Five of us met up for games at Tony's house: Tony, me, Fiona, Colin and Rob (down for Christmas).
We started with a game of Power Grid on the USA map. The north-eastern region was unused.
I took the 5 cost plant first turn and Kansas City as my opening city. Rob was on the eastern coast with Tony in between me and Rob. Fiona and Colin were out west.
On the second turn I got 2Oil/Coal-4cities (21?) at cost, and with my relatively favourable turn order bought as much Coal and Oil as I could. A few turns later I also picked up 2Garbage-3Cities for cost, and soon after I triggered step 2.
At that stage I thought I was doing well. All of the goods became very cheap during step 2 - I think this was due to the many Wind Turbines in play. I quickly got a five city oil plant, and then was able to upgrade my garbage plant to 3Garbage-6 Cities (31?). At the time when I bought this the market was 3 lower capacity plants and this one, and after I bought it there weren't any more high capacity plants available until the final turn. I think I got it far too cheap.
So I looked well set for the win. I was almost able to win by connecting to (and powering) fifteen cities the turn before step 3, but Fiona spotted this and expanded agressively into cities I would have needed. So I waited on 13, with plants and fuel to power 15, and step 3 arrived next turn.
There was an outside chance that Rob or Fiona could beat me by powering 16 cities, but the fierce competition for the available 7 capacity plants made that unlikely - Tony and Colin both needed them and had been stockpiling cash.
Final Result
Simon 15 Cities / ~120E
Rob 15 Cities / ~50E
Fiona 15 Cities / ~10E
Tony 14 Cities / ~30E
Colin 14 Cities / ~20E (had sufficient plants for 15 but not enough cash to connect)
A good game, and for once it didn't take too long (just over 2 hours). I can understand the comments on BGG that the USA map is unbalanced for beginners. I think I can see how an opening position on the (expensive) West Coast shold be played, but I don't think the others have worked it out yet.
After Power Grid we played a few hands of For Sale. Whilst there is certainly a lot of luck involved (the auction mechanic can sometimes leave you with no good choices and force you to drop, giving everyone else cheap stuff, and blind bidding is inherently random) there is still some room for strategy and skill, and I think our results bore that out. Colin and I seem to have got the hang of it, whilst Fiona struggles with the blind bidding converting good property portfolios into poor scores.
A striking example of bad play - the following sequence happened (twice!) : too high opening bid followed by pass, pass, pass, pass. So somebody paid for the highest card whilst the others were all distributed for free.
Also Tony has noted that an non winning odd bid of X will costs the same as a non winning even bid of X-1, but hasn't properly thought through the implications of this.
So Colin won two of the three games and I had a first, a second and a third.
We ended with a game of Ticket to Ride with the 1910 Tickets and 15 point most routes bonus. We feel these really improve the game.
I kept Atlanta-LA and Nashville-Vancouver as my opening tickets. With sets like these I feel the best plan is to connect up the 'ends' and then fund a route cross-country. So I claim Nashville-Atlanta first turn, and then start collecting for LA-Vancouver. I get LA-SF, and then a few turns later it all kicks off around Vancouver...
Rob is sitting on my right, Fiona on my left. I can't remember the exact sequence but Rob claims Seattle-Calgary and Calgary-Helena. So my best route in Vancouver is now straight up the coast. So I claim Portland-Seattle-Vancouver. Rob then takes one of them as well, and Fiona is blocked out of the NW cities. She can't complete one of her tickets!
This means she probably can't win - unless she can catch most of the other players with unfinished tickets as well. So she speeds up the game, concentrating on the long routes.
There is a small hiccup in my plan when the green trains I have been saving for SF-Portland become useless when Colin claims that connection. So now I need Pinks, but there are literally none turning up. After a few turns of bad draws of the top I end up taking Locomotives from the display - seems like the only way I'll get that connection.
Eventually I make it, and get across the country fairly smoothly (SF, Salt Lake, Denver, Kansas, St Louis). Next turn I take Destination Tickets and strike lucky - one I've already done and for another I just need to get to Chicago. Luckily I have the trains needed in hand, cause Fiona ends the game.
On my last turn I claim St Louis-Chicago. The 48 points for my four tickets and the 15 points most tickets bonus is enough to take me from last to first. Which came as a surprise - I thought I was too far behind.
Overall a successful evening for me. Clearly the Strongbow I was drinking gave me an unfair advantage!
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