'Stevenson's Rocket' by Reiner Knitzia - 15/12/00
Kendall arrives at Dicken's house with Dicken's Christmas present for Spiller, which had been posted to Kendall' s house. There may be a good reason for this, but Dicken is already gleefully counting the number of polystyrene 'extrudes' used in packing his gift. These will be used again for packing Ragnar games, so if you order one you may be thanking 'Leisure Games' of Finchley for use of their extrudes. (I said I'd give Mike and Tony a mention as they are still trying to sell their initial order of '1500 Gold' ).
Spiller is yet to arrive, so conversation turns to shrink-wrapping. 'Ragnar Brothers' is considering buying a shrink-wrap machine! George of Luton can "...let us have one (how kind) for just £950 + VAT. It's a fine looking red thing, which seals and shrinks all in one, and you can watch it inside its plastic canopy. Sounds sexy. Sounds expensive. For £270 someone else will sell us a handle, two rollers and a blow dryer. Hmmm!
Spiller has still not arrived, so Kendall elects to open his Ragnar Christmas Card. This is Dicken's card to Kendall; home-made with a re-usable envelope. It's a tradition going back many Ragnar years, but sadly fallen into decline bar for a handful of faithful souls (most of whom you already know). Dicken's card shows three camels and a message linking the Christ child to Reiner Knitzia - nice touch. Kendall's card to Dicken arrived a week earlier and sported Bill Clinton leaving the Whitehouse with a very personal Christmas message - to the Ragnars.
This is a Friday evening and proving very leisurely. We haven't yet chosen which game to play. Dicken surveys his vast collection and elects for 'Stevenson's Rocket' . By the time the box is opened, Spiller is in the room with a plastic bag full of Christmas presents. Ho, ho, ho. These won't be opened until Christmas, so no chance of a late change of game.We do get to open Spiller's Ragnar Christmas card. By some mysterious Internet technology, Spiller has managed to put a diminutive George W. Bush onto Santa's lap, adding a suitably up-to-date political caption. Proper cardboard too. Well done.
We get to play 'Stevenson's Rocket' every two or three months, which is a pretty good replay value - for us. The only problem with this is that no-one is able to remember how to play strategically. Dicken can't remember how to play tactically. Kendall can't remember that the railway engines are not owned by individual players and Dicken can't remember which is the front end of the engine. Spiller thoughtfully watches the others struggle to set up - quite difficult as Herr Knitzia's geography of England leaves something to be desired.
Kendall starts and aggressively moves the Orange engine two spaces north. Then he thinks again and decides to lay a station and move one. Then he decides instead to take a City token and lay a station. Then he goes back to his first idea. Dicken's turn lasts a little longer. He lays track and puts his engine on it - 'Wrong!' In the course of the game Dicken will regularly: forget to claim his shares, try to collect money when his line reaches a City, re-read the rules for merging railways and be surprised that it's his turn again already. His plea that ... "We should play this more often, so we know what we're doing" , falls on deaf ears.
In the South-East corner of England, Spiller appears to know what he is doing. Stations are carefully built and engines creep forward. City tokens are judiciously collected in advance. Two railways converge neatly on London with seven proud stations on the network. Occasional forays onto other people's lines, collecting shares, sometimes forcing players to reroute their track. All very sinister. Meanwhile, Kendall and Dicken recklessly build track. The Orange line (they have names but are never referred to) thrusts North, the Purple line wends its way South. The engines meet , or rather don't meet either side of Derby. Kendall decides not to merge, Dicken decides to merge. This is where we struggle with this game - our fault and not Herr Knitzia's. We just don't know the value of things. We've sort of realised that collecting loads of pig-iron or barrels of beer won't win the game, but find it hard to resist the £2000 on offer at each City. Merging is a conundrum which we find hard to get our heads around. Initial benefits might be outweighed by gains in the endgame. Then again, who knows? In desperation, we play by feel.
Spiller feels that he's lost it. His neat rail system is looking increasingly like Triang-Hornby. The big picture has flashed by on the main line. The best thing about this game is how quickly it all ends - and again this is not meant disparagingly. One moment your dreaming of Welsh wool, the next you realise you're not likely to get another turn. Dicken links his Grey line to the Orange giant, Spiller merges his Blue line, and Kendall's Red line (all of two tracks in length) is all that's left.
At the count up Dicken and Spiller share top spot for stations (7 each) and claim £14,000 each. Kendall has two more Orange shares than Dicken and walks away with £28,000.
Final scores are: Kendall £112,000, Dicken £93,000, Spiller £68,000. Now next time we play................
But before then, there's chance to play 'Camel' . Spiller claims to have the same problem with values in this, but it's Kendall who starts off with the most maverick of bidding. Meanwhile, Carol is surfing the net looking for shrink-wrap machines and has come up with a firm in America selling something that looks suspiciously like the £270 model, which is retailing for $220. We don't have too much problem with values here. Dicken is delegated to pursue the matter further in the morning.
Just as Dicken is getting his cash out to buy a Bactrian Dromedary, there is a knock at the door and Don, Lyn and baby Jake arrive for a week-end stay. 'Camel' will also have to wait until next time.
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