by Ben Goulding
"Welcome to your training session everyone," I say, my voice somewhat hoarse as I fight off a sore throat, "feel free to interrupt me and ask questions as we go through, this isn't middle school." Less than ten minutes later, the shift leader puts up her hand to ask a question. Instantly realising her mistake, it goes back down, but not before it's been noticed. Laughter ensues. As much as I moan about the travel I do for my job, delivering training seems to be my strongest suit. Several customers have told me over the three years that I could easily be a school teacher, though I am not always sure whether it's a compliment or not.
The results of the Album of the Week vote looked pretty conclusive, so Cheap Trick it is! And the game to go with it, Elder Sign. With having already lost two days of the week due to being away and travelling, I fancied something a bit lighter and quicker to play this week. Expect a detailed walk-through of a game at the weekend!
I did manage a spot of multiplayer gaming at the weekend, with former work colleague Simon mentioned that he had a "pass" for Sunday afternoon. I had Agricola set up and ready for his arrival, and after a brief rules top-up (been a good while since we last played) we cracked on. I wasn't very enamoured by my starting Occupations and Minor Improvements, nothing really seemed to gel together, but as the move rolled on I played the Baker became quite crucial, which in combination with the Clay Oven allowed me to keep my family well fed on bread for the whole game. Simon's family meanwhile got drunk every harvest through gratuitous use of the Schnapps Distiller, which was surely to blame for his losing score.
We followed up with a game of the beautiful Scythe, myself drawing the alt-Germans and Simon the alt-Russians. Simon expanded rapidly, quickly getting out all of his workers to complete his objective while I soldiered on with four workers as I had the "have the same number of workers and recruits" objective. My more conservative play helped me achieve my second objective, gain $20, and I was able to get all my upgrade cubes moved down to the lower level. I did however make the mistake of letting my popularity slide while Simon steadily racked his up, so I gambled on ending the game with my sixth star thinking my bigger pool of money and extra star would make just enough difference. Ultimately it didn't, Simon beat me 70 to 62, but lessons learned for next time at least!