Game Night at Larry and Carlee's

So, time for another Tuesday in Cary. This time, Chris and I had agreed to car pool, and he swung by to pick me up about 5:15. It was pretty early, so we stopped and got some golden arches along the way, as well as picking up snacks to contribute. I bet L & C have a giant cache of chips and two litres in their basement somewhere, from all the leftovers...

We both had a box of games with us, but we were united in desire to play one game: Canal Mania. After arriving, chatting with people a bit, and sampling the snacks, we grabbed Larry Z, who grabbed Larry G, and then were joined by Adam, and, subsequently, Christy, who took Larry Z's spot. Halfway through the teaching, Christy abdicated her seat to get in on something simpler, and, then, we finally got started. This ended up being a learning game with a lot of chatting over moves, turning into almost a cooperative game for some of the players, with a lot of oppinions being asked and given, and several moves being made by consensus.

I grabbed Birmingham to... wait, I can't remember, and my copy is at TBGT... Suffice it to say, I grabbed two of the initial contracts that allowed me to build in such a way that I connected Birmingham and Gloucester, two of the major cities. I hadn't really looked at the chart in the rulebook, but, figured that B-ham was one of the more central cities, it might provide me with more options to connect. I never made this route any bigger, but, then, neither did anyone else...

One thing we noticed right away was that if someone starts with engineer number 5, it seems advantageous, as they will be drawing extra cards in the phase where you want to do just that, and then they can get rid of it for a building engineer. Later on, it's tough to take this guy, as you usually want the building advantages. Larry, the player to my right, started with this engineer, and his third phase face-up grabs were a bit of a pain to me. Larry led for the first third of the game or so, primarily due to this advantage, I think. However, my choice of contracts couldn't have been much more lucky. Having a connected network for five early was great, and, in the long run, had the added bonus that additional contracts to Gloucester and Birmingham didn't really come up, so I basically had a monoploy there. This let me ship goods for four and five while others were shipping for three.

To make a long story short, my early lead held up, and I cruised into the win. Larry was a bit behind me in second, and then Andy and Chris were pretty close together after him. Some general observations I had on the game were:
-The cards need sleeves.
-The little play aids on BGG are very helpful
-There can be a downtime problem
-Phase 1 can generate some AP
-The game played fairly smoothly, and is a nice design
-There's a lot left to discover for me, and I'm anxious to play again, especially if I can get a three player.
-Contract management is huge, as is the luck on which ones come up, when

After finishing, cleaning up, and discussing the game a little bit, it was getting sort of late, too late to jump in on the game of Shadows Over Camelot that was starting. Instead of trying to get in a quick game, we opted to head for home with the game fresh in our heads, with ample fodder for discussion.

Next up: TBGT

GG, GL
JW