Blue, Pink, Orange, Lemon and Plum all started with food, and Pink’s was accompanied with cocktails (again).  There was a lot of chatter about playing something, but when Pine arrived, that ruled out …aber bitte mit Sahne (which we played last time).  While the discussion about what to play and how to split the group was on-going Purple and Black arrived, so the discussion moved on to who would play what and who else was expected.  In the end, Pink and Plum took themselves off to the other side of the pub to start setting up Altiplano while everyone else admired the 1980s box for the “Feature Game“, the bike racing game, 6-Tage Rennen (aka 6 Day Race).

– Image by boardGOATS

When Lime, Ivory and then Teal rolled up a few minutes later, Ivory joined the Altiplano game, but Teal, after a tough day, eschewed its complexity and decided to go for a gentle cycle ride with the other group instead.  In contrast to Flamme Rouge which we all played last time and emulates road racing, 6-Tage Rennen is set in a velodrome and mimics a six day race meeting.  It is quite simple, much simpler than Flamme Rouge actually, but in spite of this the group still managed a “rules malfunction”.  Similar to Flamme Rouge, the game is card driven, but rather than choosing simultaneously and then playing in race order, in 6-Tage Rennen players choose their card and play in turn order.

– Image by boardGOATS

There are a couple of other key differences.  Firstly, slip-streaming works differently:  if a player lands on an occupied space, they move again. If that space is occupied by two riders, the active rider moves twice more and if it is occupied by three or more riders, then they can really make a killing.  Also, 6-Tage Rennen is a points race, which means it is the player with the most points at the end who wins, not necessarily the first player to cross the line.  Points are available for the first riders to finish with ten points for first place, but also at the intermediate sprints of which there are two, earning five points for the first riders to cross each line and in both cases there are points for the minor placings.

– Image by boardGOATS

Teal went first and moved a single space, followed by Blue who used Teal to bounce on an extra space.  Pine, Purple, Black and Orange, further demonstrated how to use the slip-stream mechanism, but it was Lemon, who like last time in Flamme Rouge, took an early lead, though this time without the penalty of Exhaustion cards.  Not only did Lemon take an early lead, but she held it to the first sprint line taking the maximum five points, leaving Teal, Blue and Pine to take the three, two and one respectively.  It was then that the rules malfunction really took effect.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game is over thirty-five years old and imported from Germany, so the rules were originally in German, but this copy had two English translations. Unfortunately, these were both a bit unclear and, as a result, both Blue and Pine misunderstood how many green cards players started with.  This meant everyone ran out of cards very quickly and Blue, on the fly decided players would refresh their hand from the grey cards.  As Pine pointed out, this was likely to leave a shortage, so the number of cards was reduced slightly.  This meant some players ran out more than once and replaced their cards several times as a result which changed the game massively.

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Still, as everyone was playing with the same rules and nobody wanted to just start again, the group played on.  Lemon led the pack over the second sprint line too, and then over the finish line to a landslide victory with the maximum twenty points, twice her nearest rival, Teal.  The game hadn’t taken very long, and Black had long said he thought 6-Tage Rennen was better than Flamme Rouge and he along with some others were keen to play again with correct rules.  So, Pine dealt out the correct number of green cards and Lemon, as the winner of the first race went first in the second.

– Image by boardGOATS

The first thing noticed was the lack of a six in the starting hand.  As Black pointed out, this was key to the strategy of the game—staying six spaces ahead of other riders helps stop players from “getting a bounce” and moving ahead, and that’s where the grey cards come in.  Half-way round the track, there is a “special space” and players who land on this space discard their cards and replace them with grey ones.  The starting green hand has a seven, two fives, several fours along with some lower value cards and should just last the duration of the race.  Landing on the special space gives cards taken from two piles drawn at random—six slow cards (value one to three) and four fast cards (value four to six).

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This time, Orange started fast taking the first sprint and continuing on to the special space where he traded in his cards for new grey ones.  Lemon wasn’t far behind though, followed by Lime and Teal.  Purple demonstrated how to play the game by getting a “double bounce” on her seven, moving twenty-one spaces from the back to near the front on a single turn.  That left Blue and Pine who, reminiscent of last time, were “gapped” and struggled to keep up with the pack.  Before long, Pine was dropped and resignedly, rolled slowly round the track; he would have stopped at the pub if he hadn’t been in a velodrome!

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As the game unfolded, Teal commented on how clever it was and added, “It’s almost like it’s been play-tested…”  Meanwhile, Black joined Blue and they worked together briefly until their teamwork broke down just before they were able to catch up with the lead riders.  Lemon stalled on the “miss a turn” special space, allowing Teal to sneak past and pip her to the line.  As everyone else made their final lunge for the finish tape, Lime and Purple positioned themselves for the minor places before Lemon accelerated past and crossed the line to take second.  It being a points race, it was the total, not the finishing positions that count.  It was much closer this time than in the first race, but the placings were still the same with Lemon just beating Teal, and Lime taking the bronze medal.

– Image by boardGOATS

All this time, on the other side of the room, Pink, Plum and Ivory were playing Altiplano (with the Sunny Days mini-expansion).  Altiplano is a worker-placement bag building game that is a re-implementation of the bag-building mechanic used in Orléans.  The idea is that players draw resources out of their bag and place them on their personal action boards.  Then, players take it in turns to move their “worker” round the rondel to different locations where they can carry out corresponding actions assuming they have the right resources in the right place.  In essence, the game can be boiled down to one of resource improvement, for example, players can use an Alpaca to get Wool which they can later turn into Cloth.

