Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Tuesday 3rd October
In attendance:
Huw Morris
Ralph Grimble
Simon Canter
Steve Sykes
Ian Jenkins
I'd thought that we were to be only four strong tonight, so I brought Primordial Soup. We were in the process of setting it up when Ralph arrived, fortunately bringing Age of Steam.
Age of Steam
Ian and Simon had not played before, so needed a (very) quick explanation of the rules. With 5 players, the basic map can get quite congested, so Ralph and I both built on the Eastern edge of the board for guaranteed early shipping. This proved to be a bad mistake, as we were both locked out of the Centre and the West. Compounding this, Steve chose to urbanize first, and put the sole purple city on the Western side of the board, denying Ralph and me access to purple cities altogether. There were quite a few purple cubes on the Eastern side of the production board, which proved practically impossible for either of us to ship all game. In fact, early in the game, twice I had to move back one space on the income track, as I didn't have enough shipping to cover my costs.
Ian made a run all along the Southern side of the map for the first 5-shipment, but Simon had reached the North-West and had the best route. Steve picked up some of Ian's cubes in the South West, then built North, and did the same to Simon.
In the end, Steve's routes proved to be just that little bit more flexible than Simon's, and was able to find more high value shipping towards the end of the game. Ian was level on income with me, but I'd only got there by issuing extra shares. Ralph had got shut out and was further back. Final scores: Steve 70, Simon 63, Ian 57, Huw 49, Ralph 38.
Looking back, I think Ralph and I made one crucial blunder. If we'd monopolised the Urbanize action between us, we would have had enough cities to ship to, and we wouldn't have had difficulty around turns 3-5 finding some medium sized shipping. I eventually realised this, and took 3 shares in order to guarantee being able to take Urbanization one time, but it was a couple of turns too late. I should have bitten the bullet and done it earlier. Ralph tried to escape his predicament by desperately building track to the West, but he was asking too much of himself to actually manage to join his track in time.
Perhaps the other mistake we made was offering too good advice to Simon and Ian.. ;-)
Huw Morris
Ralph Grimble
Simon Canter
Steve Sykes
Ian Jenkins
I'd thought that we were to be only four strong tonight, so I brought Primordial Soup. We were in the process of setting it up when Ralph arrived, fortunately bringing Age of Steam.
Age of Steam
Ian and Simon had not played before, so needed a (very) quick explanation of the rules. With 5 players, the basic map can get quite congested, so Ralph and I both built on the Eastern edge of the board for guaranteed early shipping. This proved to be a bad mistake, as we were both locked out of the Centre and the West. Compounding this, Steve chose to urbanize first, and put the sole purple city on the Western side of the board, denying Ralph and me access to purple cities altogether. There were quite a few purple cubes on the Eastern side of the production board, which proved practically impossible for either of us to ship all game. In fact, early in the game, twice I had to move back one space on the income track, as I didn't have enough shipping to cover my costs.
Ian made a run all along the Southern side of the map for the first 5-shipment, but Simon had reached the North-West and had the best route. Steve picked up some of Ian's cubes in the South West, then built North, and did the same to Simon.
In the end, Steve's routes proved to be just that little bit more flexible than Simon's, and was able to find more high value shipping towards the end of the game. Ian was level on income with me, but I'd only got there by issuing extra shares. Ralph had got shut out and was further back. Final scores: Steve 70, Simon 63, Ian 57, Huw 49, Ralph 38.
Looking back, I think Ralph and I made one crucial blunder. If we'd monopolised the Urbanize action between us, we would have had enough cities to ship to, and we wouldn't have had difficulty around turns 3-5 finding some medium sized shipping. I eventually realised this, and took 3 shares in order to guarantee being able to take Urbanization one time, but it was a couple of turns too late. I should have bitten the bullet and done it earlier. Ralph tried to escape his predicament by desperately building track to the West, but he was asking too much of himself to actually manage to join his track in time.
Perhaps the other mistake we made was offering too good advice to Simon and Ian.. ;-)
# posted by Huw @ 3:45 pm 
