Tom Stearns
United States
Houston
Texas
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Played Trans-America last night with my 8yo daughter and her friend. They were eager to learn a new game and I am eager for new opponents, so it was a perfect match. I had picked up Trans-America in a recent math trade. I knew it was a fairly simplistic game and had my daughter in mind when I wanted on it.
I explained the brief rules to the girls and we dove right in. I did not do what was recommended for the first play through and have everyone play their cards face up to make it easier to grasp what they were supposed to do. Instead we played cards face down. Of course playing with 8yo's nothing is a secret. "Dad where does grammy live?" "Omaha." "Oh cooooolllll." Guess who had Omaha........
The first couple of turns were a little slow as the girls were juggling the cards in their hands, looking at the map, trying to match the cards to the map, trying to decide where to lay track.....
They quickly got the hang of it and finished the 1st round, with me coming in last, naturally. We then started the second round and again it started slow. It seems it takes the girls a little time to sort the information and form a plan. Once they are sorted though, watch out! We finished the second round and guess who came in last again? Yep, me. The girls made an interesting observation. "Whoever goes first comes in first." That was pretty insightful for 8 years old I thought. I also thought, "Good, my turn to go first."
We played the third round and guess who came in first? NOT ME! We had to end the game because it was dinner time, but I was only 1 away from the end line anyway.
This game plays fast and is easy to teach and pick up. Each round came down to everyone having just 1 or 2 track to lay to finish. The girls had a good time and want to play again.
Ashlyn (L) and Mary (R) Mary is mine.
Final board. Notice scoring track at the top. I am brown, Ashlyn is blue and Mary is green.
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Walt
United States
Orange County
California
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Nice session report! While Trans*** seems simple, I was lulled into complacency by the game until I realized I was losing almost always. This is not a sign of a game of luck! After applying myself, I realized that it is a very subtle game of forcing your opponents to build track so you don't have to. Not that the process can be forced! You will find, I think, that the Vexation expansion (which I think is included in recent sets) makes things a lot more obvious--and due to the geography, changes play more on the Trans Europa board.
Oh, for TransIndia, TransAustralia, TransAfrica...!
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