Dale Yu: The BGN Advisor 080206

This week, I am proud to introduce a new feature to the site: The Boardgamenews Advisor.  This column will serve as a forum for the reader to ask questions about gaming (no matter how trivial, insipid, or embarrassing) and receive thoughtful advice from the staff here at BGN.  Please forward all future questions to: .  Please include in your email whether you wish us to publish your name, email address and/or location. 

Dear Boardgamenews Advisor,

I’m a professor at a small midwestern university, and I never thought that something like this would happen to me.  I was playing games at one of our local game nights, and I was ecstatic when one of the newbies in our group suggested playing Age of Steam.  He is fairly new to the hobby, and he had not yet been able to try out this game.  Age of Steam just so happens to be one of my all-time favorite games, so I was more than happy to play!

There were 10 players left at the game night, and we had decided to split up into two five player games.  We were quickly able to round up five players for a full game.  As it turns out, one other player was also fairly unfamiliar with the game having only played it once before.  Since we were basically introducing these two players to the game, it was quickly decided that it would be best to play on the basic map.  The other two players (both veterans at Age of Steam) went off to get some snacks, thus leaving me with the responsibility to teach the game.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t mind having to do this task.  I am actually quite proud of the way that I teach Age of Steam.  I think that my method helps the newbies get up to speed as quickly as possible, which is of paramount importance in this game as your play in the initial turn can definitely affect your overall success.  Additionally, I truly feel that it is important that players understand the tight financial situation in the game before they begin because the unforgiving nature of Age of Steam can actually cause players to bankrupt themselves out of the game.  If this fate occurs to a new player of Age of Steam, it would surely tarnish their feelings about the game, and I therefore try to make sure that everyone understands this important aspect of the game before play starts.  Therefore, I went through my usual procedure to teaching the game which involves first going over the basic rules to the game as well as the pieces.  Then, I like to set the game up and have the new players go through the motions of an entire turn so that they can see the effects of taking additional shares, building track, making deliveries, and most importantly, calculating the upkeep costs each turn based on their shares and locomotive strength.

It didn’t take long to acclimate the newbies to the game, and we were soon underway.  The initial cubes were distributed such that there were very few opportunities to deliver cubes from the initial setup.  I chose not to get into the expensive bidding in the first round auction, and as a result, I was unable to deliver any cubes in the first turn as both of those routes had already been built before my turn.  I did, however, start to set up a network of track in the center of the board.  At the start of the second turn, I took out three more shares, with the intent of making connections which would allow for a longer three city delivery.

Unfortunately, before my turn to build came up, one of the other players shut me out of the city I needed to connect through to build my intended route by urbanizing in a location I did not plan for.  The location of the urbanization tile was certainly an unexpected play as the player who placed it was forced to leave one of his partially built spurs in order to cut me off from the eastern side of the board!  I had certainly not planned on this turn of events!  This move was definitely clever and could have serious implications on my eastward expansion of track.  I quickly scanned the board and saw that I could, in fact, make it to my intended destination with a very circuitous route, involving three tile replacements.  The intended build would turn out to be quite expensive, but I felt I needed to do it in order to not be shut out of the eastern side of the board.

I grabbed the necessary tiles, laid them out on the board, and paid the large build cost to the bank.  Given my surprise at the unexpected turn of events, I really did not spend quite as much time planning out my route as I should have.  As the next player was taking his turn, I noticed that I would not be able to meet my expenses at the end of the turn!  And to make matters worse, since I had not made a delivery on the first turn, I would be out of the game – by the very mechanism I had been careful to tell the newbies to avoid!  Thoughts raced through my head as to what I should do next.  Should I just stay quiet?  Should I ask for a re-do?  Our game group that night was only two tables, and the other table had just started a long game themselves, so, unfortunately, I would not be able to quickly get into another game…

I didn’t have much time to think as the next player was getting ready to finish his move.  I worried about asking for a “re-doâ€? because usually I am against that sort of behavior.  However, with everyone else locked into a game for the next 90 minutes at least, did I want to just sit and watch for that whole time?  I decided to speak up and explain my situation.  Certainly, it was a bit embarrassing to explain to the newbies what I had done to myself, but I quickly explained that in my haste to make a play, I had not correctly counted my expenses and would go bankrupt at the end of the round.  The other players quickly decided that it would be OK to take an “emergency shareâ€? to cover my expenses. 

