Game: Age of Steam Expansion - Mississippi Steamboats / Golden Spike

Thread: Re: Playable with two?

medievalbanquet — 2008-05-30T10:54:42+00:00

Hey, if you can derive some pleasure from AoS with 2 players, go for it.

I've played Austria a few times. Its not AoS to me. I can take all the maps with the different rules that 'push' the system (The Sun, for example). I just don't think AoS is mono e mono.

To each his own.

Andy

Thread: Re: Playable with two?

d0gb0t — 2008-05-30T06:27:28+00:00

Hi,
medievalbanquet wrote:
Two player AoS?

That's like 2 player Diplomacy. Stupid.

stupid? I don't think so. Look here for example: http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/31554

Thread: Re: Playable with two?

medievalbanquet — 2008-05-29T23:41:27+00:00

Two player AoS?

That's like 2 player Diplomacy. Stupid.

Thread: Re: Playable with two?

toulouse — 2008-05-29T19:03:01+00:00

I'm of course partial to the 2 player rules that came with St. Lucia and Jamaica, but there's no reason to think that the Austria 2 player rules wouldn't work (I just don't like them as much, probably because I'm blindly biased).

Thread: Re: Playable with two?

d0gb0t — 2008-05-29T17:37:01+00:00

Hi,
toulouse wrote:
If you use a set of the two player variant rules

which set?

Thread: Re: Playable with two?

toulouse — 2008-05-29T17:16:42+00:00

If you use a set of the two player variant rules, I suppose it would work, but I think it might be heavily dependent on cube distribution; there's no way to impact the track of another player outside of grabbing a New City that they need. It might be worth trying; I'm sure it would move along pretty fast, as you can do a lot of planning up front and not have it impacted too much by your opponent.

Thread: Playable with two?

d0gb0t — 2008-05-29T16:02:51+00:00

Hi,

i'm wondering if this expansion is not even playable with 2 players? The only change is that each player makes all actions the team player would make. That's all.

Is it worth to try or does it not work?

Thread: Re: Golden Spike Questions

toulouse — 2008-05-29T11:42:38+00:00

Yes. The two teams are based on the starting positions of the players. The two players starting in Sacramento are working together to reach Promontory before the two players who are starting from Omaha. Of course, they're not really teams, as the individual player with the highest score still wins...but if they don't work together they'll both lose to the other two players.

Thread: Golden Spike Questions

da pyrate — 2008-05-29T00:16:46+00:00

Teams: are the two players starting out of Sacramento on the same 'team' as each other?

Thread: Re: Golden Spike Question

cparrott — 2008-05-12T20:29:24+00:00

That's what I thought it would be, thanks for the quick answer Ted. Great map, we highly enjoyed our first play, though I miscounted and fell 1 tile short on my end of the map at the end. Nice balance of pushing the mainline against more lucrative deliveries.

Thread: Re: Golden Spike Question

toulouse — 2008-05-12T19:52:07+00:00

It means that you cannot build track by placing tiles directly to promontory. That would be you, as the player, defining the track. You may own the link on one side of promontory, however.

Thread: Golden Spike Question

cparrott — 2008-05-12T18:17:33+00:00

I haven't quite figured out what 'player defined track' means in this expansion. It states in rules that no player defined track may be connected to Promontory. I understood this to be that you can't build track to the city, but that the track revealed by shipping can be owned. Is this the correct interpretation or does it mean that in addition to no building, the link from the last town/city on the mainline before Promontory cannot be owned by anyone?

Image

DanHarrow — 2008-01-20T12:16:18+00:00

Many black ships were build

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DanHarrow — 2008-01-20T12:15:17+00:00

Much traffik on the mississippi

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DanHarrow — 2008-01-20T12:14:29+00:00

Green is going to win the game

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DanHarrow — 2008-01-20T12:13:12+00:00

Blue (Maus) owns the north mississippi

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DanHarrow — 2008-01-20T12:12:04+00:00

Red and yellow in the souht mississippi

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DanHarrow — 2008-01-20T12:10:45+00:00

Everything prepared for our first Mississippi run ...

Thread: Age of Steam Golden Spike session report

dedefortin — 2008-01-02T04:46:08+00:00

We had try the Mississippi Steamboat expansion but still had to try the other expansion of this set, Golden Spike. Reading of the rules wasn't easy at first and it's not only because our first language isn't english. Every people in our group had to read them to make sure our understanding of the rules was the same. As this is a team base expansion we split the teams with Pierre and Nathalie in team A and Martin and Mario as team B. We had many great experience when Mario and Martin were in the same team when playing the Spain/Portugal expansion and we were anxious to see how it would end up tonight.

