katy was doing so well that she set her sights on making a complete set. Ian, on the other hand, played very few recipe cards in the first two rounds.

Round three, though, reminded me of the final stages of Eclipse, with everyone piling in because, why not? Katy didn't complete the set and I came close to a tie for first.

Katy 7
Andrew 6
Joe 4
Ian 3

By now Sam was back and settled so it was time to decide on the evening's entertainment. Sam and Joe were keen on revisiting Great Western Trail before they forgot the rules and we're happy to play a two-player if no one else wanted in. Which was the case.

Us remaining three perused Sam's games wall, trying to decide what to play and then chose Katy's copy of Isle Of Skye.

"Watch out for moneybleed!" warned Ian

as our respective currencies threatened to merge

We set up swiftly (both games, with Sam and Joe arranging the pieces of GWT with lightning speed) and started our respective adventures. We got a good selection of scoring tiles, meaning we had to concentrate on sets of buildings, completed areas, sheep, and money. Which is more or less the point of the game anyway.

I fell behind, but midway looked like staging a comeback, only for Ian and Katy to speed off without me in the final stages.

Katy 7
Ian 70
Andrew 63

Still, it was fun and relaxing, especially since some of us were still recovering from the AP overload of Saturday.

When we were done, GWT was still in full flow so we picked out another game. Ian and I suggested Quantum, but then preferred Cosmic Run as lighter fare.

After explaining the rules to Katy, complete with confusion over the role of the aliens and a remarkably lucky roll of three fives to illustrate a point I was making, we got down to it.

My luck with the dice during the tutorial did not desert me. Throughout the game I think I wasted maybe a couple of dice. Ian and Katy, though, both had opportunities scorned by Lady Fate, returning home unrewarded for their dice rolls.

Andrew 87
Katy 59
Ian 58

We finished as Joe and Sam had totted up the scores and were packing away.

Joe 55
Sam 48

With Sam commenting that the win was more convincing than the score would suggest.

Since we were a five again, we played a lovely communal game: 6nimmt.

Oh, the agony. 6nimmt is a game that seems to hate its players. We wailed at our grim fate, or delighted in others' discomfort. I got a hand full of multiples of eleven, and didn't know how to play it. Joe put down a card which would normally be safe except that everyone else crammed onto that row before him. This prompted another baffling drunken note: "Amazing. Write that down. Gareth Hunt."

Joe started well with a clear round and Katy and Ian also went clear later on. But it was Katy who clocked up another win as I edged over the 66 limit.

Katy 17
Ian 19
Joe 40
Sam 46
Andrew 67

After this there was time for one more game. We considered Dead Man's Chest, but when we found out that Katy had never played Perudo, it was brought to the table, quicksticks.

With her familiarity with Dead Man's Chest, she had no problems with the rules. As we played, Joe was first to go down to his last die, but he then survived while myself, Ian and Sam all fell by the wayside. A remarkable performance, which ended with him facing off against Katy, die versus die.

He made a bid, but Katy couldn't work out why he would lie. Sam explained the many bluffing techniques open to Joe but Katy wasn't having any of it. She made her bid as if he was being honest and won.

1. Katy
2. Joe
3. Sam
4. Ian
5. Andrew

And that was that. Another evening of cattle trading, space exploration and clan building in the Outer Hebrides. And there's not many hobbies where you can say that.

Counting Cows

This Saturday meeting was initially organised as a chance to really get to grips with Great Western Trail, a recent acquisition of Sam’s that promises 150 minutes of playing time, according to BGG. So it was no surprised to find GWT already set up, with Joe sitting beside it having already reserved his place, along with Sam. Matt was the third player, preferring cattle trading to the epic space adventure being organised on the other half of the table.

Apologies for the fuzziness.

Camera lens is damaged.

Chris, Ian and I chose Eclipse as our Saturday epic, going for an all alien battle against upgraded ancients. I ended up going for my usual Swarm of Wasps tactic, only because Interceptors were cheap, and resources were in short supply. Chris was cash-rich, but went through the whole game with very little in the way of building resources. He could hardly ever build more than one ship per round. Oh, but what ships they were, bristling with advanced tech and improved hulls. He also ignored aliens in his own sector, preferring instead to head towards the centre. Ian, too, had ships stuffed with hulls and +2 and –2 die-adjusting computers, but weaker weapons.

