Game Night at David's 8/22/2006

Meetup.com has certainly been good to the gamers of the Triangle area, and it's been good to me since I became one of them. It really seems to a great blend of an online/real life community, and has allowed me to make the transition between states so much more comfortably. So, I guess this is my endorsement for using the resource to coordinate large gaming groups, and bring new people into the hobby.

This was the third event I'd become involved in through meetup. I met David at Rick & Marnee's game night, and we played four games together. I was looking forward to this evening not just because I knew I enjoyed David's company, but also because Chris, whom I've played games with a couple times, had offered to teach Age of Steam, a game I've really been wanting to try.

One thing I've learned since moving to Durham is that just because something has it's address here doesn't mean it's going to be close to my house. Durham is really spread out. I live way up on the North side, and David lives pretty far South. Thankfully, it's still getting dark pretty late, so I could read all the street signs. Another thing about Durham - not enough street lights, or streetsigns over the street. You need to know where you're going. Since this really isn't a travelogue, I'll tie this off by saying that I arrived at the house without incident, was treated to a prime parking space, and, had my anxiety over being late dispelled when I walked through the door to find only a handfull of other gamers present, and no games having started.

Chris went ahead and got Age of Steam set up while we waited for others to arrive. It seemed like there was a lot to do, with all the little goods cubes and tiles and such. A couple nice things about Chris's set for the game - he'd printed out colored score/goods boards, and laminated them, and had also produced turn-order reference cards, which helped a lot. One thing I might switch if/when I own this game might be to use poker chips instead of the coins which come in the box - they're a little small/fiddly.

Finally, everyone was there. The AoS table was myself, Dan, Keith, Jan, and Chris. The other table, who played, over the course of the night, Coloretto, Schrille Stille, and Ticket to Ride, was Christy, David, Larry, and Shanthi. They seemed to have a good time. I hope I get a chance to try Schrille Stille sometime - a game about manipulating the popularity of bands that has some cool components. They thought it was too long for the weight, but, it was a first play for most of them...

For those of you who aren't familiar with the game, Age of Steam looks like an abstract Euro tile laying/resource manipulation game with tons of fiddly bits. Of course, everyone who's seen the cover, thought about the name, or considered the track tiles would think it's probably a rail game. However, it was striking to me how little attention we actually paid to the theme during the game - I, for one, almost never thought about the idea of transporting goods by train during this session. For instance; we never called the goods by any name, just by their color. what train transports "red?" This is one case where I think it would be really nice to have something more representative than a wooden cube or cylinder.

Age of steam revolves around bidding for turn order, choosing a special action, and then building track/executing action to facilitate the movement of goods, which make money, to do more of the same. You start the game having borrowed money, in the form of stock shares sold, and having to make payments, and you have to sell more shares to get more working capital. The game plays a set number of turns, when you score based on the money you've made vs. the shares you've sold.

My game started poorly. I believe I was going second this turn, a position I ended up in a few times. I chose urbanization to get a city on the table, and built from the middle to the city I built, thinking I was going to get to transport some goods. Of course, I got to... just not what I'd expected. This was my first example of people getting in on one's plans and mucking up what you thought was going to happen, which is integral to the game. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough of a lesson for me to improve my play to deal with that circumstance. I did manage to make a couple bucks on that first turn, but slowed down a little after that.

I've read some on the 'geek about this game, and I had the impression that people really worried a lot about new players going bankrupt the first turn because they don't take enough money/overspend. I decided to go with the crowd and take an extra share (that is, I took two, putting me to four) which, it turned out, I didn't end up needing. I ended up doing this twice during the game. The one I took early hurt the most, of course, as I ended up paying for it the whole game. The later one was worthwhile, though, as my understanding of the game had grown at least to the point that I knew I'd need it if things went a certain way. I think the $10 that you start with plus one extra share should be adequate, if someone points out the math to you ahead of time. On the other hand, I guess it also gives you more bidding "clout" in the first round, as people know you have a lot of room to bid. If you are one of the later players in the opening bid round, it's probably a good idea to take it (the fourth share).

Dan got a real nice lock on the Southeast, with Chris in the NE, Jan in the mid-SW, and Keith right next to me. Dan moved West, Chris moved South, and Keith and Jan both moved into/through my area, making things really tight. The third turn featured a telling mistake on my part, failing to take first builder when I really needed to make a particular build, which I should have assumed Chris also wanted. Well, I messed up, he built the track, and I was in a sorry way. I moved West to try to open up my network. I ended up making some sub-optimal choices here, ending up with some network connections I never really got to use. Dan, on the other hand, made an ingenious build or two, and ended up in really good shape. Jan moved North and got into the cities in the NW first, folled by Keith. This would pay off huge for her later, when she would get a couple purple cubes to deliver for five each on the last turn.

We made some mistakes in the game, but learned a lot. I'll spare you any more of a game report, as I believe I've communicated most of the information that I gleaned from the game that seems worth sharing. Nobody went bankrupt, the game progressed steadily, with Dan pulling out to a big lead, and the rest of us staying pretty close. I was second in income most of the second half of the game, but had issued more shares than anyone except Chris. I had pretty decent turns on the last couple, but Jan's big turns, especially the last one, pulled her even with me on income and put her ahead, as she'd sold fewer shares. Keith seemed to not get out of his late bidding position, but worked a pretty good strategy around it, and wasn't far behind me. Chris somehow didn't do very well, even though he seemed to be doing fine to me. I really don't know where he went wrong, unless it was in not being able to ship enough in the mid game due to having to upgrade his locomotive all the time.

So, it ended like this: Dan in 1st by a lot, then Jan, Me, Keith, and Chris, with about six - nine points between each of us. We all had fun, I think, with some nice chatting during downtime, and after the game. When we finished, it was around 10:30, so it was about a three hour game, with teaching. It was a little late to start anything else, so we just sat around and talked about gaming. It was nice to meet a few more gamers that I can certainly expect to be playing a lot of games with over the next few years.

GG, GL
JW