Snowman

Gaming has been good of late.

 

On Saturday I made it up to the annual Oxcon event, something I missed last year due to a lavatory that required painting in the North Wing of the Castle.

 

I played a couple of games of Municipium, not seen in Gormenghast since the decline and fall of the Roman Empire (well, a stormy night at the Hidden Gamers back in 2009) and then some Small World.

The latter was a game much loved amongst the ThreeAmigoSpieler until Grima declared that everyone 'wormtongued' too much and that he didn't enjoy it any more.

The logical paradox that followed his statement left a million coloured cubes orphaned in time and space. It has been debated in parliament and the Vatican has declared the Clotted Hustler infallible. Or was it unbelievable? 

 

Regardless, it was great to get it back to the table - even if we did have to endure a gaming snob declaring it to be "nothing more than a poor substitute for the game they said was broken but wasn't (Vinci)". [As opposed to 'a fun, light, reimplementation of an interesting mechanic embedded in an overworked war game (Vinci)"]

 

Talking of war games, the evening was rounded off nicely when I took the bateau back to the Salt Marshes, played my Settler, and sat down to a friendly game of A Few Acres of Snow.

 

I have been pointed to a number of articles over on the Geek about how this game is 'broken'.

The British, they say, have a killer strategy - the Halifax Hammer - which renders the game pointless. The rules have been modified to stop it happening (if, indeed, it ever was a foregone conclusion), but those who consider themselves the oracles claim the changes have not gone far enough.

Personally I have no problem with these claims, apart from the pompous tones, because I kind of like fighting the unwinnable fight. If there's a chink in the armour, I like to find it. And if there isn't, I'm happy to die trying. (Metaphorically).

 

So I took the French and waited for the Hammer. In fact it never came and, after about two hours play, it was clear that both the British and the French hands had gummed themselves up, too much, and the land war was getting somme like. We both needed to clear out our decks and rethink our strategies - but sadly my taxi driver was tapping her toes, in the doorway, and we were forced to abandon for a draw. Probably for the best. I'd had a few too many ales, at this point, and kept forgetting to add location cards to my hand.

 

Not to be deterred, the brave combatants reconvened Monday night, ready for fresh snow.

I took the French. I had a plan. I tied up the British in an early siege and used the benefits of an incredibly thin deck (everything else falling into the siege) to progressively sell furs and use the money to fortify key locations. It was an excellent early strategy that allowed me to tool up my defenses quickly. Sure I lost the siege, in the end, but it bought me precious time.

As the British had to throw so many money generating cards into the siege, they found themselves developing more slowly than they would have anticipated. Of course, their war machine slowly built up, once the siege was over, but in the meantime I sailed and settled the great lakes, as quickly as the cards would allow. Rather than upgrading any of my settlements, I rushed to get them all onto the board, and end the game, before the English could say 'mad old king george'.

 

The Strategy worked and I won by the slimmest of margins (two point, I think) in under 90 minutes.

 

The night was still young. Fresh snow was falling outside, blanketing the ground in a whispered hush, telling tales of the great Steerpike victory.

 

So we racked the game up, again, and this time I took the British.

Red.

My favourite.

 

The French came out, guns blazing. I settled Halifax and they sieged me straight away. An arms race immediately kicked off with both decks filling with military might. My Gallic cousins were not in any mood to give any quarter and mercilessly tried to ambush my incoming troops, while unloading boatloads of garlic laden men and provisions outside my forts. Battles raged from Halifax to Port Royal, to Permaquid and back again.

I shifted tack a little and withdrew from a few sieges, preferring to upgrade my coastal settlements to villages, and then re-engage in a different siege at a different pressure point.

 

The Strategy started to pay off.

I could see the French deck starting to burst at the seams as virtually every card had been drafted. This started to make things very inefficient for the settlers of 'New France' - they had plenty of fire power, in attack, but my brave British boys had enough to hold the line while new trails were being forged through the wilderness.

In many ways, quite a role reversal, because it is the British who have access to the larger army - I just chose not to draft them all, instead trying to opt for a balance of expansion and robust defence (sometimes actually attacking as a form of pre-emptive defence).

 

As my last village was placed, I was comfortably in the lead by six points and the exhausted French marines had to concede defeat.

Despite the ferocious nature of the campaign, on both sides, only one single siege had turned out to be successful (the initial French siege on Halifax).

Peace and prosperity won the day. 

 

I do rather like this game - although I suspect it may burn brightly and fade after a number of plays.

But I'm not burnt out on it, yet, and long may it continue to surprise me.

 

It would be great to see this mechanic explored further in other scenarios or other games.