It was an unusually quiet night—indeed we haven’t been this low on numbers since the dark days of 2020.  On a bleak night in mid March of that year, there were also just four, and that presaged eighteen months of playing games online.  On that occasion, everyone knew something bad was coming and it was a very sombre evening as a result.  This time was much more positive though, as almost all the absentees were away because they were having a good time.  That left just Black, Purple and Plum to meet Cobalt on his first meeting.

– Image by boardGOATS

The group started with the “Feature Game” which was Ticket to Ride: Northern Lights.  This is the latest version of one of the group’s most popular games, Ticket to Ride, and one that is currently only available in Scandinavia.  Like all the other versions, the rules are quite simple:  on their turn, players either take train cards from the face-up market (or the blind draw deck), or spend cards to place trains on the map for points.  Once or twice during the game, players may instead choose to draw Tickets, which give players points at the end of the game if they are completed, that is to say, the owner has connected the two locations with their trains.  Woe betide any player with incomplete tickets however, as they score negatively.

– Image by boardGOATS

Northern Lights is similar to the Nordic Countries stand-alone game that we often play at Christmas, except that more people can play and the artwork is a little less festive (though still very, very beautiful).  There are the usual “rule tweaks” that come with a new version of the game and which are in Finish, Danish, Swedish and Norwegian only.  In this case, a translation says that the biggest differences are the addition of bonus cards, four of which are drawn at random at the start of the game and give extra points at the end, (for example to the person with the most left over trains, longest continuous route, most completed ferries etc.).  Additionally, there are some triple routes (which only take effect with five players) and some routes have a “+X” next to them and when trains are laid on these the player takes X train cards from the face down pile.

– Image by boardGOATS

The rules surrounding Locomotive (wild) cards are slightly different too:  for all routes they can replace any other card and for ferry routes Locomotive cards can be replaced with a pair of the same colour (that doesn’t have to be the same as the rest of the cards used).  As a result, unlike most of the other versions, if there are three or more face-up Locomotive cards in the market, the market is not refreshed (a point of discussion some weeks back).  With just four players, the triple routes were not used and the bonus cards drawn were the Small Step Strategist (D), the Nordic Express (E), the International Tycoon (G) and the Snowplough Reward (I).

– Image by boardGOATS

These rewarded players for the most single space tracks claimed, the longest continuous route, connecting the most countries and the most routes connecting pairs of cities in the arctic.  The group also forgot to remove the spare trains, making the game slightly longer than it would have been with the rules as written.  Black built a long route all the way down the west coast of Norway, which he shared with Plum in the north and Cobalt further south.  Purple kept to the East side of the map, with a significant amount of her tracks above the arctic circle.

– Image by Black

When it came to the bonuses, Plum took the Snowplough award and Black was the International Tycoon.  Plum and Black tied for the Longest Route (Nordic express) and Cobalt missed out on joining them by just two two trains.  Instead, he just pipped Purple to the reward for having the most single track sections.  Aside from this, it was a hard-fought game as usual.  Black and Cobalt both completed three Tickets, while Plum finished four and Purple managed a massive seven.  Size matters though, and Purple’s Tickets were all short routes, so didn’t score as highly as the others’.  The bonuses were critical though in such a close fought game, and there were just three points in it, with Black just taking victory ahead of Plum with Cobalt in third.

– Image by Black

It had been quite a long game and time was marching on, so the group opted for another old favourite, Splendor.  This had been a favourite game of Burgundy‘s who’s birthday it would have been at the end of the month.  This year it has not been possible to plan something to mark the occasion (as we did last year), but we will try to do something in September.  In the meantime, as always, everyone will continue to remember him in the games we play.  And Splendor was definitely one of those games—at one point Burgundy had a fourteen game winning streak.  Although Burgundy liked complex games, he also really appreciated simple elegance, and this is definitely one of those games.

– Image by boardGOATS

The game is a simple engine builder:  players take chips from the market (three different ones or two the same if there are four or more available), or spend chips to buy cards.  The cards are permanent gems and those that cost more additionally give points.  At the end of the game, the player with the most points is the winner.  Cards aren’t the only way of scoring points though, players can also get points for enticing a Noble to support their cause by collecting the correct gems.  The rules say the game end is triggered when one player reaches fifteen points, however, this time, due the group played to just ten.

– Image by boardGOATS

There are several consequences of playing a shorter version of the game, including changing the effect of the more expensive cards, but it also changes the importance of the Nobles.  It also makes reserved cards more difficult to fulfill.  This time, Cobalt had one card that he reserved, but failed to complete.  Everyone had lots of cards and the game was just getting going when Black swooped to secure the support of Elisabeth of Austria with his three Onyx, Sapphires and Diamonds and triggered the end of the game.  Plum had looked like she might just take her revenge for Black pipping her in Ticket to Ride, but it was to be a second runner up place for her behind Black’s unsurpassed twelve points.

– Image by Black

Learning Outcome: Board games are in my mind, they guide me back to you…