-
Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
-
It’s not been a startling week in games for yours truly. A combination of work, depression about work and having spent last weekend away from the family to box up product sent me off into Monday at a stupidly-low ebb.
Lundi
The bijou gathering at Carl’s in the evening went some way to brightening the mood when we got stuck into a four player 1851 followed by a quick 7 Wonders. I enjoy an 18XX every now and again but I’m unclear, in the same kind of way that I was about Powergrid, on where the real depth comes in.
Let me explain: much of the game feels pretty mechanical - it should be reasonably clear where you’d want to build your track and whether or not you need to save money or issue dividends (depending on the state of the train pool) and A LOT of the game is cranking the handle on the operating rounds (emptying the bank). I suppose the share purchasing is the bit that’s fraught with the most danger – you want to leech a tidy amount off a successfully-run company, but you also want to avoid someone dumping their controlling stock and leaving you in charge of an prolapsing puppy!
In our game, I missed seeing the latter scenario and dangerously(!) invested in a second share of Carl’s company which he promptly dropped into my lap. Although I came last when all was done, I had nurtured two companies through loco obsolescence into permanent trains and had two of the highest earning/paying franchises in the game! The only problem was their shares were STILL low in value! In fact, it seems that it’s the MISTAKES that count in this game, rather than successful decisions – and Richard’s flotation of a company that both Carl and Brendan voraciously invested in (at a high price, late in the game) was probably the key mistake that gifted him the win – much more so than my early game minor purchase! I was quite disappointed that what I regarded as good, solid and prudent play counted for not very much at all in the end – a sort of topsy-turvy situation to find in a boardgame, n’est-ce pas?
Anyway, maybe this was just a product of 1851 itself – a compact and rather restricted-in-scope 18XX?
Mardi
Not wanting ‘a late one’ in central London, I had the option of a Hemel Hempstead sesh only. Carl was off to the cinema and Richard was at the aforementioned capital conclave. Strangely, a short 16 mile trip to Hemel would’ve resulted in my ‘getting home’ AFTER Richard, so I decided to dig out the thrift-store DVD copy of Starship Troopers I’d picked up and lost myself in violent, hilarious, gung-ho science fiction for a couple of hours – it wasn’t gaming, but it was a whole heap of fun!
Mercredi
With a long meeting at work, and the earlier-than-usual long drive home, there was nothing remotely tactical or strategic available to me mid-week. Though, like the night before, I did get the chance to watch something classic when Brazil popped up on BBC4: Gilliam’s Orwellian nightmare may look a little rough around the special effects edges, but still contains more wit and invention than most movies it’s junior.
I know what’s happening, of course – this is the calm before the gaming storm; the controlled intake of breath before the mesmerizing high C.
Sing, my pretty – sing!
|
|