Martin won the first bet and as expected he choose the urbanization action but his teamate Mario choose the first build action to take advantage of having the first link of their network in the east. This was the kind of move we had expected in this team ! To add some spice to the game Martin and Mario fought their way to have the following link but Mario is not the kind of player you try to intimidate. So Mario builded in front of Martin at Kearney so Martin couldn't connect this place. Martin then had to choose urbanization action on his own player at Kearny to be able to connect this part of the network. In the west part Pierre and Nathalie had a low income but were revealing more tiles than the other team and they were not reluctant to give income to their teamate. Martin and Mario continued their struggle as Mario revealed Cheyenne and began to build the next track so martin couldn't continue this link. Nathalie and Pierre were continuing to ship goods for small deliveries but they had a good lead for the most revealed tiles to be the first to connect the Golden Spike. So, on turn 5 Nathalie and Pierre only had 3 tiles to reveal and the other team 5. Nathalie and Pierre then were able to finish the game on the next turn.

We had some fun on this map because of the struggle in Martin/Mario's team but I wonder about the replayability . In any game you play, I suppose that you will never look at the income you make, the only thing that counts is to ship some goods to reveal more tiles no matter what is the income. We'll have to try it another time.

Final score:
Nathalie: 66
Pierre: 62
Martin/Mario: 0

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DavidNorman99 — 2007-12-23T11:29:49+00:00

Front of the Pack

Thread: Re: Age of Steam: The Golden Snipe

Coyotek4 — 2007-11-20T20:24:26+00:00

toulouse wrote:
So far my favorite play was one in which my "teammate" sabotaged our side because it would allow him to tie for third (both he and I received zero points for not completing it), whereas otherwise there was a good chance he would come in fourth (and I would have been first easily). Nasty nasty nasty goodness.
I don't see how he doesn't finish second in the 'otherwise' part, as the other two opponents would be 3rd and 4th, wouldn't they?

Thread: Re: Age of Steam: The Golden Snipe

DKahnt — 2007-11-20T03:39:47+00:00

toulouse wrote:
Great session report!!!

That sort of backstabbing (forwardstabbing?) is one of the reasons I really like this map.

So far my favorite play was one in which my "teammate" sabotaged our side because it would allow him to tie for third (both he and I received zero points for not completing it), whereas otherwise there was a good chance he would come in fourth (and I would have been first easily). Nasty nasty nasty goodness.

Hehehehe... the designer commented on my session report... hehehe...

Thanks... I think its a great map, hope to play it again.

-DK

Thread: Re: Age of Steam: The Golden Snipe

toulouse — 2007-11-19T23:48:35+00:00

Great session report!!!

That sort of backstabbing (forwardstabbing?) is one of the reasons I really like this map.

So far my favorite play was one in which my "teammate" sabotaged our side because it would allow him to tie for third (both he and I received zero points for not completing it), whereas otherwise there was a good chance he would come in fourth (and I would have been first easily). Nasty nasty nasty goodness.

Thread: Re: Age of Steam: The Golden Snipe

Csigs — 2007-11-19T01:21:24+00:00

Outstanding session report! I don't know how long it's been since I read one word for word, hanging on the edge of my seat. Whatever gg you got for from the modders wasn't enough.

Thread: Re: Age of Steam: The Golden Snipe

Warbanner — 2007-11-19T00:13:35+00:00

An excellent example of just how cutthroat AoS can be. I've had that urbanization trick done to me a few times in the past. The first time it completely hamstrung my plans, and I dropped from a runaway first place to last place almost immediately; I considered it a victory that I'd managed to avoid bankruptcy as a result.

Thread: Age of Steam: The Golden Snipe

DKahnt — 2007-11-18T22:37:08+00:00

The Ending

Could it be? Did I see something that the other gamers did not? Me, a relative novice to Age of Steam? I needed to check a rule so I asked permission to ask a gamer that was in a different game not to let on what I was about to do. After I asked him the question, he replied, "sure, you can do that... I don't know why you would want to... but you can." *sweet*

I sat back down in my chair, only a few gold left, I took my final two shares. Bidding time... the yellow player thought he knew what I wanted... I had done a similar move the turn before... so it was my turn... I had 14 gold... so, I bid 10. "Pass," said the red player, he was on my side (the blue side). The purple player looked at the yellow player and realized he too needed to pass, and so he did.

The yellow player looked at my gold... and promptly bid 12. I retorted 14, I wanted to make it appear he and I wanted the same thing. I had a plan. "15" he replied. And took first pick... "urbanization" we exchanged looks... he was wrong.

The Beginning

The game began like any other Age of Steam games. The idea of the Golden Spike map is an interesting one. On either side of the long map is a long equal already printed track. While not explicit, the four players are divided roughly into teams... two on each side... the blue side or the purple side.

Every time you deliver a cube to a city on the cross country track, another piece of the track is revealed. One by one the track is revealed... the game ends when all the tracks on one side hit the middle city. Thus its a race of sorts... with teams of sorts. If a team does not get to the middle... they score zero points altogether... and the other "team" figures out 1st and 2nd place.

The four of us Alex (Yellow), Larry (Purple), Rodney (Red), and myself (Green); decided on this particular map... none of us had played before.

After some rules explanation and quick strategizing to one another we began.

It was all normal

Having not played many Age of Steam games, I of course had the lucky chance to go first... *yay.* I chose Engineer, Yellow: Loco, Red: Build First, and Purple: something else (I can't remember)... We all built...