As is usual in Eclipse, the final round played out with everyone piling into the centre, currently controlled by Chris. I put my interceptors in first, not as a serious challenge, but simply to pin his ships down so he couldn’t invade. Then Ian decided to join in too.

After this, there was a lot of cagey attacking around the perifery. Ian invaded me, just so I couldn’t invade him. Chris explored a sector, hoping for a route to me, but found only ancients (which I then attacked and beat) and finally Chris attacked and defeated Ian’s home planet. Oh, the humiliation!

Chris 38
Andrew 28
Ian 26

Since Great Western Trail hadn’t finished, we quickly whipped off a game of Love Letter.

Chris 3
Ian 2
Andrew 1

Finally, Great Western Trail had ended, with the scores at:

Sam 116
Matt 97
Joe 73

Although Sam said he’d inadvertently cheated. He didn’t go into details (with a game like GWT, that might have taken a good few minutes) but we salute his honesty.

Then we went to the chip shop, except for Joe and Chris who stayed behind and played a card game that looked like Race For The Galaxy. I didn’t note the score, but I think that Chris won.

After food, while we waited for our last arrival, Katy, we played Fuji Flush.

Andrew/Chris 0 cards left
Matt/Joe/Ian/Sam 2

And when this was over, Katy was here and we split into two groups: the foursome of Chris, Ian, Joe and Katy went for the high tension of Ponzi Scheme. The remaining trio chose A Feast For Odin.

It was Matt’s first play of Odin, but the rules aren’t difficult, just remembering what some of the iconography means and how the options should go together for best results.

I decided to simply ignore most bonuses on my player mat, preferring instead to build over them. I regretted this when I saw Sam’s use of the bonuses on his player mat and the Faroe Islands net him an increasingly impressive haul each round.

I think this game was the first time that the grey tiles from the oval bit of the board (I forget its proper name) were extensively used, with Matt and Sam buying stuff there regularly, and even I nabbed a couple of things late on. Buildings, too, were built by Matt and I. Meanwhile, I don’t remember Sam playing a single occupation card. He didn’t need to.

Sam 109
Matt 62
Andrew 59

By the time we’d finished, Ponzi Scheme was long over, with Katy being the sole survivor as you might expect since she confidently predicted her imminent demise mid-game.

Katy 19
everyone else went bankrupt

They filled in the time while we finished our final round by playing Vegas

Chris 500
Joe 360
Katy 280
Ian 260

And, post-Odin, we trotted out No Thanks, with Matt’s clever choice of high cards meaning he only had one run of cards in front of him by the end, compared to Sam’s and my three or four. Maybe five, in my case.

Matt 31
Sam 39
Andrew 67

After this it was just past ten, but I seemed to be the only one winding down. I had to turn down Matt’s offer of a game I’d never played before in favour of Dead Man’s Chest, about which Katy observantly noted “the best bit about losing is that you get to play.” Honest Joe did well just by telling the truth, until he lied and got caught out.

1. Sam
2. Katy
3. Joe
4. Chris
5. Andrew
6. Matt
7. Ian

After that, there were a few rounds of Spyfall. Sam, as the spy, guessed the first location after only two questions. Then Joe was too honest, and his inability to keep a straight face swiftly got him collared as the spy. This was followed by another round where Joe was the spy, and he got so close to winning, with the old Polar Station/Space Station confusion.

After this, Joe tried to accuse Chris based on the fact that Chris was perusing the list of locations in a suspicious manner. No one agreed, though. Sam was the spy then, but he didn't guess the location.

Finally, we all accused Matt when he asked an odd question, but it wasn't him, it was Ian. Matt explained that he was also asking questions according to the role he was playing, not just answering. We'd never thought of playing it that way. Spyfall Extreme, anyone?

After this, Chris and I left – I was so keen to get to bed that I dashed out without my notes or a beer. How lackadaisical of me.

