Getting Back Into Action at Toronto Area Boardgame Society: Downforce, Terraforming Mars, Let’s Make a Bus Route, and Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain
It’s been a long time since I’ve attended one of the quarterly TABS meet-ups. In fact, I’m not sure how many there’ve even been since COVID started. For all I know, this was the first. The September 10 iteration was at the usual spot: the Legion Hall on Dawes Avenue, with two floors of gaming. I’d say it was at about 70% capacity compared to pre-COVID levels, with a lot of empty tables on the second floor, in particular.
At TABS, I always try to play at least one game I’ve never played—since the people who attend these things typically enjoy teaching their favourite games, and it’s a good way for me to expand my playlist. This time, I learned Downforce, a racing game that at first reminded me of a card-driven, dumbed-down version of Formula D. But that would be selling the game short. The twist here is that you can win the game even if your car(s) don’t take the checkered flag—because you can earn a ton of points simply by betting on other cars. (In this way, the game mechanics are analogous to 18XX). It’s a lot of fun, and a very quick play. Plus it can be taught in about 10 minutes.
My only complaint is related to the fact that the track is structured in such a way that it narrows to a series of single bottleneck cells at several points. And the game mechanics make it very tough to dislodge someone from the lead position once s/he’s sitting in one of those spots, clogging up the track, preventing anyone from passing. So there’s a huge value to positional incumbency, and if someone gets to the lead spot by fluke, that can dictate the whole game. (On the other hand, managing these choke points is also part of the art of playing this game, so fans of Downforce may tell me that what I’m complaining about is really a feature, not a bug.)
Next up was Terraforming Mars, a heavy euro strategy game that’s still extremely popular despite now being six years old. I never really get tired of this one, and enjoyed Saturday’s game despite the fact that we played the plain vanilla game without a fancy new map or any of the expansions. I played an extreme titanium/space/titanium/event strategy, complete with the CrediCor corporation (After you play a card or standard project with a basic cost of 20 MC+, gain 4 MC); Media Group (receive 3 MC after playing an event); three cards that all gave 2-MC cost reductions on anything with a space tag; advanced alloys; and yet another card (I forget the name) that gave 3 MC and 3 heat as rebates on expensive events. I scored well. But it wasn’t enough: Some absolute shark smoked us all by scoring 120 points with a 63-card tableau that included at least two dozen blue cards. I learned a lot from that dude. (As soon as I said the name of a card, he could recite its attributes!)
In the “roll and write” genre, I played (and then purchased) Let’s Make a Bus Route, a playfully-themed game created by Japanese designer Saashi. This is a kid-friendly game (my 10 year old was able to enjoy it, though she struggled with some of the rules) that plays in 30 minutes yet still embeds a lot of interesting strategy. And the best part is that all of the bus routes are written with erasable coloured pens on wipe-able boards—kind of like those Crayon Rails Games that I love, but which I can’t seem to get anyone to play with me.
Another game I bought (but didn’t play) was the 2017 COIN game, Pendragon: The Fall of Roman Britain. I’m not a huge fan of the COIN genre, as I’ve discussed before. But I’m interested in this historical period (which is covered both by the History of Rome podcast, and, obliquely, History of England), and bought this one on a whim. The rules look intimidating. And so if anyone reading this wants to help teach me the rules, I’m definitely interested.
