Saturday Games and Rain

Going backward, I arrived after 11 in heavy rains, with local flooding blocking roads all over the area. Air VW the Gray had slipped here and there, and traffic was slow-moving. The rain had filled the highways with a quarter-inch of water in places, making a faster pace dangerous. It was a brutal drive from Kathleen’s home to my house on the edge of Beaverton and Hillsboro, once known as Reedville and Aloha.

Kathleen, Chris, and I joined Richard at his house to play one of Richard’s newest Kickstarter games: Trailblazer: The Arizona Trail. Once we were done, I drove Kathleen home across Portland. The EV Nav found a different way to connect to I-84, which surprised us. I did pull over to ensure we had the correct address for Kathleen’s home. We did not use Google Maps, but the built-in VW-supplied Nav. It worked, but it was a slow drive as traffic was slow and heavy, and visibility was low.

I had not seen Chris for a while, but it was nice to play with him again. He had played the game before and shot out like a rocket once it started. Chris did come in third, but he had the lead for most of the game. Trailblazer uses two scoring totals and subtracts them like other heavy resource and worker placement games, like Arc Nova. My only goal was to get a positive score, and my 22 points for my first play were good for me in this game style.

I enjoyed the game more than Arc Nova, and I could see the designer had learned from other games and tried to create a constraint-free, randomly generated board of cards to purchase that granted various rewards. There are also two tracks to move forward to unlock more options and accelerate your resource collection and gameplay. Instead of hand management or deck-building mechanisms, this game used piece placement to build a mural on your own board with various shapes and sizes purchased with resources gained elsewhere, and that awards moving up on a track with rewards–an excellent mix of two game mechanisms. This is a popular mechanism, and I found I liked it. We all completed our board, meaning the game is not a limited resource.

The game has many goals and intermediate means to get more points and resources (split between two scoring totals). Overall, I initially did not like the game (I all but rolled my eyes when I saw it’s set up as a yet-another-brain-burning resource and worker management game). Still, I began to like it once I understood the various mechanisms. Your turn is easy to understand, and you naturally climb multiple tracks. Items that score extra points are collected without making sacrifices that leave your play constrained. I did not find myself starving for resources (though short a few times) or fighting with game constraints. The game designers did an excellent job!

Going back in time, my drive to Richard’s house in Air VW the Gray took more than an hour of slow, wet driving. Traffic was heavy for a Saturday, but there was an event at Moda Center, and I am sure that added to the mess. The EV was at about 80% as I did not bother to charge it after my earlier trip.

Before leaving, I spent the afternoon doing laundry and dishes. For lunch, I had cold ham and a reheated leftover potato with butter and sour cream. I read and napped. I followed Deborah’s trip back to Michigan on TripIt and texted back and forth. We called and talked, too. It was so strange to be back to texting and calling Deborah after spending a week together here at the house and in Seattle. I skipped dinner, having just crackers at the house, some nuts at Richards (he has snacks for gamers), and toast with marmalade when I got home.

We rose at 6 to get ready to take Deborah to PDX. We had cereal for breakfast and more locally roasted and ground coffee. There were tears as we enjoyed our bubble of time and local travel that was now ending. In our happy bubble, we avoided news, work, and even laundry for a week. We loved being together for a week, enjoyed seeing the Pacific Northwest together, gaming in Portland and Beaverton, and drinking and eating. Deborah is a fan of coffee drinks, and Spanish Coffee is a newly learned passion of her’s now.

We reached PDX too soon. It was sad, but we were so happy to get our week bubble of time together. Deborah will be back! We next meet in California in mid-March at Long Beach for a biz conference for Deborah. I am her +1, and then we stay for a week after. I plan to drive the EV there. After that, I hope to spend a long weekend in Toronto with Deborah in April and see folks in Michigan.

Thanks for reading!