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Age of Steam (goes British)
Sunday and a 7.00pm start - Roger is performing some sort of wargaming ritual in Manchester, as a result of which the entire world moves half an hour backwards. And sure enough, Steve, Dave and Roger make their entry on cue.
Roger is not his usual self (those amongst his less generous friends might say this is a good thing). He has had a bad day at the table, he has a sore mouth and is generally feeling rather 'down'. Sympathy is doled out in careful measure, and the offer of a cup of tea and a quick shufti at his Age of Steam expansion kits soon perk him up. Indeed, he moves from morose to animated as quickly as you can say 'flick that switch'. The new kits include Germany, the Western U.S.A, Scandinavia (the flat bit, with not a fjord in sight) and - wait for it - that hotbed of railroad entrepreneurship - Korea! Eh? Right.
But tonight is to be the long delayed visit to the England board (plus bits of Wales). This is a definite 4 or more players scenario; strangely, every previous outing has resulted in three players turning up, as a result of which England is still virgin territory as far as the Ragnars are concerned, whereas Ireland has been well and truly churned into a morass of peat, potatoes and 4' 10" gauge railway line.
For those new to Age of Steam, the system is a fine balance between the cost of building the railway and the ill-effects of raising that money from issuing shares. Goods appear on the various towns, which can then be shipped along the various railway lines - hopefully yours - to the various colour-coded markets. Each turn you bid for a different job title, which offer a variety of play advantages. All good stuff.
The map for England/Wales offers a vast expanse of rolling plain, dotted with towns and occasional rivers; only in Wales do mountains rear their ugly head - Welshpool sits in the middle of them like some latter day El Dorado. The initial feel is that there is plenty of space available. The only real rule change is that whilst there are plenty of red goods cubes in play, there will only ever be one red town on the map (London). This creates a very neat and realistic scenario, as rail companies link in to London from all directions, whilst also trying to create cross-country routes.
The illusion of space lasts for all of half a turn. Players realise very quickly that much of the outer regions will be peripheral, and that the Birmingham/East Midlands/London triangle will be crucial. Different strategies appear in all directions. Phil goes for the North-West to London link-at-all-costs strategy, and for quite a few turns looks a possible winner. Roger prefers to veer in all directions, ending the game with rail lines from Holyhead to London via Nottingham. Slade opts for the quiet life in the South West, which proves a safe but limited choice. You really do need to get stuck in to the bidding for jobs - urbanisation came all too late to the South West of England. It is left to Dave "I can't really remember how to play, but it's coming back" Morton to sneak it by one point from Roger. The strategy of building in East Anglia looked dodgy at the start, but an eventual connection to London, plus a sweeping route to Southampton and back up to Leicester proved very profitable in the closing stages. As in the last Ireland game, the circular route strategy looks a winner.
So how was it? Certainly, everyone agreed it was furiously intense. The gnashing of teeth and the whimper of slipshod financiers rang loud and clear for much of the game. At two and a half hours it's a not unreasonable length, and it was nice to play a 'different' game to which you already knew the rules. How is the history? As it happened, it felt rather more based in reality than the original 'Age of Steam'. London and Birmingham are both rightly vital to all players. Some of the later areas of contention felt a little strange: the battle to link Southampton and Oxford, and the race from Chester to Holyhead both seemed a little odd. And as a game? Roger loves it, especially for the fact that the luck is reduced to a minimum: the dice roll for where the goods appear during the game is the only purely random element, although the interaction of the different player strategies does also cause a certain amount of chaos. Possibly for the same reason, Phil was a little less enthusiastic. All the dramatic moments were personal ones - you yourself knew when something important had or hadn't happened, but it would often pass unnoticed by other players. There were very few of those times when everyone focuses on one thing that may or may not happen. But then it's not that sort of game.
Nevertheless a very good way to spend a Sunday evening. Next week will be the return of Age of Empires in its finished form. Liberte also got a passing mention for the future. Verily these are Martin Wallace times.
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