by Tony Boydell
One of my guilty pleasures, when travelling to the northern Welsh wilds, is to sit in the dusty Conwy marina car park and scoff a KFC, listen to a podcast (this time: Billy Crystal on Marc Maron'sWTF) and watch the boats bobbing up-and-down on estuary. This idyllic (if greasy) scene is further enhanced by an evening in the company of the Snowdonia Dragons group at the nearby Golf Club and, yes, I _do_ wash my hands before touching anything!It was a crowded Lounge Bar on Monday and allowed Aaron, Tim and myself to slightly-selfishly take ourselves off in to a corner to luxuriate in Le Havre. It's been almost exactly FOUR YEARS since I played this 'for real' (many, many instances since on the iOS app, of course), so it was perversely delightful to be shovelling chits about and hopping one's action piece from building to building 'by hand'.
The return of an old friend! How I have missed thee...
I managed to grab myself a number of the key buildings that meant a steady income of food and francs from the other two: Abbatoir, Marketplace, (upgraded) Wharf, Brickworks, Shipping etc; Tim went heavy fishing/smoking and Aaron stocked up on Coke for a couple of big, lucrative sailings. No longer paralysed by the fear of 'loans', I - and Aaron - happily hocked ourselves up to the ears (we both hit NINE at one point) in order to power our greedy expansion; Tim was far more cautious and, consequently, found himself squandering actions for feeding rather than building up his Harbour empire. In the end, after an hour and forty-five (!), it was a double-action 'game end' (courtesy of one of the Special Buildings) that allowed Aaron to ship AND get his hands on the Bank for a 179-159-117 win.
The other tables were still in full flow (there was a Poseidon that would go the 4 hour distance and STILL call it 2 rounds early), so we three filled up 30 mins with Sail to India:
Everywhere is FULL!
It was an odd game (see above) that went right down to 'no cubes left to recruit' and all of mine were either sitting on Strongholds/Churches or my VP card: 24-23-23 to Aaron, with Tim winning the tie-for-second by virtue of 'discovering' India. What a curious little thing this is.
It was now 21:15 (and still light outside!), so Aaron's suggestion of Cosmic Encounter seemed relatively sensible; I say 'relatively' because CE can be done-and-dusted quickly OR can last 2+ hours, depending on the chosen Races and/or the belligerence/malevolence of the players!
Not a single ship left my system...except to end up in The Warp!
As it turned out, my selection of 'Genius' followed by an essential single-minded determination to draw cards / ignore bases saw me hitting my alternative win goal (have 20 or more cards in hand) in 45 minutes DESPITE the best efforts of the others who:
a) kept letting me join in attacks (if we win, 'Genius' can convert my ships in to cards rather than a Base), and
b) when attacking me, let me be the sole player of a Negotiation card in order to get a consolation draw!
It was also fun to have Ed's time-travellers rollback my play of an 'Attack: 23' in a move to prevent my gaining four more cards...only for me to slam down an 'Attack: 40' as an alternative (pulls air, punches neighbour etc)! Ed would have his revenge in a quick round of No Thanks! to close: pulling five cards in a row to complete a run of 24 thru 31 and, with a fistful of plastic chits, a splendid minus two final score.
As I returned to the B&B, my dusky fast-food treat came back to haunt me: a car filled with the smell of stale chicken...seasoned with a secret blend of 11 herbs and spices. Someone PLEASE open a window...*retch*