February 16th, 2005 |
As the months go by, I ponder whether I should stick with the games I already have and have the group learn to play them to competency, or perhaps even excellence? Or should I not risk boredom and purchase some new games? Inevitably, I always succumb to the latter (though my periods of waiting have grown longer and longer). Tonight was the first time I had been obliged to describe new rules for a game no one else knew since Igloo Pop (which doesn't count) and Maharaja (for the results of that, check here.
The game tonight was Santa Fe Rails, and as I was explaining it to Scott, Karla, and Dan, I was halfway through before Dan informed me that his incessant grumbling actually meant that he wasn't listening. So I had to start over. Just as I got through with explaining all the rules, Annie showed up, and I explained them all again. That wasn't so bad, but what drove me crazy was that Dan and Scott had a loud conversation while I was trying to explain the rules again.
The night ended poorly as I ended up throwing the Royal Turf die in a bout of nigh-drunk frustration...but I'm getting ahead of myself.
| Santa Fe Rails |
| Results | |||
| Player | Score | Place | First Time? |
| Dan | 115 | 1 | * |
| Mike | 108 | 2 | * |
| Scott | 104 | 3 | * |
| Annie | 92 | 4 | * |
| Karla | 77 | 5 | * |
Notes: Santa Fe Rails is sort of like a cross between TransAmerica and Ticket to Ride. You lay track (or trains), and try to connect to your cities. The difference is that no one "owns" a track - each player builds off of pre-existing train lines to try to get as many connections from different train lines to her own cities. For each different train line going to a city, that player scores that city. So, for example, if three different colored train lines (let's say red, blue, and orange), connect to El Paso (a city with the number 4), El Paso is worth 12 points: 4 points each for red, blue, and orange. In addition, each player scores the number of points equal to how many dollars she has. Money is acquired by being the first to connect to a new city and connecting certain bonus colors to certain cities.
Everything start off pretty well, with the Kansas-Pacific Rail (yellow) being used abundantly from the get go. Karla and I used the 2x cards early on, though Karla didn't get too much money from it. I played my Little Rock card, while Annie played Minneapolis and Scott played Oklahoma City. Dan played Sioux Falls, but went for money right away, continuing my starting spot to go south.
My plan was quickly thwarted, though, as everyone diverted the Santa Fe Rail (blue) too far west, making it almost impossible to get blue down to Little Rock. So I made sure white made it up there, and eventually picked up a Boomtown card in case I could get Little Rock another rail. Annie soon had the Union Pacific (red) and the Great Northern (green) heading up north, through Bismarck and into Canada, though she had to spend a couple of branch line cards to get them where she wanted, as Dan and then Scott diverted them. It was worth it though, as she had two Canada cards.
The game wore on, and the branch lines were quickly devoured. Kansas-Pacific (yellow) was used up within 15 minutes, and
the Southern Pacific (white) was pretty much stuck in a loop. Scott, Dan, and I abandoned the 2x strategy for city cards,
something which Annie and Karla took too long to switch to. Annie in particular spent about 4 or 5 straight turns playing
the 2x card, which netted her a little money but not many eventual points.
I still made some huge strides in money, and when Scott helped out by making a connection to Casper for me, I felt like I
might be able to pull out the victory, since I had a lot of cash and that excellent L.A. card. But Dan had a few more
cities than I did, and he also didn't squander a turn like I did with the 4 in 1. Karla's and Annie's fascination with the
2x card doomed them to too few city card points in the end, and Scott had more points from cities than anyone
else but only had 17 dollars to add to them. Dan had the best balance, with $32 and 83 city points. My slight lead in
cash couldn't overcome his city points, and my rail gathering managed only second place. Had I not deprived myself of
those 15 points, I would have won and I only would have boosted Annie's and Karla's scores, who ended up far behind me.
The game was pretty fun, but it seems to have an end game problem. The game ends when the 5 major railroads are dead ended
or out of cars. What happened was that the Southern Pacific (white) still had a sneaky but useless track to go down and
almost lengthened the game for another turn. Had we played one more turn of this I would have gone nuts. I'll have to find
a better end trigger rule.
Notes: My goal in pulling out Royal Turf was to play a quick game and to have fun. It took about 15 minutes too
long (thanks to the late start in Game Night) and what fun I had was quashed by the end, thanks to some incredibly poor
dice rolling.