I thought about that choice and decided against it because that wouldn’t be fair to the other players who had made their own decisions on share taking and auction bidding based on my financial situation at that time.  Instead, I asked if I could just un-do my move and build less track so that I could cover my upkeep costs for the turn.  The table unanimously agreed to this course of action, and the last two turns were undone.  I quickly changed my build for my turn and was able to continue on in the game.  I was so embarrassed that I basically passed in the auction phase in the next turn so that I could collect my thoughts.  Moreover, I thought it would be fair to the other players to, in effect, take a turn off so that I wouldn’t take advantage of their kindness.

The rest of the game went on uneventfully for me.  Action was very concentrated in the center of the board which was where my network of tracks happened to be.  I was glad to still be in the game, but I did make a conscious effort to try to stay out of the way of the other players – well, as much as I could in Age of Steam.  In the final reckoning, I finished in third place.  I was still ahead of the two newbies but behind the two more accomplished players as my slow start and deliberately cautious play the rest of the game hindered by scoring ability.  After the game, I couldn’t help but wonder – should I have just accepted my fate and resigned from the game as the rules dictate?  Or once allowed back into the game, should I have continued to play the game to the fullest rather than to try to stay out of the way of the other players?

Name and address held by request


You bring up an interesting dilemma.  Age of Steam is one of BGN Advisor’s favorite games as well. Certainly the game has one of the more unforgiving systems.  It is quite difficult to pick up as a newbie, and your “standardâ€? method of teaching sounds like a great idea.  So good, in fact, that we will likely try that method when I next have to teach AoS.  We just hope that we don’t suffer the same fate that you did!

To address your questions, though, we think that you most certainly did right by asking for a second chance.  For the most part, we are in the hobby to enjoy the games as well as the good company.  What benefit would there be if, for a single error, you now had to sit out of a game without even the option of joining in something different!  We’re not sure that you wouldn’t have had as much enjoyment out of your evening by simply chatting with the rest of the gamers present, but it seems silly to not continue to include you in the game, especially because you didn’t have any other options available to you at that time.

Furthermore, since you were playing a game with 2 newbies and a situation that sounds like a very challenging board setup, there were likely going to be a few other turns that would need revision.  You shouldn’t be punished for a similar error just because you had played before.  In the Advisor’s local group, anyone in your position would have certainly been allowed a re-do.  (Though admittedly, you would have had to endure non-stop ribbing for the rest of the game night, if not for the rest of the month, about your boner.) Our group tends to be friendly and emphasizes fun and camaraderie over winning. You were lucky enough to be in a similar group. 

However, we think that if you had been in a more cut-throat or serious group of gamers, if your request for a do-over had been denied, you would have had no choice but to take your lumps and become a spectator as the rules clearly warn that you can play yourself out of the game.  And, of course, you went to great lengths to make sure that the newbies understood this facet of the game as well! 

Additionally, the answer to this question would change if the situation had been different:  if you were at a larger convention or invitational, if there were other games available to join at that time, or if more than one player had taken their turn since yours.  In any of these cases, we would say that you should just gracefully make your exit.  In the first two choices, you can continue your enjoyable evening playing games by getting into something else.  You might not win AoS, but if you’re one of those “game accountantsâ€?, you would get the benefit of playing a nice complex game such as AoS with only a 30 minute investment!  In the last situation, it would likely become too cumbersome to undo multiple turns to continue on.  Additionally, it would not be fair to the other players who may have had their own strategies exposed to their opponents who would now have a chance to alter their own play to combat it.  In this case, the game might be irrevocably altered as a result of the re-do, and this wouldn’t be fair to the other players (who had managed to take an appropriate number of shares out at the beginning of the turn).

But now, to address the question of gameplay once you were allowed to re-do your turn… We think that you did not need to play cautiously once you were allowed to rejoin the game.  Admittedly, you made a mistake, and you did need special dispensation to correct that error.  But, your gaming mates allowed you to rectify your miscalculation freely.  If the person making the error was one of the newbies, the rest of the table would not have expected that player to somehow scale back their play to “paybackâ€? the error correction.  Similarly, you should not have had to change your playing style anyways.  To be honest, we would assume that the other players would not have expected you to back off.  If they were concerned about losing the game once you were allowed back into it, they wouldn’t have let you back in the game in the first place!  Either way, it sounds like everyone enjoyed the game, and in our opinion, we think that’s the most important thing!  (Just make sure you count out your costs more carefully next time… or stick to some of the expansions like South America that make money management less of an issue!)

