2/10/06

This was a special session to get in a game of Roads and Boats that was so nicely lent to us by Scott Fisher. But, we did manage some other games as well.

Elasund

Charlie, James, and I were to be joined by John and had about 1 ½ hours for a game before he arrived. So, Elasund came to the table. Nice game in the Settlers series...I will be doing a video review of this one. There is the standard settlers production rolls with position placement and a nice opportunity to mess with you buddy.

This was a very close game. I almost won with an awesome 3 point swing until James built on his permit denying me the ability to build a large building for the win. So, this delayed my tactic. I built two more buildings and had the money to win, and James finished it right before me. Arrrgghhh the horror. Charlie was right there with us....so the game was very tight.

Roads and Boats

John ended up stuck at work with a water leak so we ended up with 3 players. We were all newbies and had to do a lot of rules checking and punching of tokens. But, we did manage to complete the game in 3 ½ hours. First, we set up a very player friendly 3 player scenario that was symmetrical. It started off very slow with none of us knowing exactly what to do. And, we all eventually headed our own way with James building a boat and oil rig while Charlie headed for mints and mine and I also went the mine route. Because of the board, most of the game....except the last 3 or so turns....was really multiplayer solitaire. In the last few turns, Charlie managed to link in with James by road and stealing of goods ensued. This left me alone the whole game until I jumped into Charlie’s mint on the last turn. The end proved to be very close at 118, 113, 91. This was a very steep learning curve for all of us and a new people, we did a lot of rule checking and did play a few things wrong that we addressed as we found them. On the whole, I think we played correctly and now understand the game much better. I think we would all do things differently on the next try.

My impression? I can understand why people like this game. And, I think the game would be much different with a more interactive board. So, it is difficult for me to give a great opinion after this one try. Bottom line, I am glad I played it, I understand why people like it but, I have no desire to try it again. It is just not my style of game. This is very much....load these on my donkey and move. Next turn, produce something else to load on a donkey and move. Then build something. Next produce something else and move it to build something else, etc. Imagine similar mechanics to FFF or Neuland which play much faster. This game has much more depth than the two previously mentioned games, that is for sure. And the limited resources and space on the board make choices much more difficult. But, it is way too long and fiddly with lots of little bits to manage and record keep for my tastes. I will stick to Neuland once every year or so to scratch my itch for this style of game.

Kaivai

We were not tired and decide to try one more game. Note, we did quit after 8 turns instead of 10 due to time and it did take us 1 ½ hours. This was my first time teaching this game and as such there were some missteps. The first is, now that I understand the game better, I would explain the rules completely differently. Second, it wasn’t until the end of the game when we were doing final scoring and looking up a question on ties that I found and remembered the rule that if you pass on your action phase you can get two influence. No offense folks...this rule is listed at the end of the rules in a section called something like oddities and questions (or something like that). Why didn’t they include this under the Action phase as an actionoption....pass and get two influence. Now, I understand that action box for passing is not on the board, but it could have been listed in the rules as an option under actions. Still, I will take the abuse for missing a rule...yet again. In terms of game play, there may have been a time each of us would have taken that option...but, we all played with out it so it was not that great of a deal.

This game is rather abstract at its heart but, has some nice ideas going on. They have done a very good job in managing the action phase by use of influence that makes those decisions fun. The balance of meeting cottages, fishing and influence to the every changing board is nice as is your trade off of selling fish for money or glory. Over 10 turns I can see the game getting a little repetitive but, you really need those turns to make the board fill up.

Some people may find this one a little dry, but I think this will be a keeper and I need to give it another go.