Friday, October 16, 2009
Gaming at Kevin's RftG and Wensleydale
Larry and Kevin were just setting up Race for the Galaxy when we arrived, so Hanson and I jumped in. Hanson bailed after the first game, but we played another and were just finishing as Steve arrived.
I suggested Last Train to WensleyDale and no one objected, so I explained the rules and we were off. The goal is to deliver the most cheese, rock and passengers while retaining as little track as you can. It definitely puts a different twist on train games. So in each of four turns (with four players), you want to build enough track to grab the pre-game seeded passengers and cargo, then sell the track to one of the two major (NPC) companies. Each round there's an auction for influence in four areas; political, equipment and each of the two major railroads. The political determines who builds track first and is consumed when removing citizens opposed to trains. The equipment influence determines the order that players buy trains and pick up cargo. It is consumed to purchase the trains (each of which has a different capacity). The influence with the railroads is consumed to build into spaces where the railroads are and to convince them to take your track. Profit (or loss) each turn is calculated by goods shipped (two for rocks) minus total track owned by the player. After four rounds, players get a VP for each good and passenger shipped plus a bonus of two VP for each set of four. Then VP are lost for each link of track still owned by each player and the final profit (or loss) is added to the VP total.
I enjoyed it, but the others weren't sure about it. There is a lot going on and I think familiarity will make it more intuitive. I look forward to trying it again.
We finished with two more games of RftG. Good night of gaming!
I suggested Last Train to WensleyDale and no one objected, so I explained the rules and we were off. The goal is to deliver the most cheese, rock and passengers while retaining as little track as you can. It definitely puts a different twist on train games. So in each of four turns (with four players), you want to build enough track to grab the pre-game seeded passengers and cargo, then sell the track to one of the two major (NPC) companies. Each round there's an auction for influence in four areas; political, equipment and each of the two major railroads. The political determines who builds track first and is consumed when removing citizens opposed to trains. The equipment influence determines the order that players buy trains and pick up cargo. It is consumed to purchase the trains (each of which has a different capacity). The influence with the railroads is consumed to build into spaces where the railroads are and to convince them to take your track. Profit (or loss) each turn is calculated by goods shipped (two for rocks) minus total track owned by the player. After four rounds, players get a VP for each good and passenger shipped plus a bonus of two VP for each set of four. Then VP are lost for each link of track still owned by each player and the final profit (or loss) is added to the VP total.
I enjoyed it, but the others weren't sure about it. There is a lot going on and I think familiarity will make it more intuitive. I look forward to trying it again.
We finished with two more games of RftG. Good night of gaming!
# posted by qzhdad @ 10:17 PM 
