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Who's the more foolish? The fool or fool that plays after the fool?
United States
DURHAM
North Carolina
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Last lunch game before our vacation and back to 5 with Tom and Mike returned. I pull out Through the Desert.
Initial maneuvers concentrate on 3 point water holes and oases. I made some moves to claim territory more than worrying about oases, Tom also moved to do that. J, Rick and Mike moved on oases mainly.
The crux of the game was my vanilla camels. My vanilla driver was relatively on his own, away from all oases and so began to stake a claim to quite a wide area. There was debate about what should be done, especially by Rick who had no caravans nearby. But neither J nor Mike chose to move on my claim, looking to do their own thing. However, Mike did do quite a lot of vanilla camel moves himself, cutting me off from my nearest oasis and accelerating the end game. All those "I'll do them later" moves were suddenly without time to do them. I enclosed a large area (14 hexes) and claimed the majority of the vanilla camels by 1 over Mike to trigger game end. But the quicker end (done in 40 minutes) with many camels left in all the other colors meant my move on the win was short: Rick claimed no enclosed territory at all, but had 4 oases, a pile of 2s and 3s from water holes and 2 colors. I did at least stay ahead of Tom by a point for a respectable 2nd.
Rick: 55
Me: 49
J: 43
Tom: 48
Mike: 35
I've noted it before, but Through the Desert with 5 players is quite harsh. The end of the game always comes quicker than you expect. You need to prioritize well, not waste moves and keep an eye on what others are doing (and how it will impact you). But you can't control everything - the run on vanilla here being a case in point. I looked to claim my area - however much they'd let me get away with - then finish up some other stuff, including some oases that I was close to without any worry that anyone else would close me off. Those are deadly - I didn't finish either of them. When one color goes fast like that, the 10 point color bonuses can be hard-fought (vanilla was 11-10) or incredibly cheap - Tom gained the blue bonus for a mere 5 camels!
So as a lunch game it works very well. 40 minutes was quick for the game, but it almost can't run over an hour without severe AP. It is strange the feeling of playing it though, your turn can be over in what seems like a blink but everyone else takes too long. As plans begin to form, the anxiety and desire for your next turn increases.
Despite that, it seems like a game that is rarely requested. Perhaps with less it might appeal more, as it does feel very constrained with all 5 in the game. But the number of good games for 4 is large - a tough competition, where the game we couldn't play because it didn't support 5 gets the nod when they are only 4 of us.
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