It appeared to be a typical game, Yellow is usually dominant in the game, and this was no exception... he had better strategy than the rest of us... we were fighting for second place from the beginning.

We each had some good moves.

My side (the blue side) took the first hit at the center track... but the purple side caught up.

Side by side we went... very typical... Red and I decided that pretty much we were going to be dead in the water unless we got some luck. It overall was pretty tense.

A break for the blue side

Late in the game:

After some lucky rolls of the dice for production, it was clear that the purple side was "winning" the race... Red and myself were fighting going to be fighting for third. The purple player had in one of his cities 2 black cubes ready to knock of the next two links of the middle rail. They only had a few left.

It was time to step up... if the blue side was going to lose... we would make it extremely difficult for the purple side to win. I was last to take shares and paid attention to how much money everyone had. I ended up taking three shares to put me past the person with the most money. I needed this.

The purple side knew what role I wanted to take: urbanization. That was the only way we could even muster out a win, by placing the final blue city on our center track and shipping to there... both red and I only had Loco's of 3, and they had 5 or 6.

So when it was my turn to bid I won the first choice (by paying through the nose) and choose Urbanization. It was my turn to build. I reached for the empty cities. I chose black and urbanized one of their towns right near the black cubes thus essentially making them useless for the race.

They were surprised. Red had no idea that is what I was going to do. Neither did they. Purple was one gold short to complete the route over the mountains and avoid the new black city. It felt good. But it wasn't enough. The purple side was shocked and quickly went into overdrive to compensate for this move. They figured with a couple of luckly tracks (purple I believe chose engineer) they could still pull off a victory.

I got props for a good move... and it felt good. While they were figuring everything out Red and I were looking at our side and one by one shipped off all but one of our covered spots. The other side had three left. The purple side realized they could still win and we noticed that too.

We had 3 available blue cubes to a blue city, while they had a possible 5 (or so) cubes. Then it hit me... it was the final turn, and I knew it.

Back to the Ending

There Yellow was about to urbanize they're only hope. He choose the colored city and place it on their main track. They had counted everything up and realized they could win with this move... but he choose wrong.

After he place his token I got to choose... "First Move" I muttered... and smiled.

I don't remember what happened next but I do remember that Yellow and Purple just realized what had happened... they had only five cubes to make 3 spaces disappear... If I sniped one cube, that would leave four for three... they would only get two moves, if I sniped two cubes, they couldn't do it. The other side still could pull it off... and then Red said, "I too ship as well." He let out a smile.

My first move was to ship on Yellow's track (the question I asked above was whether I could do that... ship totally on someone else's track) to a city not on the main corrider. Red followed suit.

They didn't have enough shipments. The blue side had plenty. After it all panned out the side who was in the lead the whole time had lost. They had one space yet to uncover... we uncovered all of ours. As per the rules, they lost.

My theory, if you're not going to win... make it difficult for the other team had worked... very well.

The Results

First place: Red (by about 6 points)
Second place: Green
Third place: Yellow and Purple

I consider it a victory, even though I didn't get first.

Overall it was a fun game. I got many a props for doing what I did.

-DK

Thread: Re: golden spike rules questions.

bazik123 — 2007-10-28T18:32:28+00:00

thanks.

Thread: Re: golden spike rules questions.

CortexBomb — 2007-10-28T15:22:59+00:00

bazik123 wrote:
is it possible everyone played only the steamboats side?? no threads about golden spike...

my questions:

1. how is it possible for a good to be delivered through Promontory if no player-defined track may be connected to it (so that the 5 point bonus could be given)? does this rule apply only in the final turn of the game, if both sides reveal track to Promontory, when you'd be able to deliver across the thick black line? The rule would be used so rarely it would seem kinda unnecessary, so I think I must be missing something here.

2. track reveal. what happens when I reveal a track when the segment already has my opponent's marker on it? do we leave both to determine majority once a city is built? do I replace his markers with mine? do I not get to place a marker? or is it not allowed for me to deliver a good to any city along the main line as long as my opponent has his marker on the last unfinished main track section?

thanks in advance,
mike

1. The bonus can only apply on the final turn, yes. It creates timing nuances on the final turn, as the person going second for a team could have an opportunity to ship through Promontory if their "team mate" revealed the link there AND the other team had revealed their track there as well. It's a huge potential bonus, so it makes sense that it is extremely limited.

2. If you reveal track, but your "team mate" already controls the link, then they maintain control of that link. i.e.: once someone has an ownership marker on a segment of track the only way for it to be removed is for both players to not ship to the central line for a round, which would then result in it being abandoned, and available for claiming by being the first person to ship to the central line again.

Thread: golden spike rules questions.

bazik123 — 2007-10-28T12:11:28+00:00

is it possible everyone played only the steamboats side?? no threads about golden spike...

my questions:

1. how is it possible for a good to be delivered through Promontory if no player-defined track may be connected to it (so that the 5 point bonus could be given)? does this rule apply only in the final turn of the game, if both sides reveal track to Promontory, when you'd be able to deliver across the thick black line? The rule would be used so rarely it would seem kinda unnecessary, so I think I must be missing something here.

