B20 session. 5-player Age of Steam, 6-player Transamerica, 4-player Cave Troll.
Players were Nick, Steve, Pat, Ralph, myself. New players to the game were: Nick, Steve, Pat, Ralph. Ralph had the first turn.
We spent 30 minutes going over the rules.
Age of Steam is a rail game. Well, more of a resource management game, with a bit of luck thrown in. The object of the game is to score the most victory points. Victory points are gained by owning railroad tracks. More important are the victory points gained for delivering goods from one city to the next. Just as detrimental is giving out shares of stock in your railroad which give a player some quick cash. Players play a fixed number of turns depending on the number of players.
Each turn, players get to issue shares to get more money. people bid to get to pick their turn order. the first player to get to bid is determined randomly, but then players always follow turn order. Then people select their unique action. Then they build track -- three per turn. Then they move goods from one city to another, scoring a victory point (and income) for whose ever tracks are used. This happens twice per turn. Then they collect income. Then they pay expenses. One per share issued, and one per engine link level. (Engine link level determines how many cities a train may pass through to deliver goods.) Then goods are increased in cities, if possibe. Then the turn marker is advanced.
Ralph, not knowing what to do, decided to increase his engine speed. Everyone thought that that was a painfully expensive start. However, later in the game, everyone realized how valuable it is to travel extra links. It became an agonizing competition to get that ability later in the game.
Caption: Players enjoy Age of Steam at the end of the game.
Game lasted 136 minutes. Final scores were:
Click here to buy Age of Steam at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Age of Steam at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Pat, Ralph, Ben, Nick, Steve, myself. Steve had the first turn.
We laid track, someone beat us to our goals for many rounds. What more can I say?
Caption: Players enjoy Transamerica after burning out on Age of Steam.
Game lasted 39 minutes. Final scores were:
Click here to buy Transamerica at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Transamerica at BoardGameGeek.com.
Players were Pat, Nick, Steve, myself. New players to the game were: Pat, Nick, Steve. I had the first turn.
We spent 11 minutes going over the rules.
Ah! This was more my speed. Players played this slowly and deliberately, trying to maximize their scores as opposed to the previous time I played this in which everyone was on the rampage with bloodlust.
Three cave trolls came out around the middle of the game. orcs and wraiths came out, but they kept a low profile wile the adventurers scooped up gold.
Pat ended the game.
Caption: Have you ever seen gamers so happy as when playing Cave Troll?
Game lasted 43 minutes. Final scores were:
Click here to buy Cave Troll at FunAgain.com.
Click here to learn more about Cave Troll at BoardGameGeek.com.
Click here for a thread about this session.
Click here and scroll down to the second "30th" for Ralph's take on our games.
