I just returned from a fabulous little getaway to Winslow, Arizona.  Now if you have heard of Winslow, you are ahead of most folks.  The Eagles immortalized it in their hit, “Take it Easy”… standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see – It’s a girl my lord in a flat-bed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me…”

Indeed, there is actually a bronze statue and a artfully crafted backdrop showing a reflection of a girl in a Flat Bed Ford.  It was three blocks from the hotel Peggy and I spend 2 nights in.  The hotel we stayed i is the “La Posada”, a world-class hotel I cannot say enough nice things about.  It opened for business in 1930, and was the last great Harvey Houses built by the Santa Fe railroad.  The architect was Mary Colter, a woman who built all sorts of wonderful travel-based buildings for the Fred Harvey Co.  Peggy and I along with 2 other friends went to Winslow solely to stay at this beautiful and special resort.

Peggy and our friends arrived by train, while I drove out.  We did this to have a car for exploring the region.  But we spent nearly all of our time at the hotel.  It is a showplace, filled with all sorts of art and antiques.  A self-guided tour was extended when we ran into a “Harvey Girl” docent who regaled us with many stories and details about the place.

One great feature of the hotel is a huge great room with a piano, overstuffed chairs, various tables and bookcases filled with volumes to read from.  Modern hotels don’t provide this sort of space for traveller’s to really relax in and spend a day as they will.

A tradition Peggy and I have with our friends Chris and Patty is the poker game.  We’ve played poker in all sorts of ancient hotels throughout the southwest.  After our game, when I was cleaned out, we went down to the world-class restaurant for a fabulous dinner.  After dinner we decided to play one of my board games.  I had selected Liebe & Intrige for our trip.  It is a game Peggy has enjoyed before.  But I had real hopes that it might amuse Patty and Chris, who are both Jane Austen fans.

Liebe & Intrige is really “The Jane Austen Board Game”.  You, as the head of your household, have three daughters you must guide to a successful marriage.  Each daughter has attributes corresponding to reputation, beauty, and education.  Various bachelors can be encountered at sites on the game board, such as the Theater, the Poor House, the Park, etc.  Visiting each site generally allows to improve an attribute and socialize with an eligible bachelor.  Some site such as the Gin Mill, have several bachelors to interact with, but carry the risk of besmirching your daughters reputation. 

Each bachelor will offer marriage, if he completes three dates with your daughter – AND – she meets his minimum requirements.  (Thus the need to improve one’s attributes.)  Dates are basically collected cards.  And this brings the “Intrigue” of the title into play.  When visiting a site one daughter can plot against another player’s daughter to “steal” a date from her opponent.

In a few ways this game is sort of Talisman, only set in Victorian England.  So it isn’t really a complicated game.  But there is a little bit going on.  My hope it would be enough of a game to amuse me, while not too much of a game to bore or boggle the non-game enthusiast.  I was also hoping it;s strong theme might appeal to the Jane Austen-philes we know.

Eh – I have long ago come to the conclusion that folks either like board games, or they do not.  Our friends agreed to play, and may have even enjoyed it a bit.  But in all likelihood they would have much preferred to play more Poker.  Liebe & Intrige is a silly little game, and I will happily play it with anyone who requests it.  But I think I may stop bringing games on getaways with folks who don’t really enjoy playing new games.

Saturday four of us gathered to play Wars of the Roses.  This was my 2nd play, Chester’s 2nd play, Tim’s first play, and I’d guess Alex’s 3rd or 4th play.  As expected, Alex won.  But I had a wonderful time, and I believe the other players did as well.

Years ago I was introduced to Kingmaker – and it was a game that really enticed me.  Wonderful heraldry, marshalling of forces, mercenaries, colorful events – it seemed like a wonderful game.  Truth be told I owned the game in a couple different forms for far more years than I got plays out of the copies.  Say 15 years of ownership for maybe 2 plays?  Pitiful.

Upon my first play of Wars of the Roses, I knew I would never want to play Kingmaker again.  So I sold them for a song to a BGG user who is a self-named Kingmaker fan.  I think he was thrilled to get the first edition from England, and in the mix I also included the AH 2nd edition as also the 1st edition of Game Workshop’s Warrior Knights (which I felt was a Kingmaker re-do).

I did dawdle about buying Wars of the Roses.  Chester gave me pause when he dissed it after his first play.  But after thinking about it, Chester surprised me and bought a copy.  SO I am less sure why I thought I needed to buy my copy, as I am most likely to play with folks who already own it.  But nonetheless I am pleased to own the game.  It is BEAUTIFUL!  Truly a joy to behold.

I have this suspicion that my copy will never see that many plays.  But I am hoping to be proven wrong.

I was given Nibelungen by a friend.  He told me the game had come back to him in a turkey swap, but I was still glad to get it.  Beautiful big box game from Amigo, authored by Wolfgang Kramer, tied to a theme that I find attractive…

Well, I had basically translated the game during the commercials of the Olympics, and last night I finally finished translating the cards.  I turned in the translation to BGG, in case anyone else ever cares about this game.  But I fear I’ve already found the fun inside the box. 

The game features random movement and direct player confrontation.  It would seem there is not too much room for clever play, and I am not too excited to get it on the table after all.

Oh, and I have somehow mislaid the German rules, so any questions about my translation will be unresolvable unless I find them again.

And then there is Shipyard.  I’ve now played 3 times.  The first play was wrong and as a result rather tedious.  The second play was better.  But the third play felt very similar to the second play.  Sadly, I’m not convinced by this game.

Shipyard’s theme is attractive.  But the over burden of rules makes this a demanding game to teach and to learn.  Fortunately the actual play is pretty good.  Turns tend to be short and sweet – unless your opponent is prone to analysis paralysis.  In the 3 or 4 player games you have one worker pawn. 

Worker Placement:  After the first turn there are always some actions you can never take, due to other pawns residing on those actions.  Somehow this feature of the game is annoying to me.  In another game that features worker placement, Agricola, at the end of a turn all of the workers go home – clearing the board and giving you a fresh slate to work upon for the next turn.  I like this design decision in Agricola - it’s like a palette-clensing taste of ginger.  But in Shipyard, you are always going to be restricted by 2 or 3 previously taken actions.  Bothersome.

Fortunately the design does allow you to spend 6 coins and take another action – any action – which lessens the restrictive situation just described.  But this creates a different dynamic, especially in a 3-player game it may prove especially difficult to earn the 6 coins.  In my 3-player game I was constantly short of cash because the other players were carefully selecting cash-awarding actions in the rear of the queue.  I could force an opportunity to get cash, but that was frequently a two turn effort.

Building ships is a fun theme, and quite different from anything else in my collection.  So Shipyard does have some allure.  But the game is not destined to become one of my all-time favorites.