This game has too much meta-game to it. Everyone (led by Dan) puts a bid on Earl Grey, and he inevitably wins. So, each
player has one of two options: 1) put a bid on Earl Grey and get money (along with everyone else), or 2) try to stop
Earl Grey and get the rest of your horses crushed. I, tired of the group-think, went for option #2. (I was also quite
haughty about my efforts, lambasting everyone for his or her tired, sorry, and pathetic bids on Earl Grey.) My joy at
seeing Earl Grey slow led to people ganging up on me, hence my poor showing. Jim, it should be noted, left before the
third race and missed the end of game fireworks display.
In the first race, everyone bid on Earl Grey except me, and he quickly won (of course). I would have done fine, as Red
Fox took a surprising second, but Caramello took third (whom I had not bid on) and Othello took last (on whom I had my
double bet). Annie kept maliciously going after Othello, and as everyone was focused on moving Earl Grey forward, Annie
had a virtually clean chance to hold Othello back. Here's how the scores stood after Round 1:
Annie - $650
I fared slightly better in the second race, as I managed to hold Earl Grey back to about 5th place (with lots of help from
Scott and Jim, who decided to join me in slowing Earl down), but Dan had cleverly placed his double bet NOT on Earl Grey,
but on Nougat (whom everyone else prefers to call Norgard). Nougat took 2nd or third, behind Caramello, and Sahara Wind
did pretty well, too, from what I remember. Othello again fared poorly. Annie was still in the lead, thanks to her bid
on Caramello, but Karla's bet on Nougat helped her to catch up. Had Albino made the top 3 I would have been in great
shape, but he finished just out of the running.
Annie - $1100
The last race was the most frustrating. I went for the win, and placed my bets primarily on horses that no one would bet
on. I had the only chip on Nougat and the only chip on Red Fox (but it was a 0). I also bid on Earl Grey (I gave up on
fighting the group-think) and Othello. Earl Grey finished in a strong first, as expected, and Caramello, with only Karla
and Annie betting on him, rolled a couple 14's and managed to get 2nd. Third place was very tight, and as they came
down the stretch, it was between every horse except Red Fox, who was in dead last by a mile. Had I rolled a horse head or
a horseshoe on my turn, I could have sent Nougat across and taken third place all on my own. With the doubling of all
scoring bonus, I would have been in excellent shape...for 4th place. So what do I roll? A saddle. I had to hose Red Fox.
Dan then rolled a saddle and rather than move Nougat nowhere, he wanted to keep Sahara Wind from winning (and Scott was
going next, who had bets on him), so he moved Albino 9, just in front of the finish line. Scott rolled a horse head and
chose to move Sahara Wind a smidgeon closer rather than give 3rd place to Nougat. Annie now had to roll for Nougat. All
I needed was a horse head or horseshoe to nab third place (my second such opportunity!). Annie rolled, of course, a saddle,
and laughed at me, viciously (and deservedly, as I was pretty obnoxious about screwing over Earl Grey all game).
Karla rolled next and moved Albino across the finish line to complete my utter destruction. In an exhibitionist display of
frustration, I flung the horse die into the living room (into the curtains). This caused further laughter, though Karla
was angry with me for telling her she should have moved my horse across on her last turn (which was stupid. She should
have done no such thing). I said, "Guess who's sleeping alone tonight!" Of course, I was just blowing off steam. I did,
though, refuse to score the final round out of protest, and left it to the (pretty much) capable hands of Dan.
Despite a good last round, though, Annie lost first place to Karla. All three of Karla's horses crossed the finish
line, putting Annie in second place. Still, everyone but me was a winner, as they got to see me act like a doofus. An
entertaining doofus, but a doofus nonetheless.
The night was pretty frustrating. I had a lot of trouble getting people to listen to the rules of Santa Fe, and
that, with the "why didn't you tell us that rule?" complaint, kind of had me in a grumpy mood. With my antagonistic
role in Royal Turf, I was doomed to a dice-throwing fit of delightfully doofus-ish delirium.
Note to self: drink less alcohol on Game Night.
Royal Turf
Results Player Score Place First Time? Karla $1900 1 Annie $1650 2 Scott $1550 3 Dan $1250 4 Mike $1000 5 Jim $600 6 *
Scott - $600
Dan - $550
Karla - $450
Jim - $350
Mike - $50
Karla - $1050
Dan - $750
Scott - $700
Jim - $600
Mike - $300