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Valerie Putman: Meaty two-player games--Twilight Struggle and two-player Caylus
This week I’m enjoying my Spring break at a bed & breakfast in Pennsylvania with some friends playing games. Most of our friends have to work during the week and are here just for the weekends or in the evenings. But Alan and Janet Moon and I are all enjoying a full week of vacation. Well, Alan and I are. Janet is busy doing some homework for law school during the day, so Alan and I planned for some two-player games. Alan’s choice? Twilight Struggle. My choice? Two-player Caylus.
Twilight Struggle
Twilight Struggle is not my kind of game. While it isn’t exactly a war game, it is a political influence game between the US and the USSR during the Cold War. There are coups and a defcon status track and the threat of Nuclear War. Not my first choice. But it is one of Alan’s favorite games lately and Tyler would be thrilled if I actually liked it and played it with him at home.
The game comes with a map of the world and decks of cards for the Early War, Mid War, and Late War phases of the game. In each deck there are cards for each side and neutral cards. If, as the USSR player I played a USSR card, I could either use the influence points at the top of the card or play the event at the bottom of the card. If Alan had been dealt my USSR card, he could still use the influence points but I also benefited from the event. The cards can be used for a number of purposes including placing influence chits in countries around the world, competing in the Space Race, and gaining victory points (or taking victory points away from your opponent--the score is tracked on one spectrum with a starting score of 0 for both players and a race to -20 to the left for the USSR player and to +20 in the opposite direction for the US player). Some countries are more important than others are because they are battleground ground countries and different parts of the world will score throughout the game when scorecards come up in the deck.
Confused yet? I have to admit that I don’t really have all the lingo necessary to describe the game well. And yet, within a few turns I was able to make reasonable decisions about game play. The cards are straightforward and the USSR has an early advantage in the game--giving me the impression that I knew what I was doing. But by Mid War the tides turned and Alan won by the first round of the Late War. After the game was over, I found that I could look back and see some early mistakes I had made and I spent the next two days thinking about the game. I actually asked Alan for a rematch (to his delight) and I pressed hard with the early USSR advantage (stronger cards in the Early War deck and fairly easy points in the Middle East region). I had much luckier dice rolls today as well, winning every war I started (yes…groan…I am a warmonger) and even winning the Olympics twice when the US hosted. I ended up defeating Alan in the first round of the Mid War, before the card balance shifted to favor the US.
I can’t believe I’m going to admit this…I like the game. It will never be my first choice, but I’ll be happy to play any time Tyler requests it. Of course, it will be ironic if Tyler decides he doesn’t care for it! I’d still rather play 2-player Caylus and would be content if we alternated between the two. Speaking of which….
Two-player Caylus
Caylus is my favorite new game and I particularly enjoy it as a two-player game. Alan hadn’t been enthralled by his first play (which he said took 3 hours), but I convinced him to give two-player Caylus a try this week. With a minimum rules refresher we were off and running and Alan was clearly going for a castle building strategy and worked on the money favor track. I made sure to get enough castle pieces built to avoid penalty--especially when I could gain a favor at the same time--but I concentrated on gaining favors other ways and worked on the victory favor track. By the end of the game I had taken 4 and 5 victory points several times from the favor track and earned quite a few victory points throughout the game from all the cube buildings that Alan regularly visited to support his castle building habit. But in the end, Alan’s strategy prevailed. I think he was pleasantly surprised by the game--particularly the fact that it moved right along and finished in only 45 minutes.
In fact, this time Alan requested a second game and I was thrilled to play again. I demonstrated the building favor track and had my first blue building shortly into the third phase of the game. I made some mistakes that kept me from getting my 2nd blue building completed, but I still ended up ahead in the end. I still love using different strategies when I play Caylus and I find that I can win or lose with any number of them--what really matters is how effectively I carry them out.
Overall, I think Alan and I both enjoyed both games--even though they might not have been our first choices. We each won once in both games (hmmm…what should be the tie breaker game?) and spent three great afternoons with some meaty two-player games waiting for our other friends to come back and play.
Other games played this week
I played quite a few games that were new to me this week, so I’ll share some thoughts on them.
Cosmic Eidex: A three-player trick taking game that is a variant of Scat. This has easily been the most played game this week with everyone in the house playing at least 3 or 4 times. In most hands the players that took the most points and the least points from tricks each score 1 (trying to be the first to 7 total). However if one person takes all the tricks he scores 2 and the other players score nothing. If he takes more than 100 points without taking them all the other players score instead. Also, if two players tie in points taken exactly, the third player scores 2 points. It’s a lot of tense fun and is great for a quick 45 minute game when we’re waiting for a 4th player to come back from a walk or a nap.