2. track reveal. what happens when I reveal a track when the segment already has my opponent's marker on it? do we leave both to determine majority once a city is built? do I replace his markers with mine? do I not get to place a marker? or is it not allowed for me to deliver a good to any city along the main line as long as my opponent has his marker on the last unfinished main track section?

thanks in advance,
mike

Thread: Re: Building into/through riverside towns

Great Dane — 2007-10-14T07:37:49+00:00

Yeah, it is.
I forgot that the trains wasn't carried by the river boats, so that you had to transfer all load by hand.

Thread: Re: Building into/through riverside towns

JasonRMax — 2007-10-14T05:18:59+00:00

I was just looking and every image of this board in play shows no extra stubs heading into the reiver, so I'd guess JC's response is the correct answer.

Thread: Re: Mississippi Steamboats: Baton Rouge and New Orleans

SybotCB — 2007-09-18T15:24:36+00:00

jmilum wrote:
I just checked the images for the game posted here, and you can almost make out that the link between Baton Rouge and New Orleans if you look at the max sized image. It is a tight curve track that the white town marker is sitting on I believe:

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Yep, that answers the question. Thanks.

Thread: Re: Mississippi Steamboats: Baton Rouge and New Orleans

jmilum — 2007-09-18T14:50:04+00:00

I just checked the images for the game posted here, and you can almost make out that the link between Baton Rouge and New Orleans if you look at the max sized image. It is a tight curve track that the white town marker is sitting on I believe:

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Thread: Re: Building into/through riverside towns

Great Dane — 2007-09-18T02:47:35+00:00

montu wrote:
But this creates some serious track shortages,

Remember that you can use any tile as a Town-tile by placing one of the wooden discs on it.

Thread: Re: Mississippi Steamboats: Baton Rouge and New Orleans

Great Dane — 2007-09-18T02:41:54+00:00

Sorry, imprecise use of terms here.
Not talking about upgrading the town. That is called "urbanizing".
You can upgrade the hex (with more rail-links) by replacing the town-tile with a more complex town-tile (for $3) as described in the rules (page 6: "Replacing").

My question was basically wanting to know if you could deliver on a link from New Orleans, to a steamboat docked at Baton Rouge and get credit for 1 link, plus the bonus. It's a question since Baton Rouge is adjacent to New Orleans.

The distance between towns and cities doesn't matter. It would have been a link no matter how long the tracks between them was. But Baton Rouge must have a link leading into New Orleans.

Thread: Re: Mississippi Steamboats: Baton Rouge and New Orleans

SybotCB — 2007-09-17T23:50:37+00:00

Great Dane wrote:
Batton Rouge is town like any other.
If you build track in it will cost $1 for the town and $1 for each track section leading in/out of the town, so yes, the minimum cost would $2 to connect to New Orleans.

But as Batton Rouge isn't a city, you can only move goods through it. So it will have no practical use during the game until upgraded (but will count as a completed link for VP-purposes at the end of the game)

No, you can't upgrade towns on this map. Baton Rouge is on the Mississippi River though. So you could deliver to a steamboat that was adjacent to Baton Rouge. My question was basically wanting to know if you could deliver on a link from New Orleans, to a steamboat docked at Baton Rouge and get credit for 1 link, plus the bonus. It's a question since Baton Rouge is adjacent to New Orleans.

Thread: Re: Mississippi Steamboats: Baton Rouge and New Orleans

Great Dane — 2007-09-17T19:14:33+00:00

Batton Rouge is town like any other.
If you build track in it will cost $1 for the town and $1 for each track section leading in/out of the town, so yes, the minimum cost would $2 to connect to New Orleans.

But as Batton Rouge isn't a city, you can only move goods through it. So it will have no practical use during the game until upgraded (but will count as a completed link for VP-purposes at the end of the game)

Thread: Mississippi Steamboats: Baton Rouge and New Orleans

SybotCB — 2007-09-17T18:33:21+00:00

Can you build a small track between Baton Rouge and New Orleans (Similar to what you can do on the Northern California Map) for an extra link when moving goods between these two cities?

If yes, then I am assuming that it just costs $1 for the track and $1 for the town.

Thread: Re: Building into/through riverside towns

montu — 2007-09-02T01:30:22+00:00

But this creates some serious track shortages, which I don't like very much. The game can become a race to get the lollipop tracks into play, so in a 4p game the 4th player can get screwed on the first turn. We played that you could build into a town with any legal tile, even if it went through the town and into the water. It still allowed for a bit of "screwage" but seemed much more fair. I'd love to hear Ted's "official" ruling on this.

Image

toulouse — 2007-07-23T05:47:27+00:00

Age of Steam: Mississippi Steamboats & Golden Spike logos

Thread: Re: Age of Steam Mississippi Steamboats session report

King Mob — 2007-06-25T19:57:17+00:00

I really think the key to doing well on this map is to be in the St Louis/Springfield/Little Rock area of the map, or perhaps the eastern side of the river in the same vicinity. It allows you to get 2 ports early, which can then aid you in delivering to steamboats instead of tough to connect cities. I think the other key (and one that everyone seems to fall into easily from the visual representation of the map) is to not concentrate on one side of the board. If you treat the river as an obstacle, you are almost certain to lose. If you treat the river as a tool for victory, you should finish the game near the lead. The north and south ends look viable based on typical AoS map strategy, but I considered them fools gold for enticing you to play outside the premise of the driving strategy of this map.