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Points are scored for the resources at the end of the game, with more valuable resources worth more points.  Picking up Hut cards also increases the value of resources.  When a player no-longer needs a resource, they can move it into their warehouse with completed “shelf-fulls” scoring points at the end of the game.  Players have to be careful with this however, as once a resource is in the warehouse it cannot be used anymore.  Additionally, players can also score points by completing contracts.  It is the player that best interweaves these different aspects of the game that wins.

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All three players felt they were making a poor fist of things and agreed they were “playing sub-optimally”.  Ivory concentrated on collecting and completing contracts.  In contrast, Pink completely eschewed contracts and instead focused on getting Glass tokens—the most valuable of the resources.  To do this, he had to get cocoa first, which he did by taking the Cocoa Canoe and with it one Cocoa resource.  He then increased the value of his Glass by taking the matching Hut.

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As a bit of a chocoholic, Plum also wanted Cocoa but as Pink had nabbed the Cocoa Canoe, the only way she could get it was to buy an Extension board.  Unfortunately, the first one was too early for her and she couldn’t afford it.  The next Extension had the “Navigation” anchor icon on it associating it with the Harbour Location, but players are only allowed one Extension board at each Location and, as Plum started with the Fisherman, she was not able to get that one either.  The next Cocoa opportunity didn’t come up until much later in the game, by which time it was too late really.  She did take an Extension eventually, one for the Mountains, which enabled her to exchange Food to give Ore which she was then able to convert into Silver.

– Image by boardGOATS

Last time the group played Altiplano, we discovered a “rules malfunction” associated with the purchase and use of carts.  Unfortunately, although many other aspects of the rules were checked, this was overlooked, so instead of always being able to move one space for one food token, or more with a cart, the group played that they could only move if they owned a cart and then only move one space.  That meant movement was much more difficult and made life more challenging.  Once again, everyone was playing by the same rules, so it wasn’t hugely important though it may have shifted the balance of the game a little.

– Image by boardGOATS

There was a nice atmosphere during the game though.  In a Star Wars reference, Pink advised Plum, “Not to go trading with The Huts” and politely waited until the ladies were no-longer present before indulging in comments about his Woodcutter “getting some wood”.  When he started getting wood, however, he couldn’t stop and finished with a particularly large pile.  Ivory started with the Farmer and used his Alpaca to produce wool and wove that into some very high quality scarves.  There was something remarkably “Fishy” about Plum’s strategy but especially when she carefully stashed too many of her fish in her warehouse and then ran out of resources.  She had far more money than anyone else, but ultimately though, there was nothing anyone could do about Pink, who’s Glass factory gave him clear victory.

– Image by boardGOATS

The cycle race finished long before the activities on the high plain.  Lime decided to head off to make sure he got home before the infamous Oxfordshire road closures cut him off, and Teal having enjoyed his evening on the bike also took an early night.  After some more chatter, the remaining six began “a quick game” of Bohnanza.  This is one of our all-time favourite games, and it was time to introduce it to Orange and Lemon.  Although it is not difficult, it is very different to the games we’ve played in the last few weeks, and is considerably more challenging if English is not your first language.

– Image by boardGOATS

Bean farming might not seem an exciting theme, but the game is great fun and relies on the simple premise that players must not change the order of the cards in their hand.  On their turn, the active player must plant the first card, the card at the front of their hand, and may plant the second card if they choose.  Players have just two Bean Fields to work with, and each one can only hold one type of bean at any one time.  Once the active player has planted their bean or beans from their hand, they turn over the top two cards in the central deck—these must also be planted before the game can progress, though the active player can trade them with another player or even give them away.

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Once the two cards on the table have been planted, the active player may trade cards from their hand before drawing replacement cards.  At any point a player may harvest beans, but the more cards they harvest, the more they are worth.  However, if a player has a field with only one bean in it, they must harvest their larger field first.  At the end of the game, the player with the most coins is the winner.  Normally, the game ends after the third turn through the deck, but this time, because time was running short, the group finished after the first pass.  This meant the group missed out on way the balance of the deck changes and the rare cards get rarer and the deck gets progressively shorter.

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Purple started, and talked through her turn, followed by Blue.  Pine knew what he was going to do and got on with it as did Black, before it was Orange and then Lemon’s turn.  Purple started collecting Green and Soy Beans, with Pine planting Wax and Black-Eyed Beans.  Orange competed with Blue for Red and Coffee Beans and with Black for Chili Beans.  Lemon started with Blue Beans and later moved onto Green Beans.  There were lots of “generous trades” and gifts too—the group generally play together nicely, but tonight, the heat and the tiredness all round, meant everyone was especially kind to each other.

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With time marching on, the group agreed to call a halt when the deck ran out the first time, even though that meant Pine missed out on two turns that he had set up beautifully.  It was a really close game, but it was Blue who just won the chocolates that Pink offered up for first prize.  As she was only one point clear, she shared her winnings with Lemon who generously passed her’s on to Purple.  It was hot and late, and as everyone left, the pub locked up behind them.

– Image by boardGOATS

Learning Outcome:  Games usually play better with the rules as written.