Once I'd gone, the remaining gamers launched into a little Cube Quest Tournament. Sam texted me the scores and notes.

Matt beat Sam when Sam flicked his own king off the board.
Ian beat Katy with a long shot.
Joe beat Matt with “Hari Kiri” method.
Katy beat Sam “early doors”.
Ian beat Joe in an epic

Thus ended the weekend. Thanks all. Good to get some epics undertaken. See you guys on Tuesday.

Great Western Trail Blazing

Friday. With Sally and the boys away, I was immersed in work at home. After 11 hours of reading and writing, my morning plans of watching a movie evaporated at the notion of spending another 2 hours in front of a screen. Instead I broke out Great Western Trail.

I'd spent about two hours looking through the rule book last week and needed to return while I still had any recollection of them. I spent another half hour refreshing/finishing the rules, including this particular bad boy...

 rules

...then I was off!

In Great Western Trail you're competing cattlemen, driving your cows across the ranges to Kansas, whereupon they are loaded onto trains and delivered to cities, where - the game doesn't show this bit - they'll presumably be eaten, with pepper sauce. 'Tis a game tinged with sadness.

trails

Your cattleman starts on the bottom right of the board, and on your turn you may move him up to three locations along the trail. Wherever he stops, you get to take an action. If he stops at a building you own (or a neutral building) you take the juicy local actions, or the more arid auxiliary actions. If he stops at an opponent's building, he only gets to take the auxiliary action. It's just as I imagined being a cattleman would be!

There are other places on the trail too - flood lands, gorges and deserts, replete with dangers that you must pay to pass. Or you can pay to get rid of them, and get victory points later.

The local actions are stuff like buying more cows, selling cows, and doing a lot of fun cow-related stuff, like discarding a cow in order to move a train somewhere. Or hiring a worker, who'll either help you move your train, build your buildings, or buy more cows. Cows are really the thing here.

auxiliary!

At some point though, you're going to reach Kansas, and this is where the cows you have in your hand get you money. There's a seam of deck-building going on here, because you only ever deliver four cows, and you only get money for each type you deliver. If you have three Guernseys and a Jersey, you'll only get paid for one of each. So really, you want to deliver as diverse a bunch of cows as you can - in the old west they hated having too much of one cow. It's probably to do with breeding - diversification is inherently stronger, come the day of the revolution, etc.

Then, having delivered cows, you rush back to the start in order to drive some more. Except drive better! With more buildings, and more diverse cows, more cowboys, and maybe a station master.

For whatever reason, when you move your train, you can sometimes take a station master and replace it with one of your workers - like a cowboy, for instance. Now you've lost a cowboy to a new career, but gained a station master, who won't help you buy cows, but will give you end-game bonuses instead. Like I said: theme!

Dirk

As the game progresses, the board fills up with buildings - Dirks, in this case, as I became bovine-obsessed and rarely bothered with construction - and they start to get in your way. If I go to Dirk's Bar, I can't spend the night there. But I can dispose of a cow and get another, or maybe just manifest a coin out of thin air!

Really, Great Western Trail is quite ludicrous. It starts with the theme (cows) continues with the not-remotely-thematic mechanics (collect money because your buildings are next to a forest!) and extends this madness right into the scoring, which is not so much a point salad as a five-metre vegetarian kebab. I even missed something out and had to add it after - it takes a whole page of rulebook to explain the scoring.

scoring

All of which makes it sound like I think GWT is crap - but I don't. It's awesome! For one, it looks great. Two, it moves really fast. Turns take literally ten seconds when all you're doing is vanishing a cow, after all. And because cattlemen love to share, there's no blocking here, meaning those AP lulls where someone says "I was going to do that" and stares at the board sullenly for five minutes are completely negated. You can just do it anyway.

Three: the game is really tactical. I sped off into the lead and when Dirk kept building buildings (and hampering my progress into the bargain) I wondered if it was yet another game where you're supposed to forsake those early gains and look for the long-term rewards. But GWT didn't do that. Mainly though, the game has an inherently silly aspect to it - and just as I enjoyed the tetris-loving Vikings of A Feast for Odin, I enjoyed the cattle tomfoolery here.