We played The Age of Steam last night. Well, everyone else played it. I mostly floundered in a quagmire of poor choices, bad planning, and trains without any weapons. Ben assures men that none of the trains have weapons, but I’m not so sure. I should mention that we played the new 2009 edition. I don’t know if this is any different from the 2002 version. Ben might know, but he was too busy stomping our butts to tell me. I could lament for hours over the horrible things that happened to me and my train line, but I will spare you that. Instead I’ll tell of the terrible things that happened to the other guys.Â
None.Â
Yep, that’s right. Their schemes and plans went uninterrupted. Mike and Owen played very solid games, making just the right choices each turn and having the right opportunities available to them at the right times. Either one of them could have easily been declared the winner. But Ben, mostly due to his good track placement, previous playing experience (we had none), and maybe a little help from me, was able to continually score big points. Me, I languished in a pool of hydraulic train fluid as I attempted to form a plan, failed, and then continued on without a plan.Â
I think the general consensus was that we liked this game better than Railroad Tycoon. Railroad Tycoon is so similar to The Age of Steam that I’m surprised no one got sued over it.Â
Hopefully I’ll do better next week when we play Roborally.