Vegas Showdown: I’ve seen this played several times and finally got to try it myself. I think it’s a great auction game with important tile placement decisions. We only had three players, though, and I look forward to the more contested auctions in a game with more players.
Ticket to Ride--Marklin: My favorite version of Ticket to Ride so far. I enjoy choosing from longer routes or shorter routes (or a combination of the two) and the passengers add a nice new strategy to the game.
Ticket to Ride--US with new expansion: I got to try the new expansion for the US map that will be released at Essen. But sorry, I promised Alan I wouldn’t spill!
TriQuest!: This is a horse racing game with an electronic device that serves as the announcer and the movement randomizer. Really, it’s just a cheesy alternative to dice. The game was terrible with very few opportunities to influence the race and little to entertain you as you just watch the game play out.
Schnapp: This is a kids game from Haba and it is a blast. Each player chooses a color and then wooden disks of those colors are placed face down and mixed together. Each player takes a disk and places it face down on the long end of a see saw. The player slaps the short end, sending the disk spinning into the air. If you see that it is your color hurtling through the air you want to catch it! Dexterous silly fun.
King of the Beasts: This is a Reiner Knizia card game of collecting and playing sets. Each time you play a set of 2-6 cards you can keep up to 3 for your score pile and play up to 3 to the board. When one card type has 6 cards played on the board, the game ends and the three suits with the most cards on the board are the only ones that score. You earn 2 points for each card in your score pile that matched the suit with 6 on the board and 1 point each for cards of the other two scoring suits.
Rocketville: As a group we couldn’t agree if TriQuest! or Rocketville was a worse game. I think Rocketville is slightly better because it has fun artwork and you can feel like you’re making choices in the game. Players simultaneously play cards to earn campaign buttons in different neighborhoods in an attempt to become mayor of Rocketville. If the color of the card matches the color of the tile space, it is worth quite a bit more. Unfortunately, most turns only one or two people had a card of the right color. Also, all players lost their cards played. In the end, we abandoned the game after a few rounds because we weren’t having any fun.
I made a New Year’s resolution to keep track of my games played this year and I’m floored when I realize just how many it adds up to. I’m already close to 60 games played for March alone (and well over 100 for the year), with only 4 days in March so far that I haven’t played any games. I’m having a blast, and I just want to thank ya’ll for letting me share my joy.
Back to the games,
Valerie Putman
Posted by Valerie Putman on Mar 19, 2006 at 03:00 AM in Columnists, Valerie Putman / 1235
Comments:
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Valerie, Valerie, Valerie, I can’t believe you are deceiving your readers. This is such an unfairly incomplete list of the games you played. Many of you know that Valerie claims to be anti-party games. But this past week, she played quite a few party games, including two games of COMPATIBILITY, two games of EYE TO EYE, BAUSACK, HASTE WORTE, WANTED, and SCHICKI MICKI. And from what I saw, she had a great time playing all of them. She even won one of the games of COMPATIBILITY with James Miller as her partner. So what I believe we are seeing is the evolution of Valerie Putman, the former gamer girl future becoming party girl. Too bad she just acquired that gamer girl license plate. Alan R. Moon Posted by Alan R. Moon on Mar 19, 2006 at 07:11 AM | #
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What a tease! “Ticket to Ride--US with new expansion”
Posted by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson on Mar 19, 2006 at 11:21 AM | #
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Hi Mark, Glad you are enjoying the TICKET TO RIDE Series so much. Days of Wonder has repeatedly said they are going to release full games rather than expansion boards, and I haven’t heard anything different lately. I agree with them. For me, it’s the same amount of work either way. Plus, the difference in price (since you need a new board, new Tickets, new playing deck, new rulebook, new pieces) wouldn’t be that much anyway. As for releasing the Switzerland map in boardgame form, I think it will depend on the feedback and demand they get. So email Days Of Wonder or post on a forum on their website. I’d like to see this one as a boardgame too. As far as releasing rules for using the new rules/pieces (like Stations and Passengers) on different boards, I’m going to leave that up to the players. I’ve really enjoyed seeing people making their own maps, and making up their own rules. My main focus is on the next games down the line.
Best Wishes,
Posted by Alan R. Moon on Mar 19, 2006 at 07:50 PM | #
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Hi Alan,
Posted by Mark Haigh-Hutchinson on Mar 20, 2006 at 09:09 AM | #
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