Game Day 11/13/2008

Game #1a
Game #1b

Steel Driver

First up is a new Essen and Wallace game called Steel Driver. This is an interesting game that is full of trade offs. You bid for control of laying railroad routes. But there are twists to this. The first is that you get paid off in the end for your shares in the different companies that you have owed. However, losing control of them is not a bad thing as long as they pay out well at the end (ala Imperial). Second, while you make money by connecting expensive routes, in the end, you score more money by collecting complete sets. You want your railroads to connect to each of six colors. You shouldn’t really get distracted by connecting the first trans-continental railroad route either. Third, there is a trade off to how much you bid to control and operate a railroad versus how many railroads you can get control in. Unless the few railroads that you did control also did very well in the scoring. Fourth, railroads which build quicker operate sooner during the next round. This can be beneficial in avoiding being cut off. But you score more for building more tracks rather than fewer tracks.

Tichu

With four people, we ended the night with Tichu. On the second to the last hand, Jon got a little nervous of calling a risky Tichu when we were 50 points from the win. I’ve been there before…


11/13/2008 The scorecard for a game of Tichu

GT or T bet made or lost

This team scored more points than the other or one twoed

GT/T Team #1 GT/T GT/T Team #2 GT/T
MarkH & Jon Nick & MikeCh
T+
205
  T- -105  
  405     -105  
  415    
-15
 
 
505
    -5  
  525   T+
175
 
  525     475 T+
 
620
    480  
  920 T+   480  
  950    
450
T-
  950    
550
 
 
1135
T+   565