Thursday 4 October 2012

Next Train to Wensleydale

Tonight saw Sam and I meet up for a quick games night, and among the options Sam brought was Last Train to Wensleydale. We decided that, as gamers, giving it another chance was the proper thing to do. The rules were still as fresh in our mind as a recent blind date that went terribly wrong. But maybe there was a spark there that needed revisiting.

So, the board and all its fiddly bits were set up in double quick time. We needed to consult the rule book occasionally to make sure that there wasn't another two-player variant we should be aware of, and sometimes there was. But mostly this time everything went pretty smoothly.

The only downside was now that the bidding section wasn't really that competitive, with eight options and only two players battling for them. Apart from the occasional hiccup over the rules, everything made much more sense this time. But between being too fiddly for four players and too sparse for two, perhaps three players is the sweet spot? Further investigation is needed. But, for the record Sam won, 40-something to 30-something.

And then we played Biblios!

First time round was the usual set up, and Sam won. Then we tried a little idea of mine. Before the game begins, roll the dice so each colour's starting value is random. "Anarchy!" you may think. But, no. Instead it made for a slightly different strategy as some colours were desirable from the start. It wasn't different enough to make me win, but I was a single solitary card from victory. Such bitter sweet defeat! Oh, the delicious regrets that board games leave you with! Pardon me while I swoon.

4 comments:

  1. Actually Andrew was a solitary letter from victory, as we drew on green cards but mine included the C whereas his was the I.

    I enjoyed Last Train... but agree with Andrew that it's not a two player. It's too easy to get on with your own plans and have no interaction - nice not to be hampered, but not really what a game should be. We got some rules wrong but fixed them as we went. One thing we discovered was that passengers score you more victory points (in a 2-player game) depending on the value of train they travel on - a nice Wallace-esque touch.

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  2. Yes I spotted that rule when we played on tuesday. Well done for going again; souns as though two-player is a good way to get to grips with the flow of the game.

    Andrew you need to get some of these variants up on the Geek - the designers lap that up . . .

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  3. Joe, That Biblios variant is on the Geek :) Well actually I read it on there yesterday but I think it was in a review section rather than variants....... So yeah, ignore me!!!

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