Richard Eldridge
Australia
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Three Players: One Going for Gold!
The regular fortnightly boardgame days on Saturdays have been full of interesting games involving many strategic and humourous twists. Today was no exception with games such as Diamant, Agricola(love this game!), Settlers of Catan, and Carcossone being played. So, whilst Merric, Randy and Mark played Brass at the other table in Randy's house, Josh, Laurie and myself settled in at another table to set up Niagara: Spirits of Niagara (which Merric has so kindly brought along).
The initial ten minutes was spent setting up the board as well as retrieving the key elements of the expansion including the double-canoes, Hurried Elk (adds two to your paddle card movement), the Whirlpool (need +2 movement to get past it) and the Beaver (played on board when river speed reaches +2). Josh and I had played Niagara and the expansion before, but Laurie, as a newer member of BUGG, had not played it as yet so we spent some time explaining the rules to him and then we got started.
The game started off with varied tactics in regards to paddle cards, and used our paddle cards wisely to avoid using the higher ones too early. Of course, the temptation for me (as well as Josh and Laurie) to use a higher one became too great earlier on and used a +5 one to grab some purple gems early as well as white with my other single canoe. Josh was after the gold gems and was making very good progress, and Laurie was learning the ropes of the game but was doing reasonably well early on collecting a purple and gold gem to start his gem collection.
However, as the game progressed, it was evident that the whirlpool was causing problems for all of us and Hurried Elk quickly became a hot commodity with his +2 to movement. Josh took to using him a great deal, and I laid my hands on him once or twice also (I believe Laurie used it at least once). The waterfall lurked as a constant menace to us all, but for most of the game we avoided the rampaging falls despite being pushed to the edge many a time only for Hurried Elk to save the day! I had about 3 purple and 1 white gem after using the Elk towards the end of the second cycle of paddle cards, and was sitting pretty after having stolen Josh's purple and white gem. Josh was after one more gold gem to win the day with four gems of the same colour, and Laurie was straggling behind, struggling with the furious current and the annoying whirlpool!
However, Josh's canoe manuevering prowess proved too much for us this day with Josh stealing my purple and white gem from me, and Laurie and I being swept over the falls...argh! We both came back with a double canoe each, but it was too late, despite our vain attempts to take Josh over the waterfall with us...he went first and delivered the last gold gems for victory!
The scores were as follows:
Richard(Me): 4 Gems (3 Purple, 1 White)
Josh: 6 Gems (4 Gold, 2 Purple)- Winner!
Laurie 2 Gems (1 Purple, 1 White)
Niagara and the Spirits expansion has always been a fun time-filling game in the past and present, but I personally think its better with 4-6 players.
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Posted Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:43 pm