Chicago Session Report

I've posted a session report of last night's gaming session (on the new Chicago map from the Steam Brother's) on BGG. Here is the link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/article/3869435

We also played Tinners' Trail, which I did not report on, but will gab about here. I have not played TT for a while now, but it remains one of my favorite middle weight Wallace games. At the WBC, Jim mentioned that he was lukewarm about it. Mind you, he didn't say that he disliked the game, only that it had not met his expectations.

This is easy to understand. We are dealing with Martin Wallace here, the king of the heavy economic games. And Tinners' Trail is not that. Instead if is a middle weight speculation game featuring some a cool time track that determines turn order, auctions, and a good bit of randomness via the dice roll for ore prices at the start of each turn.

But approach Tinners' Trail with the understanding that it is a middle weight game, and I hope that you will find that it does a brilliant job satisfying this niche.

In last nights game, I knew that I was in trouble from the start, when my "tried and true" tactic of starting a bunch of auctions for mines and then dropping out seemed to be backfiring on me. Instead of leaving the others cash poor, Jef and Jim had some very good mines that they got very cheap. Darn. Jim had some brilliant early rounds and sold a ton of ore, as did Jef. I, on the other hand, sold a minimal amount and did not hit up the investment boxes as hard as you need to in the early rounds. Further, my mines simply did not have enough goods to carry me through the end of the game.

In the end, Jim came out just above Jef and I was a distant third. But last nights game reaffirmed my enjoyment of this game and, for the time it takes, it really is a great game and was a brilliant first entry into Wallace's Treefrog Line.