Dear Boardgamenews Advisor,

What is your preferred strategy in Puerto Rico?  I’ve read many things on the Internet, and I want to be able to smoke the rest of my group in this game! 

Mike Litoris – Carcassone, France

Shipping.  Definitely shipping.  Unless, of course, that we’ve been given indigo as our starting plantation.  And definitely not if we’re in the fourth position, and the first player opens with the standard Pakistani builder/hospice/small warehouse gambit.  We have, however, seen it work against the less orthodox Slovak quarry/construction hut/wharf strategy.  Furthermore, we also have had significant success avoiding losing using our yet-to-be-published “Thermonuclear Warâ€? strategy when the results look bleak… This strategy is similar to the mysterious yet effective “Phone Line Troubleâ€? strategy used when playing PR on BSW which is a failsafe method of preserving one’s victory percentage.  Not that we recommend either of these childish tactics, though…

Dear Boardgamenews Advisor,

I’m a game group leader from a mid-sized Midwestern town.  We have had a dilemma come up in our group, and I don’t know what to do now!  Our group has about 15 regulars and a fair number of itinerants.  Over the last few sessions, I’ve noticed that there is one specific player who no longer fits in.  He continues to want to play old-school wargames and has been unwilling to try to play new games once he has set his mind on playing one of his favorites; while the rest of the group plays primarily Eurogames.  I don’t want to be the enforcer for the group, but I find that the behavior of this particular gamer is hurting the overall enjoyment of our group. 

Oliver Clothesoff – Bloomington, IN

You certainly have yourself in a sticky situation.  Though it’s not a desirable task, we think that it might be best to sit down and have a heart-to-heart with this guy.  You may need to explain to him that your group may not be the best fit for him if he’s unwilling to try new games. One of the beauties of our hobby is that there is a seemingly unendless stream of new games to try out.  We know that there are many gamers who are frankly intoxicated by the ability to experience new games at virtually any time of the year.  It sounds like the majority of your gamers fit into this pigeonhole.  It may be a good idea to direct to him to one of the many websites and mailing lists that cater to players of the style of game that he prefers.  Surely there is a group close by that will be more into games that he likes to play.  This may be a case where you will need to risk alienating one member of your group in order to preserve the enjoyment for the rest of the group.

Questions?  Need Advice?  Please forward all queries to .  We will try to answer as many questions as we can.  Though we seem to do better with gaming-related questions, please do not feel like you have to restrict your questions to that field; we should be able to pull something out of the air on just about any topic.

Many thanks to Ted Alspach for helping with the artwork in this article (as well as in future articles)
(All opinions contained above belong to the BGN Advisor and staff and do not necessarily represent the opinions of boardgamenews.com)

© 2006 Dale Yu

---

Comments:

You must register with BGN in order to comment. Registration is free, but if you appreciate the news, previews, reviews and other material posted on Boardgame News, please consider becoming a member to keep the info flowing to your screen!

"I’m a professor at a small midwestern university, and I never thought that something like this would happen to me.” ....that’s classic.  :> Posted by Mike Pennisi on Aug 2, 2006 at 06:24 AM | #

"I’m a professor at a small midwestern university, and I never thought that something like this would happen to me...â€? It is precisely for the problem stated above (which appears to happen quite regularly) why I do not enjoy playing Age of Steam.  The game is just too unforgiving for newbies and veterans alike. Posted by Jim Pulles on Aug 2, 2006 at 08:33 AM | #

I thought I once overheard Andreas Seyfarth brag that he was “really big in Pakistan” but I just never believed him :) Posted by Jeff Allers on Aug 2, 2006 at 08:38 AM | #

Age of Steam is unforgiving, but it is part of the game.  If this unfortunate turn of events had not happened in turn 1 or turn 2, the player would not have been eliminated.  It would have been difficult to win, admittedly, having taken a VP deduction later in the game.  But, to me, that’s not a reason not to play it.  I certainly disagree with the statement that bankruptcy happens often in Age of Steam.  I have probably only seen it twice in the past year (which is more than 40 games of AoS).  If it is happening more than that, the problem may be more in the decision of shares to be taken out rather than with the game itself. Posted by Dale Yu on Aug 2, 2006 at 08:53 AM | #

Said Jeff Allers : “I thought I once overheard Andreas Seyfarth brag that he was “really big in Pakistanâ€? but I just never believed him :) “ The BGN Advisor is really big as well… But not just in Pakistan! Posted by Dale Yu on Aug 2, 2006 at 09:54 AM | #

< Back Home