Thread: Re: Age of Steam Mississippi Steamboats session report

texasjdl — 2007-06-21T19:00:58+00:00

dedefortin wrote:
You have to think carefully before your turn because each delivery is very tough, specially with 5 players. We had some concerns about the randomness of the steamboats movement.

In my mind, this map is no more random than the normal game, and possibly less so. In the normal game, you are at the mercy of the dice as to when and where goods come onto the map.

On this map, you have that same production randomness, but at least you can mitigate that randomness with a well-placed steamboat. On other maps, you are really at the mercy of where the towns are; on this map, the steamboat gets to move, so it's less likely that the goods distribution and production rolls are going to be the difference between winning and losing.

Also, because the steamboats move, while the steamboat will help the person who places it on the turn on which she/he places it, other players will also be able to utilize the steamboat. This should help tighten the game up a bit, which I always think is a good thing.

dedefortin wrote:
We'll have to play this map again soon to fully exploit the possibilities.

I definitely encourage you to do so. This has become one of my favorite maps (I think this and Ireland are my two favorites), and knowing when aned how to use the steamboats is a key part of the map. It was hard to grasp just how important the steamboats are with just one play.

Thread: Age of Steam Mississippi Steamboats session report

dedefortin — 2007-06-21T02:22:27+00:00

We always like to try new AoS maps and tonight with 5 players attending we decided to play the Mississippi steamboats map. The main new rule of this map is about steamboats that are moving on the Mississipi river, these steamboats are important as they serve as special delivery cities.

First look at this map told us that it wouldn't be easy tonight. To show this, the bets went very high even if Pierre started at 4$. Pierre and Adrien started in the northern area, Martin and Nathalie in the western area and Mario was alone in the southeast. Round 1 was tough for everyone and only Martin and Pierre manages to deliver any goods at all. Martin started the bets of round 2 at 4$ and again he won the important urbanization action (steamboats placement). Mario and Martin has a strong start and they finished round 2 at 7 and 8 income while Pierre was stuck at 1 only. Martin and Mario continued their nice network in the south. The hostilities between these 2 players began when Martin blocked Mario from connecting Lafayette. In retaliation in the next round, Mario took the 4 exits from St-Joseph to deny Martin from connecting this important city. Even if they fought hard they were the only 2 players to ship for 4 income in their delivery. The steamboats were near their network for a long time and they took advantage of this. On turn 5 Mario was first to bet but every player betted in this round and Mario was finally last. Adrien made a nice comeback when he placed a black steamboats to make 2 nice shippings of 5 income. At this time Adrien, Martin and Mario were clearly in the lead. Adrien did the same trick as in round 5 and again he made 2 deliveries of 5 income. For the last round the bets went very high even of Adrien began at 8 . Mario and Martin continued their fight in the south but Mario (thanks to his nice loop and his rhum) and made 2 big deliveries to ensure his win.

We really had a tough time on this new map. You have to think carefully before your turn because each delivery is very tough, specially with 5 players. We had some concerns about the randomness of the steamboats movement. We'll have to play this map again soon to fully exploit the possibilities.

Final scoring:
Mario: 81
Adrien: 70
Martin: 69
Pierre: 43
Nathalie: 37

Thread: Re: Mississippi plays best with?

JasonRMax — 2007-06-17T03:28:07+00:00

[q="toulouse]With 5, there's this amazing mass of tracks in the south, and Steamboats are used regularly to cross the river. Everybody fights for the 'boats every turn.

We played a partial game of 5 last night, and the battle for the steamboats is exactly what we saw. I started by connecting Duluth to the river and building a steamship to cross the river with my first good moves. The problem came when two other players started in the Duluth/Green Bay area. Those two realized very quickly that they had no chance of winning, and after the player who started in New Orleans made a serious error that took him out of the running, we agreed to abort the game after 3 turns and declare myself and the player who started in the Western Plains the joint winners, rather than force the other 3 to sit though the game.

Thread: Re: Building into/through riverside towns

clearclaw — 2007-06-16T21:08:45+00:00

JasonRMax wrote:
The question we had was, are you limited to just the town tiles and track pieces that would not result in stubs leading into the river when you build into the riverside towns, just as you would be with a town against any body of water?

That's my understanding. This leaves you with lollypop towns as you mentioned, simple track (2-exit towns), and those fewer three-exit and 4-exit towns that don't connect to the river.

Thread: Building into/through riverside towns

JasonRMax — 2007-06-16T07:31:20+00:00

We had some confusion tonight in building into and through the riverside towns. Using the town tiles provided could lead to building a tile that had stubs going off into the river, which isn't usually allowed. You could just you the tiles with only one entry into the town, but there are only 3 of those tiles and 11 riverside towns.

