Saturday, January 28, 2012

Shabbat Gaming

Tal and I ate lunch at Abraham and Sarah's. While waiting for Tal to arrive, I played my third game of Ticket To Ride (this one with the 1910 Expansion) with Abraham and Sarah. It's soooo light. It's ok and all, but I just don't see it as comparable to The Settlers of Catan. I can see it as a gateway game; I admit that Settlers has a few more rules, which can discourage newer players. But Settlers also has more depth and more involvement.

Maybe it's just a matter of what flavor you go for. Or maybe I haven't played it enough to appreciate its depth.

We only got about a third of the way into the game, and I enjoyed it well enough. Both Abraham and I were planning to complete our three short routes and then spend the rest of the game making random six routes to end the game. Oh yeah: the ability for one player to hasten the end of the game in a way that doesn't have to do with winning is another mechanic I don't care for.

After lunch we played Tichu. Tal and I scored 965 to Abraham and Sarah's 335, but shabbat was over so I decided to call it a draw. I pulled lots of bad hands but managed one tichu. I still don't know how Aaron called and made so many grand tichus against me at BGG.con.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Oh yeah: the ability for one player to hasten the end of the game in a way that doesn't have to do with winning is another mechanic I don't care for."

Wouldn't the Mayor phase in Puerto Rico be another such mechanic?

Yehuda Berlinger said...

Yes...... kind of. Except that the Mayor phase is self regulating and slows down as colonists fill up, and my games usually end with VPs or building points.

Yehuda