Crisis of Time

Thursday, and Little Joe insisted on foregoing his bedtime story for a game with Andrew, so no sooner had he arrived than we played The Mind.

The first game was fairly disastrous, as we lurched from flippant to studious play and couldn't find a rhythm. We busted out on something like Level 4, before concentrating our brains and pulling off some high-five-worthy placements on our second attempt. We still didn't win, but Joe went to bed suitably sated, as the game of the moment shows no immediate sign of getting old.

I introduced Andrew to Space Base, which is a dice-chucking, luck-pushing, theme-pasted-on game somewhat reminiscent of Machi Koro. Each player begins with a base populated by twelve ships in bays 1-12, and on your turn you chuck dice and activate bays equal either to both die rolls individually, or the sum of them.

Then you can buy more ships, and 'deploy' the old ship from the bay. Deployed ships get you nothing on your turn, but get you stuff when any opponent rolls their number - so as the game continues and everyone deploys more and more ships, your inactive turns get increasingly rewarding. You can also buy some colony ships that clog up your bays, but score you points - first to 40 wins.

It's extremely fast-moving and I enjoyed it a lot, despite the fact I made a crucial error in passing up the chance to win - Andrew took full advantage:

Andrew 40
Sam 36

We hemmed and hawed over what to play next before deciding to finish off T.I.M.E Stories...

SPOILER ALERT

Sent back in time to solve a mystery and prevent a rupture in the fabric of continuity, we take on the host bodies of some lunatics at a mental asylum. Having made the journey thrice before, we were familiar with the majority of locations, but weren't quite sure how to piece the puzzle together. Not wanting to having to go through this all again, we afforded ourselves twice as much time units as the game officially gives you, and blasted through the place at a rate of knots, discovering all manner of unworldly creatures and a dark, macabre plot, that we eventually foiled by virtue of cheating. 

As I said to Andrew, I've never known a game to be so gripping on a first play and then drop so rapidly to unengaging. I'm still surprised by it's high rating on BGG considering how the game is structured - you fail, and start again, going to the same locations and having the same experiences... then fail, and start again. And again, and again, until you finally complete the game without running out of time units. It's beautifully made, but God, four plays was enough.

Andrew and Sam save the world.

We finished off with Avenue, the roll-and-write game of grape gathering and gathering frustration. This outdoes NMBR9 and Take It Easy in terms of getting ones' hopes up only to torpedo them in spectacular style. I still can't get over the fact Joe created one single avenue on his very first play... I tried that again tonight, and failed miserably!

Andrew 41
Sam 36

Thanks Andrew! Looking forward to The Mind, Space Base and Avenue again. Looking forward to selling or trading TIME Stories...

Time (is on our side, yes it is)

Sam and I met up for an Easter gaming occasion which was originally going to be a grand event, with plenty of attendees but then got shifted from Friday evening to Saturday, leaving us on our twosome. It was also the first Finn-less games night, and it was quite sad as I kept checking my chair before I sat down and then remembered I didn't have to do that anymore.

We started at four o’clock and first we played Riverboat, from the same designer as Heaven and Ale, Michael Keisling. And it feels pretty similar to, with its hexagons and its multiple paths to victory. According to BGG, it has a ninety minute playing time, so maybe there’s a huge section in the middle we missed because Sam and I sped through two games as well as the rules explanation in the same amount of time.

The game has a nice balance between wanting to keep your (limited number of) workers on your play area so you can build up larger and higher scoring chains of crops while, on the other hand, needing workers off the play area to react to stuff that your opponent might do. Getting first choice in a particular phase is key, and so is getting a scoring card that you can maximise.

After two games, sharing one victory each, we set off for food. The chippy was shut and we felt too old for the Lazy Dog so we ended up in the Royal Oak. It was very nice. I still owe Sam for my share, though. We did pretty well on yesterday’s Guardian cryptic crossword, too.

Once back at Sam's, it was still early and we felt that we had at least a couple of epics ahead of us. We set off to Macao first, zipping through its early stages. We slowed down a bit in the latter half of the game, but still made a mockery of the game's official playing time.

And Sam made a mockery of me. We had somehow swapped tactics this game, with me picking up difficult to achieve but useful cards and Sam choosing office cards. However, Sam's cube-hoarding and focus on city quarters/deliveries set himself up for a 100+ final score. I luckily bought up those parts of the city that cut his chain of city quarters in half, otherwise the thirty-point margin of victory would've been even greater.

After this we played Flipships. It was enormous fun and we saved the Earth from destruction, as you may have noticed when you woke up this morning.

Then Sam and I set off on a trip through time. T.I.M.E. Stories, with its intriguing clean, white box. It's a co-op game, where you are time agents going back in time to sort stuff out, basically. Except, you can't possibly do it in your first time, because you're bound to waste too much time chasing the wrong leads and talking to the wrong people. It's a game that encourages replays (yes, I know they all do) but, like the film Groundhog Day, you experience the same stuff again so you can avoid certain people and get straight to that important bit.

a clean, enigmatic board before we begin

This is where we begin

But even that first try, despite being doomed to failure, was fascinating. Once we'd got over the rule book which doesn't make much sense until you start playing. Then it starts to click and you can get into character. Sam was Maria, a narcissist with a tempting cleavage, while I was Vasil la Fouine, cocaine addict.

Five doses of cocaine!

I asked if this game was age restricted. Apparently, it's 14+. Seems a bit low to me.

The first adventure is set in a mental asylum in 1921 and as we travelled from one beautifully illustrated location to the next, picking up clues here and there, I really got into it. As someone showed us the entrance to a secret passage, we had the option to follow him into it or beat him up and enter it ourselves. I leant over to Sam and, with a mad gleam in my eye, whispered “Let's beat him up!”

We did. I'm pretty sure that was the right thing to do.

But we ran out of time at that point. We put the game away (first time we've had to check BGG for advice on how to put a board game back in its box) and discussed what to play as a finisher.

Sam suggested Santorini as a quick-to-teach, quick-to-play option. It's basically Torres, but without all the dull stuff. Just towers and workers. We played twice and Sam won both times. It was good. And although I wasn't cocaine addict, I did become the goddess Athena for the second game.

A great evening with some exciting new games. Need to get back to 1921 soon, though. That time anomaly isn't going to mend itself.