The question we had was, are you limited to just the town tiles and track pieces that would not result in stubs leading into the river when you build into the riverside towns, just as you would be with a town against any body of water?

Thread: Re: Boat movement

toulouse — 2007-05-16T17:22:07+00:00

IcemanQc wrote:
When a boat moves and reaches the river end, should the "U turn" movement be counted as a free move or as 1 ?

It's a "free move" in that you only count the end space one time.

Thread: Boat movement

IcemanQc — 2007-05-16T11:31:05+00:00

When a boat moves and reaches the river end, should the "U turn" movement be counted as a free move or as 1 ?

Thread: Re: Mississippi plays best with?

IcemanQc — 2007-05-16T11:22:59+00:00

I tried the streamboats map with the Steam Brothers and 2 others players last week : good challenge for 5 players which is, I think, my personal maximum limit for this map.

Thread: Re: Mississippi plays best with?

toulouse — 2007-05-04T03:18:20+00:00

Sifu wrote:
Like the base game, it says 3-6, but where does it really shine?

Doh. I hate agreeing with J C. But 4 is ideal.

That said, there are actually three basic starting positions (Orleans area, Northern tip area, and western "plains" area) that all have advantages and disadavantages. Left unchecked, each one of them can win the game with the right plays. 3 players is a bit of a race. Delivering for 7 towards the end (and building towards that goal) wins these games.

With 4 there's overlap that starts in one of the three starting positions and oozes its way to another. If the lone player realizes that they're alone, and capitalizes on it appropriately, they'll crush the other three. Beware the under-the-radar player...

With 5, there's this amazing mass of tracks in the south, and Steamboats are used regularly to cross the river. Everybody fights for the 'boats every turn.

With 6, it's ugly and painful and rewards skillful short term strategy more than any other number.

Thread: Re: Mississippi plays best with?

clearclaw — 2007-05-02T23:56:35+00:00

Sifu wrote:
Like the base game, it says 3-6, but where does it really shine?

4. See http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/15206/comment/590162#comme...

Thread: Mississippi plays best with?

Sifu — 2007-05-02T20:51:18+00:00

Like the base game, it says 3-6, but where does it really shine?

Thread: Re: Steamboat-Good movement

vvrood — 2007-04-28T02:46:10+00:00

jmilum wrote:
Lucas wrote:
Awesome job. The maps look wonderful!

I heartily agree!!!

Me too!! Much nicer than the Winsome/Warfrog maps.

Thread: Age of Steam: Mississippi session

wkover — 2007-04-27T17:58:58+00:00

4/25/07 Session Report: Age of Steam (Mississippi Steamboats map)

Game sessions are held every Wednesday night at Rob B’s (Bobby Tweaks’) house; the last session of each month is “Age of Steam” night. For this month’s AoS session, five of us sat down and tried the Mississippi Steamboats map. Proof of the freaky, counterintuitive nature of this map is the fact that the players who placed first and second had never played Age of Steam before. (This might also be proof of the fact that the rest of us just plain suck. Your call.)

Rather than give a turn-by-turn breakdown, I’ll make a few general comments and then summarize the strategies and outcomes for each player.

General comments:

The early turns in our game were particularly harsh. The goods distribution on the lower half of the map was such that goods couldn’t be delivered between most cities in the SE and SW. And since towns can’t be urbanized on the MS map, first-turn connections between the northern cities (Duluth-Green Bay, Minneapolis-Des Moines and Duluth-Minneapolis) are only available to the player who chooses the Engineer special action. Consequently, in our game, only 2 of the 5 players (Rob, Cody) made a goods delivery on the first turn. Most players built into the river ports on their first turn, hoping to have access to steamboats on later turns.

Since players receive a +1 income bonus for deliveries to steamboats, the key to this map is to make successful use of the boats, rather than focusing on making longer and longer deliveries. The first- and second-place players in our game never increased their locomotive past level 3.

One potentially problematic aspect of this map is that the random motion of the steamboats can make or break players – and, aside from winning the auction and choosing the Steamboat action, there’s not much that players can do to mitigate this randomness (see notes below).

Player summary:

Kevin: Kevin wasn’t able to make a turn 1 delivery, but he made an incredibly smart move on turn 2 that essentially won him the game. Kevin noticed the cluster of blue cubes sitting in St. Louis, yellow Springfield, and Little Rock, and so he enacted the following plan to catapult himself into first place: he won the turn 2 auction, chose the steamboat role, built a line from Springfield and St. Louis, and placed a blue boat beside St. Louis. Thanks to his clever strategy, not only was he able to make his own deliveries to the boat, but everyone else in the area was forced to use Kevin’s track to make their own deliveries. Kevin’s income went up drastically, and he used this income on subsequent turns to monopolize the Steamboat action. Kevin’s elevated income also allowed him to build a snaking rail network that spanned both sides of the river and crept into both the northern and southern areas of the board. He made full use of this network (thanks to the wandering steamboats) for the remainder of the game, which solidified his victory. Great work by a first-time player, overall.

