Christmas in October?

Or a Cruel Joke Perpetrated by the Game Gods?

Into the game store I flew like a flash,
Tore open the doors and looked at the stash.
The light of the neon shown with a glow,
illuminating the games on the shelf there below.
When what to my wondering eyes should appear,
but a fabulous game and eight tiny reindeer.

On Saturday morning my kids were invited to a 7-year-old's birthday party set for that afternoon. I got tagged to run into town to pick up a birthday present. Since my wife had reluctantly given me the checkbook to buy a present, I thought I would press my luck and stop by the game store to pick up Alexander the Great. Since the game store is on the way to WalMart I stopped there first.

As I got out of my car and approached the game store I had trouble restraining myself. I could see my breath in the early morning air. A couple puddles were frozen over in the parking lot. Not a breath of wind to be felt. Ahhhhhhh, my favorite time of year, not too hot, not too cold. I had a premonition there was something magical in the air.

I got into the store and what did I see? Not eight tiny reindeer, but something nearly as thrilling... Age of Steam.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! SCORE!!!! High fives all around!! CHRISTMAS IN OCTOBER! Alexander was quickly forgotten and I excitedly picked up the only copy of Age of Steam.

I first decided to buy Age of Steam about 10 minutes after it went out of print 2 years ago. It was widely available from on-line stores one day, and, without warning, sold out the next. As soon as it sold out there were promises of a reprint to be available in October 2004, possibly even available by GenCon 2004. It has been a long wait.

After fondling and paying for my latest game I rushed to WalMart, bought some cheap, plastic crap that a seven year-old would like, and rushed home to play with my new toy. I devoured the rules, but I still wasn't comfortable enough with the game to play on Saturday afternoon.

That afternoon we played Rheinlander and Louis XIV after the birthday party, I then pressured everyone at the birthday party to reconvene the next day for a game of Age of Steam.

So, with a better grasp of the rules, three of us got together on Sunday afternoon for our first game of AoS.

Unfortunately, I was the only person who had been anticipating the re-release of this game.

It went over like a fart on a crowded bus.

The one player who is always confused when we first play a game, was still confused, but also bored because I had to refer to the rule book often, generally put-off with my enthusiasm for the game, and sympathetic to the third player who was convinced that the game was broken after I explained how expenses were calculated.

Despite everything, we played a couple rounds. The game was going all right, but we realized all of us had made significant strategic mistakes and mutually agreed to start again. I thought a restart might soften some of the negative feelings toward the game, and bring an air of positivity to the room.

Big mistake.

We should have never restarted. On try 2 there was only one route that was available that could score points on the first round. That route was a good one, though. All the goods could be transported back and forth between both cities. The first two players tied up the available routes between those two cities and left the third guy with nothing.

There were, literally, no goods that could be transported after that. Not even if you were to build a new city. The three of us pored over the board for several minutes looking for a route that could be utilized on the first turn, and there was none, nothing, zip, nada. There wasn't even a route that could be utilized if we let him build 4 rails instead of the 3 he was entitled to.

But forget the first round. Even if you wrote off the first round and set yourself up to transport goods in the second round, you could, at most, before goods were replenished at the end of the first turn, transport 1 good, 1 space during the second round, even with two engines.

Three of us pored over the map looking for any possibility, there were none, nothing, zip, nada.

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. I mean maaaaaaaaaaaaan. What are the odds of that happening? That was the final straw. The game was deemed "broken" and everyone found an excuse to leave.

Had I been the third player everything would have still been okay. I would have continued to play, looking for an advantage later in the game. But with feelings running high that the expense phase was broken, the game didn't stand a chance. Looking back, I should have just volunteered to go last. As it was, I was so disappointed that I wasn't thinking clearly.

I may have to seek opponents from outside of the state if I am to ever play Age of Steam again. And, make no mistake, I will play it again.

I was very impressed with the system. The rules were better organized than other Martin Wallace designs, and the game felt well developed to me. After one, partial game, I think the economic system has been greatly improved, yet simplified over other 18xx Railroad games. The player actions seemed a little hokey, but they seemed to be well developed, and appropriate to the goals of the game.

Mark my words, in this The Year of Our Lord 2005, the Seventh Day of October, in the Early A.M Hours Alaska Time. I will fly to Seattle before I will wait another two years to play Age of Steam. I will fly to Botswana to play another game of AoS if I have to.

I was very intrigued. It may be a "10".