Potholes upon potholes, oh my
Apr. 16th, 2018 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
torkellPotholes encountered on the A27 between Chichester and Bedhampton: 33. Yes, I counted them (the ones I drove over/through at least) - well, there's not much else to do and I'm convinced they're getting worse daily, let alone weekly. I'd swear that on the way to pasta night I found potholes that weren't there two days ago...
Anyway, didn't I used to update a blog here or something? Somehow it's been over a month since the last proper update. I keep doing blog-worthy things and going to blog-worthy places while just never getting round to actually typing up any of the drafts I start writing in my head. But I'm back from pasta night, in front of the computer, and![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
talismancer has updated more recently than me... so here's a semi-random pasta night post!
Not sure what I'll do with other older half-written posts - there's a few that I ought to complete and will probably backdate to whenever the events therein occurred.
We were a bit thin on the ground tonight because of various reasons, so tonight we only had one game going: Colt Express, as being one of the few games we had that tops out at 6 players (Forbidden Desert was suggested, but vetoed as it officially tops out at 5 and probably isn't balanced for 6). With 6 bandits running up and down the train there was much chaos and thwarting of plans, not to mention an angry sheriff and rebellious passengers. I played Belle who has the special ability to not get shot or punched if there's another bandit that could be targeted (and just now, typing this sentence I've realised that I completely forgot that for the final round and really should have done the complete opposite of what I did - should have stayed in the crowd instead of trying to get out of punching range. That probably cost me the win in the second game).
We played two games of it. In the first round Matt stormed ahead with a very successful tactic of heading for the carriage full of jewels while leaving everyone else to squabble over the rear couple of carriages, then continuing to the end to try for the briefcases. Beth on the other hand (playing as the Ghost, who gets to play their first action card face-down) went for maximum chaos and scuppered several plans. The second round became more hilarious - Matt and I both went on top and headed for the front of the train. I tried to head down and discovered the sheriff, who opened fire, forcing me back to the roof. The sheriff then got moved by someone else and Matt headed down, collected the briefcase, returned to the top... and I punched him to force him to drop the briefcase, collected it, and then legged it towards the rear of the train. However it was not to last - the end-of-round action moved all players to the top of the rear carriage, I made the mistake of moving instead of staying put, and Jonners very successfully second-guessed my actions and managed to swipe the briefcase through persuading everyone else to move the sheriff to his advantage. Cheeky!
It's a game that requires decent visualisation skills - to really succeed at it, you have to keep track of which visible actions have been played, where all the players (and sheriff) could end up, and what they could actually do (as while you have to decide what action you will take in the card-playing/programming phase, you get to pick the direction/parameters of the action while resolving it. So someone playing a move action gets to pick the direction after all cards have been chosen). Each round involves everyone going round about 4 times to select an action, and to mix things up some turns have the actions played face-down so you have to guess what the players might do. I find I often lost track by the final turn though as long as you can keep track of a few players it's usually possible to not lose all your loot.
Anyway, didn't I used to update a blog here or something? Somehow it's been over a month since the last proper update. I keep doing blog-worthy things and going to blog-worthy places while just never getting round to actually typing up any of the drafts I start writing in my head. But I'm back from pasta night, in front of the computer, and
talismancer has updated more recently than me... so here's a semi-random pasta night post!Not sure what I'll do with other older half-written posts - there's a few that I ought to complete and will probably backdate to whenever the events therein occurred.
We were a bit thin on the ground tonight because of various reasons, so tonight we only had one game going: Colt Express, as being one of the few games we had that tops out at 6 players (Forbidden Desert was suggested, but vetoed as it officially tops out at 5 and probably isn't balanced for 6). With 6 bandits running up and down the train there was much chaos and thwarting of plans, not to mention an angry sheriff and rebellious passengers. I played Belle who has the special ability to not get shot or punched if there's another bandit that could be targeted (and just now, typing this sentence I've realised that I completely forgot that for the final round and really should have done the complete opposite of what I did - should have stayed in the crowd instead of trying to get out of punching range. That probably cost me the win in the second game).
We played two games of it. In the first round Matt stormed ahead with a very successful tactic of heading for the carriage full of jewels while leaving everyone else to squabble over the rear couple of carriages, then continuing to the end to try for the briefcases. Beth on the other hand (playing as the Ghost, who gets to play their first action card face-down) went for maximum chaos and scuppered several plans. The second round became more hilarious - Matt and I both went on top and headed for the front of the train. I tried to head down and discovered the sheriff, who opened fire, forcing me back to the roof. The sheriff then got moved by someone else and Matt headed down, collected the briefcase, returned to the top... and I punched him to force him to drop the briefcase, collected it, and then legged it towards the rear of the train. However it was not to last - the end-of-round action moved all players to the top of the rear carriage, I made the mistake of moving instead of staying put, and Jonners very successfully second-guessed my actions and managed to swipe the briefcase through persuading everyone else to move the sheriff to his advantage. Cheeky!
It's a game that requires decent visualisation skills - to really succeed at it, you have to keep track of which visible actions have been played, where all the players (and sheriff) could end up, and what they could actually do (as while you have to decide what action you will take in the card-playing/programming phase, you get to pick the direction/parameters of the action while resolving it. So someone playing a move action gets to pick the direction after all cards have been chosen). Each round involves everyone going round about 4 times to select an action, and to mix things up some turns have the actions played face-down so you have to guess what the players might do. I find I often lost track by the final turn though as long as you can keep track of a few players it's usually possible to not lose all your loot.
