Afternoon games: Australia, Industrial Waste

Once again I met with the Ollis to play games. We started with Australia, requested by Olli M-K., who had also played it once before. Olli H. was new to the game.

It started to look bad, but turned out rather well. The final scores were 225-186-166, a decisive victory once again. I don't know what it is, but I've won every game and usually with a healthy margin. I don't know what I'm doing, I'll just score and score and score. In this game, I did a four-way scoring move once and even a five-area scoring once. I also scored some good points from the windmill.

Of course I like the game - how can I hate a game which I win every time?

We also played Hansa. It's one of the Schact games I don't like (Paris Paris is other example) too much. Sure, I'll play it, but it feels uncomfortably unintuitive. The rules weren't that difficult, but still - it's a bit too bizarre for me.

Who Stole Ed's Pants? is my latest acquisition. It's a funny little game about passing blame. There are facts about the theft of Ed's pants (the facts change all the time, of course) and evidence you can plant on your opponents. The most guilty player loses.

It's an odd little game and sure to confuse at first. However, the game is actually quite simple and has quite entertaining and funny theme. I'm not so sure if it's actually worth getting, but if you come across it, give it a go: there are enough clever mechanics in the game.

I was anxious to get back to Industrial Waste. Have you ever learnt strategy from game components? As the game has 16 loan cards, I thought it might be a good idea to actually take some loans. In the end of the game, I had one loan, Olli had two and Outi, who had replaced the other Olli, had none. I won, despite my loans.

It all came down to money, and while I've though little about the money in the game (after all, you only get one point for two million euros), it's really the crucial point. The factory level means only one or two points and the innovation is usually quite even, too. Like now: I ended up scoring 19 points for money in the last turn with two contracts, while Outi had to discard two contracts because she didn't have any resources.

I'm not sure if my loans did much, but at least I could buy one step of innovation with it. That would justify it (the innovation was worth five points and the loan cost me five), even if I didn't do profit. Anyway, I'm not sure one should be afraid of taking loans. If everybody has one, the points don't mean a thing.