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Recap: Pastiche, MotA, and Twilight Struggle First Impressions

So much gaming goodness this week. Schedules were a little different than usual, so my gaming group got together, in fits and spurts, four different days this week. I got in plays of Innovation, Pastiche, Twilight Struggle, Mystery of the Abbey, and At the Gates of Loyang. Ah Yeeah. The gaming itch got scratched this week.

And, this week was full of first plays, with Pastiche, Twilight Struggle, and Mystery of the Abbey getting tested. Twilight Struggle and MotA have been around a while, but Pastiche is brand spanking new. Pastiche is a fantastic blend of tile laying, puzzle, and set collection.

Follow me past the cut for my impressions and all the games I played this week.

Innovation. Innovation is going to get the full review treatment this week, so I’ll keep it brief. I played four games this week with a bunch of different players. In one game, I fought tooth and nail with another opponent. We each had four achievements (one away from winning) while the third player had only one. I was perched to obtain my last achievement and win, when the player who had been lagging behind played down a card. Based on the number and kind of symbols, it chose the winner—which was him.

I’ve seen some criticisms of Innovation for this reason. The two players with the most achievements—who had played the game “best”—were blown out by a lucky draw. I don’t see this as a drawback. Innovation is a chaotic game from the very first meld. You can’t count on your cards being there from turn to turn. However, those instant win cards don’t show up until the tail end of the game. So, it’s almost a race. If you want the achievement victory, you have to hit it hard and early. But, if the cards don’t come up, you have a variety of alternate victory conditions if you can help the game last long enough. I like that the chaos still gives all players a chance to win.

Pastiche. It’s almost like playing two separate mini games. It starts with the tile-laying part. You lay down hex tiles that have a different paint splotch on each corner. Match corners together and you get corresponding paints. Then, once you have the paints, the second set collection portion begins. The goal is to get specific sets and use them to restore master paintings. Now, players can trade amongst themselves, and to the bank, for the pigments they need to complete their sets.

I think Pastiche took a risk in including disparate mechanics. It could have ended up clunky or one side could have been the “main” portion with the other side feeling neglected. Pastiche pulls it off nicely, though. The two sides work cooperatively to reinforce the theme and it feels like a unified whole rather than just two pieces stuck together.

I enjoyed my first plays (got two in). The second play was even a two-player ditty that advanced Operation GamerWife. The Wife liked the theme (she’s a creative type) and the game is simple enough that there aren’t tons of rules and exceptions and counter-exceptions. It’s straightforward without being predictable. I’ll be getting more plays of this soon as well.

At the Gates of Loyang. We determined that my friend John is a savant at this game. We’ve played a handful of times and he has always won. I think sometimes a game comes along and it just “clicks” immediately for some people. I felt that way about Irondale. I’ve come close to winning Gates—often losing to the tiebreaker—but he’s just darn good at the game. It’s actually interesting to play if only to watch him go, like watching an artist use a pen and paper to create their work. Sure, I’m familiar with a pen and paper, and know how to use them, but somehow what I draw doesn’t quite look the same as what the artist can do.

This week, we played a three-player game. Though I started off in the lead, I looked over at about the mid-game to see him delivering to three regular customers. Three! Plus he had fields plowed so that he would be able to deliver each time and casuals to boot. Of course, some manner of luck exists in making sure he got the right cards when he needed them, but his consistency testifies to a significant element of skill.

Twilight Struggle. How to best sum up this game? LONG. I had fun in my play, and it was a first attempt so I’m sure it’ll play quicker in the future, but the game went just about three hours before it ended on turn seven. Yes, we were at three hours and hadn’t even gotten to the late war period yet.

I’m hoping that this moves quicker with more plays. Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time playing. I even scored the very first victory on points as the USA (technically, my opponent blew it on the DefCon on turn four, but we kept playing anyway). Still, it just seems a long time to dedicate to a single game with only one other player. I’m not sure if it’s the sort of thing the Wife would enjoy and that will mean limited table time for this game. Still, keeping an open mind and looking forward to at least a second play.

 

Mystery of the Abbey. OK, so this isn’t exactly a new game. First published by Days of Wonder in 1996, this little gem has been around a long while. But, I hadn’t played it before. I got it in a recent trade and it found its way to the table. It’s been described as advanced clue and I think that moniker is appropriate. It uses the same basic deduction piece from clue—there are various suspect cards, one of which is removed at random. The players then ask questions, acquire cards, and try to narrow down the suspect.

MotA gets rid of the horrible “roll and move” aspect from Clue, though. It also creates several special rooms that can give bonuses, powers, or other aides to the players. Plus, players can announce a “revelation” for points—such as by saying, “the murderer is a Novice.” If he’s right at the end of the game, then he gets two points. If he’s wrong, then he gets minus one point. I’ll have to explore this further, but it seems to me that there might be times when you could knowingly reveal something false, take the one point hit, and hope that that leads other players down the wrong path.

Since it goes up to six players and retained the best parts of Clue, I could see this hitting the table the next time I visit my folks.

What about you? What did you get up to this week?

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