We started at four o’clock and first we played Riverboat, from the same designer as Heaven and Ale, Michael Keisling. And it feels pretty similar to, with its hexagons and its multiple paths to victory. According to BGG, it has a ninety minute playing time, so maybe there’s a huge section in the middle we missed because Sam and I sped through two games as well as the rules explanation in the same amount of time.
The game has a nice balance between wanting to keep your (limited number of) workers on your play area so you can build up larger and higher scoring chains of crops while, on the other hand, needing workers off the play area to react to stuff that your opponent might do. Getting first choice in a particular phase is key, and so is getting a scoring card that you can maximise.
After two games, sharing one victory each, we set off for food. The chippy was shut and we felt too old for the Lazy Dog so we ended up in the Royal Oak. It was very nice. I still owe Sam for my share, though. We did pretty well on yesterday’s Guardian cryptic crossword, too.
Once back at Sam's, it was still early and we felt that we had at least a couple of epics ahead of us. We set off to Macao first, zipping through its early stages. We slowed down a bit in the latter half of the game, but still made a mockery of the game's official playing time.
And Sam made a mockery of me. We had somehow swapped tactics this game, with me picking up difficult to achieve but useful cards and Sam choosing office cards. However, Sam's cube-hoarding and focus on city quarters/deliveries set himself up for a 100+ final score. I luckily bought up those parts of the city that cut his chain of city quarters in half, otherwise the thirty-point margin of victory would've been even greater.
After this we played Flipships. It was enormous fun and we saved the Earth from destruction, as you may have noticed when you woke up this morning.
Then Sam and I set off on a trip through time. T.I.M.E. Stories, with its intriguing clean, white box. It's a co-op game, where you are time agents going back in time to sort stuff out, basically. Except, you can't possibly do it in your first time, because you're bound to waste too much time chasing the wrong leads and talking to the wrong people. It's a game that encourages replays (yes, I know they all do) but, like the film Groundhog Day, you experience the same stuff again so you can avoid certain people and get straight to that important bit.
a clean, enigmatic board before we begin
This is where we begin
But even that first try, despite being doomed to failure, was fascinating. Once we'd got over the rule book which doesn't make much sense until you start playing. Then it starts to click and you can get into character. Sam was Maria, a narcissist with a tempting cleavage, while I was Vasil la Fouine, cocaine addict.
Five doses of cocaine!
I asked if this game was age restricted. Apparently, it's 14+. Seems a bit low to me.
The first adventure is set in a mental asylum in 1921 and as we travelled from one beautifully illustrated location to the next, picking up clues here and there, I really got into it. As someone showed us the entrance to a secret passage, we had the option to follow him into it or beat him up and enter it ourselves. I leant over to Sam and, with a mad gleam in my eye, whispered “Let's beat him up!”
We did. I'm pretty sure that was the right thing to do.
But we ran out of time at that point. We put the game away (first time we've had to check BGG for advice on how to put a board game back in its box) and discussed what to play as a finisher.
Sam suggested Santorini as a quick-to-teach, quick-to-play option. It's basically Torres, but without all the dull stuff. Just towers and workers. We played twice and Sam won both times. It was good. And although I wasn't cocaine addict, I did become the goddess Athena for the second game.
A great evening with some exciting new games. Need to get back to 1921 soon, though. That time anomaly isn't going to mend itself.
Great stuff. Riverboat is not as fascinating as Heaven and Ale, but a solid Kieslingy puzzle all the same. Flipships is a blast. Macao is Macao. But like Andrew I think the high spot was TIME stories, which is beautifully presented and highly absorbing - it has some of the freedom of movement that Consulting Detective does, but with a more absorbing narrative - it's happening to you, rather than you're reading about it after the fact. I'm keen to play again!
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