Back to the boardgame café after
only two weeks (with Essen in between).
A game I didn't get a chance to look at in detail at Essen,
The Gang.
The basic game is: you get two cards, and you have to rank your poker
hands low to high without revealing them by taking chips rated from 1
(low) to number of players (high). Then you deal three cards, one card
and one card into a common area, and after each set of cards you do
the ranking again. If after the last card all players’ hands are
actually in order, you all win that round, otherwise you lose; three
of either ends the game.
So basically it’s The Mind with poker hands. (I still haven’t played
The Mind.) This certainly wasn’t helped by the highest hand any of
us got in four rounds being two pair, and everything else was pairs
and high cards. So I know I’ve got rubbish, and you know you’ve got
rubbish, but we have no way of determining who’s lower…
Also, though there are some challenge cards to make it harder, the
bulk of what’s in the box is a normal 52-card deck. Not even any
special art on them.
Not for me. If I wanted to play this again I'd do it with the normal
cards I already have, and maybe dice instead of chips, but I feel no
desire to do so.
On to Dice
Hospital,
which I haven't played for a while and indeed I'm trying to sell. I
did very badly this time; I've never lost a patient before, and this
time I lost four. I've enjoyed this game before, but the theme irks me
now.
Puzzly card-layer Mass
Transit,
which I feel must have been inspired by Rivers, Roads and
Rails
(but doesn't have the art that makes that game rather more enjoyable).
You're trying to get six commuters from the city to the suburbs,
using cards both to lay out routes and to move them along them, but an
awful lot depends on which cards come out in which order. If someone
enthused about playing this again I would, but I won't seek it out.
Finally, Timeline: Music &
Cinema,
in which I misplaced one card but we otherwise had a perfect game.