Rob: On turn 1, Rob snagged the Steamboat action. Since there were 2 black cubes on New Orleans (helpful, eh?), Rob placed a black boat beside New Orleans. Rob and I then proceeded to make 0-link deliveries (with +1 delivery bonus for each) from New Orleans to the steamboat. However, on turn 2, Rob committed economic suicide by choosing the Locomotive action and forgoing a delivery to bump up to a level 3 engine. Rob was unable to take full advantage of his high-level locomotive on later turns, and was therefore stuck wasting critical amounts of cash on locomotive upkeep. A brief summary of Rob’s game: thanks to the horrible initial placement of cubes, Rob's piecemeal rail network, and Rob's lack of luck with the steamboat movement, Rob frequently came close to bankruptcy. This guaranteed Rob his last-place finish.

Cody: I won the first-turn auction, and used my impressive AoS skills (ha!) to choose the Engineer action and build a link between Duluth and Green Bay, both of which began with 5 cubes. I therefore managed to make two 1-link deliveries on turn 1. My plan on turn 2 was to choose Engineer once again and build from Duluth and Minneapolis. I failed to win the turn 2 auction, however, and Phil started building from Minneapolis to Duluth before I had the chance. This effectively killed my dream of building an ever-larger network of track down both sides of the Mississippi, and so for the remainder of the game I was stuck building into river ports that – due to the fickle movement of the steamboats – never paid off. Given the scarcity of cities in the north, there were two reasons why I wasn’t knocked out in mid-game: (1) on turn 3, Kevin mercifully placed a steamboat beside Minneapolis, which gave me two much-needed deliveries, and (2) on turn 4 or 5, I managed to grab the Steamboat action (for the first and last time), which allowed me to place a red boat on the river and deliver two cubes sitting idly on Duluth. At the end of the turn, though, “my” steamboat moved 11 spaces (!) – which put it well out of reach of my network. This patch of bad luck was worsened by the fact that no other steamboats remained on the northern half of the board. (This would happen on later turns as well.) The lack of nearby steamboats effectively took me out the running for first or second place, since a pattern quickly emerged wherein I became stuck with 1- or 2-link deliveries until a boat stumbled into my sphere of influence. The only reason why I placed third is that I finally extended my eastern network down into purple Springfield, which ensured that I had two 3-link deliveries on the last turn of the game.

Matt: Matt did a smart thing. During the early turns, Matt built a Lafayette-Little Rock-Springfield-Des Moines Network and chose the Production action turn after turn to re-stock these cities. (We used the “draw four, place two” production variant, which helped Matt considerably.) For the entire game, Matt ignored the riverboats and happily delivered cubes to cities in his own network. This “classic” AoS strategy – used to great effect by a first-time player – put Matt firmly into second place.

Phil: Phil built some track in the SE portion of the board, which gave him access to some of the steamboats that Kevin was sending downriver. His unfocused trackbuilding also led him to build in the NW (as I described before) and in the SW, which very nearly bankrupted him in mid-game. (Phil was stuck simultaneously extending 2-3 unfinished links, which did nothing for his income.) What saved Phil was that he had built his engine to a respectable level, and then he managed to make a few long deliveries in the SE. The majority of his points came from track-building, however. Phil ended the game with more track that any other player: 29 pieces, I believe.

Final scores: (rough guesses)

Kevin: 53
Matt: 46
Cody: 41
Phil: 35
Rob: 17

Thread: Awsome customer service from Bezier!

Mease19 — 2007-04-21T20:36:29+00:00

I recently recieved a bundle of AoS maps from Bezier. Unfortunately, the packaging and some of the [card] maps got torn in transit. I emailed him with this problem and within 24 hours he had emailed me back and promised to ship replacements right away. (fortunately, Mississippi Steamboats/Golden Spike wasn't damaged)

Thank you Bezier games for your wonderful customer support as well as great games/components!

Thread: Wed night=Mississippi Steamboats

King Mob — 2007-04-19T06:55:49+00:00

I received my much anticipated copy of Mississippi Steamboats in the mail Monday, so I brought it to our usual Wed game night to see its first play locally. I had played a prototype version at BGG.Con back in November, and had pretty much talked constantly about playing it again since that time. So our group was more than willing to play, if for no other reason than to shut me up. There were only 4 of us tonight, but we had all played Age of Steam several times before, albeit only a few times each.

I went over the rules differences while Tony helped setup the starting distribution of cubes on the board and production track. I had played previously with 3, but money was a little less tight in that game than it was in ours, so I nearly bankrupted myself on the very first turn by dangerously declining to take a share. Everyone else took at least one share, and Tony ended up winning the auction and choosing Urbanization. Urbanization, of course, is how you get steamboats onto the board, so it's a very important turn option, and one that should not be given away too cheaply. Early in our game, Aaron, David, and I perhaps let Tony have that option too cheaply, and he was able to build an early lead off easy 2 pt deliveries to his steamboat each turn that magically appeared at the Minneapolis port. Aaron and David were vying for the New Orleans to Memphis portion of the board, while David and Tony fought over the northern reaches. I was left alone in the middle of the board, making simple connections from St Louis to Springfield, MO to Little Rock, and eventually West Memphis.

