Dave Wilson
United States
Pleasanton
California
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eff left, but Heather came home, leaving us again with four players, if we could convince Heather to join us. She agreed, on the condition that we played a game that she knew very well. We chose 10 Days in the USA.
Danielle started, and the discard pile starters included a green plane and a car. Danielle took the plane; Heather chose the car. Everyone, in fact, liked the discarded cards. Only on Danielle's third turn did someone finally choose from the draw stack. Dave was the one who finished the game, with the following connection:
Virginia, car through Tennessee, Alabama, car through Tennessee, Missouri, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, green plane, Maryland.
We then looked at how the others ere doing. Jim's rack had lots of blue and peach states, and was nearly finished, needing only Nevada. Danielle needed a peach plane, but was foiled earlier when Heather discarded one, only to have Jim pick it up to connect two of his peach states. Heather had a solid trip from days 1 through 8, ending in Michigan, but couldn't get out from there. Seeing Dave's completed route, which included both Indiana and Ohio, it would have been a difficult task to complete.
Well, that went pretty quickly (games of 10 Days) always do), so we set up for another one. It was getting late, though, and Heather, who had already had a full evening, struggled. At one point, she looked like she hit a breakthrough, commenting "It helps if I just pay attention!" Unfortunately for her, Jim drew his next tile, and she then told us "Ah, I just screwed up!" Also, during the game, Dave and Danielle appeared to be working in the same area of the country. At one point Dave picked up the West Virginia tile, and Danielle said "I needed that." But Dave needed it too, and he would use that as the final day of his trip that ended this game:
Kansas, car through Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, car through Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia.
Looking at the others' racks, Heather appeared to get herself in a bind when she had placed two diagonal members of the Four Corners (Arizona and Colorado, I think it was), next to each other, before realizing they weren't quite connected. Jim had been working backwards on his rack, and had days 5 through 10 solid, but the first five days were a mess, and he had a long way to go. And Danielle had gotten into a transportation dilemma. Days 1 through 5 were OK, but they were followed with a blue plane, and then a car, and then Hawaii, which can only be reached by plane. She, too, still had some work ahead of her.
Of the four games in the 10 Days series, I think this one is probably the hardest to play. There are no duplicate tiles, like there are in each of the other three (Africa, Europe, and now Asia). And even though there are cards (neither Asia nor Europe has cars), somehow the state connectivity means the cars don't help as much as you'd think. But good game play is the same: work your tiles to give you the greatest number of "outs" possible.
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