Joe had been keen to get Russian Railroads to the table, but he’d always been slightly scuppered by the self-effacing way in which he suggests new games: he described RR as “a spreadsheet”. But tonight, perhaps fresh from our RotW escapades, Sam and I were amenable to a new train game. And so, with a range of quality alcohol in front of us, we all began.
Joe explained the rules: despite the theme, there is no track building. Instead you move your pieces along four scoring tracks, accord ing to where you placed your meeple on the main board. The mass of options is quite overwhelming. Sam asked Joe if it was better to specialise or diversify. Joe said to specialise, which is exactly what Sam did.
While I played I tried to block out conversations drifting over from the other side about “The Icon Of Familiars” whatever that is, and the difference between a crystal and an energy token. Seasons looked interesting, but also baffling. There were four sets of big dice (bigger than a meeple!) which had mysterious symbols on them. It all seemed very runic.
Halfway through, Martin and Adam popped in to see how things were going with us and to report the scores from the first game:
Martin 30
Adam 17
Then, after satisfying their curiosity about our new games, they went back to their room for another Race For The Galaxy.
Back in Serbia, I went for a bit of everything, but mostly going for a “score 20 points per round” bonus halfway up one of the tracks. I enjoyed this game, and it seems to offer a lot of flexibility. I shot off into an early lead and I managed to hold onto it. Sam’s incredible 100+ scoring Trans-Siberian railway wasn’t enough to get him past the King of Engineers, Joe. It was very close, though.
Andrew 293
Joe 288
Sam 279
Martin and Adam had also finished there second bout of Race, with the surprising news that new-boy Adam had just beaten Martin on a tie-breaker.
Adam 32 (plus seven cards)
Martin 32 (four cards)
Seasons still had a little time to go, so Martin and Adam played a tie-breaker, and after we’d packed away, Joe, Sam and I went for a little game of Rocket Game, for ages 4-7. It’s basically all luck, but I’d had a whole bottle of wine by now, and confident after my win, I said this should be leaderboard. I forgot the old saying: lucky on trains, unlucky in spaceships.
Joe 11
Sam 10
Andrew 1
By now Seasons had ended, with scores at
Steve 195
Gonz 164
Anja 98
And the third game of Race For The Galaxy had ended, too. I don't know the scores but apparently it was a comfortable win for Adam.
After this, Steve and Anja had to go back home. A majority vote saw everyone keen for a game of Take It Easy. Everyone except one. Gonz couldn’t get over his previous last place, and he bowed out of the evening at this point.
The five of us played three rounds, doing our best to come up with bingo-style calls for the numbers. I can’t remember any, but I have a feeling that a lot of them were quite similar.
It was another close game, and Martin can feel relieved that his only leaderboard game of the evening ended with a win:
Martin 391
Andrew 390
Adam 387
Sam 384
Joe 246
Adam also got the GNN record for most points in one round: 202.
I went home, drunk but happy, only to find my computer no longer recognised me as a user. By two o’clock I’d sorted it out and then went straight to bed, hence the delay in the write-up. I usually prefer to still be drunk while writing these reports. If I wait until the next day when I’m sober, it all seems a bit... silly, somehow.
| Points | ||||||
| Martin | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 8 |
| Andrew | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 |
| Sam | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 11 |
| Steve | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 13 |
| Adam | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| Joe | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 13 |
| Gonz | 2 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 16 |
| Anja | 3 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Hannah | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
| Will | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 20 |