As luck would have it, the die rolls for the endless stream of steamboats coming down the river almost always resulted in a ship being docked at St Louis and/or West Memphis, allowing me to make deliveries otherwise impossible, as well as making 3 pts for almost every 2 track delivery without having to increase my locomotive. Tony relied a little too much on the Steamboat mechanic, while failing to create enough connections for longer deliveries, something that he corrected about a turn too late. David and Aaron seemed unable to grasp the need to diversify across the river, as their cubes were quickly drying up in the southeast. I continued to be unchallenged until about turn 7 in the St Louis area, so a turn or two previous, I went for engineer and built a connection to Quincy from Springfield, and claimed a route out of Des Moines, and the backdoor route from Green Bay headed south. At this pt, Tony finally tries to invade my territory, blocking my engineer choice from making the easy finishing connection from Des Moines to St Louis, so I instead added onto my Green Bay route, built towards Jefferson City, and up from Springfield, MO, leaving 2 spaces to complete the route next turn. Aaron had finally branched out to the north, and was preparing to connect to Springfield, IL as well. David and Tony were beginning to build out of Lafayette, which had been totally ignored at this pt, a mistake on David's part moreso than Tony's. With my steamboat good fortune, the economics didn't make sense for me to head south to connect Lafayette, especially when it became apparent the route from Green Bay to Springfield, IL was mine for the taking.

As we neared the endgame, I was able to get some very cheap locomotive upgrades as the others tried to up production or get first move/first build to beat out their rivals. I rarely moved a cube for less than 3 pts after turn 4, and in the last couple of turns, I was able to move several for 4 and 5 pts each, thanks to steamboat congestion, the luck of the dice, and routes now leading from Green Bay to Madison to Rockford to Springfield, as well as Des Moines to Jefferson City to Springfield, MO forking to St Louis and Little Rock with additional connection to West Memphis. David attempted to play kingmaker by giving me an extra point on his final delivery, catapulting me to 31 instead of 30 on the income chart, whereas everyone else was safely within the -4 portion. Alas, the 2 5 pt deliveries made possible by the position of the steamboats, combined with a few extra track builds gave me a 3-4 pt cushion, even after losing 6 on the track. Tony perhaps took one too many shares, but even without the luck, I would have won narrowly thanks to more track. Tony came in 2nd by 3 or 4 pts, Aaron was a few pts behind him, and David was about 10 pts behind me in last.

Discussing and thinking about our game afterwards, I think Tony relied too heavily on the steamboats, instead of planning ahead for longer routes. Steamboats can be quite important, but not if it forces you to sacrifice the planning and building of long routes for the late game. David and Aaron were hampered by competition for the same cities, but I think Aaron could have made the trek to Green Bay, and beaten us all, if he had noticed how easy it was to complete. Controlling at least one of the middle ports (St Louis and Memphis) seemed to be a very strong play, especially with the proliferation of steamboats by the end of the game. If steamboats are all but ignored, I think a person in the middle of the board could have a very difficult time without some luck in the goods distribution. I think another key is to know when to cross the river, and not fall into the trap of building routes only on one side or the other. The steamboats make it foolish not to try to connect a city to a port opposite another port, allowing you to deliver cubes that would otherwise be stranded. I think in the case of competition for the same cities as Aaron and David had, choosing production then first move becomes key, but that could be said of any game of AoS. I think it holds even more true here however, since you can't rely on the availability of a steamboat for delivery purposes. 3 of us nearly went bankrupt during the game, but all were able to recover, and in my case, ultimately win the game. I think the map is more forgiving to beginners than many of the other maps, as the Steamboats can really bail you out of poor placement, or a failure to bid enough to get the right turn option. This randomness might aggravate more experienced players, and perfect information gamers, but I personally find it a nice change of pace, and a challenge to constructive planning based on the probability of a boat stopping near one of your ports. All in all, I think it's an excellent and extremely enjoyable addition to the AoS panoply of maps.

Thread: Re: Steamboat-Good movement

clearclaw — 2007-04-17T16:53:02+00:00

Lucas wrote:
When moving a good from a town to a steamboat, I assume you need to have built track from the town to the brown dock. Or no?

No. Towns that are adjacent to docks are automagically connected to all those docks even if they don't have specific track running to the individual docks.

(If so, there are other Q's like whether it counts as completed track for scoring, etc. Hmm, now I'm leaning toward no.)

Such virtual track stubs are not scored.

Thread: Re: Steamboat-Good movement

boomtron — 2007-04-17T15:06:01+00:00

Thanks, Ted.

One other quicky: When moving a good from a town to a steamboat, I assume you need to have built track from the town to the brown dock. Or no?

(If so, there are other Q's like whether it counts as completed track for scoring, etc. Hmm, now I'm leaning toward no.)

Luke

Image

toulouse — 2007-03-22T13:28:18+00:00

An original shrinkwrapped board and rules - The first copy!

Image

toulouse — 2007-03-22T13:27:44+00:00

Mississippi Steamboats side of the board