Nye udvidelseskort til Age of Steam i Essen 2006

[Frouvne]

Nu har spørgsmålet plaget os i det seneste år: Kommer vi til at se udvidelsen: Age of Steam Expansions - Austria, Switzerland & The Netherlands? Endnu kender jeg ikke svaret... Der har efterhånden opbygget sig en tradition for, at den udvidelse som Winsome Games udgiver i et stærkt begrænset oplag året efter udkommer via Warfrog. Men altså endnu intet nyt...

Til gengæld er der godt nyt om udvidelser fra Ted Alspach, der står bag udvidelserne: Age of Steam Expansion: 1830's Pennsylvania og Age of Steam Expansion: Northern California, der er et redesign af Age of Steam Expansion - Bay Area. Jeg var i kontakt med Ted Alspach for en uges tid siden, hvor han lovede, at der kommer nye kort fra hans hånd ved Essen 2006... Endnu holder han kortene tæt til kroppen og vil ikke ud med hvilke. Men altså noget at glæde sig til!

[Frouvne]

Og så kommer der naturligvis også noget fra Winsome Games... men hvis de igen i år nøjes med at optrykke dem i 80 eksemplarer, må man jo nok realistisk regne med at vente endnu et år, før man får lov at prøve dem.

John Borer fra Winsome Games har udtalt:

It looks like we will have two new AoS expansions (don't ask me about them until September, when we announce them to Spielbox)

Kilde:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/113979

[Frouvne]

[...] Til gengæld er der godt nyt om udvidelser fra Ted Alspach, der står bag udvidelserne: Age of Steam Expansion: 1830's Pennsylvania og Age of Steam Expansion: Northern California, der er et redesign af Age of Steam Expansion - Bay Area. Jeg var i kontakt med Ted Alspach for en uges tid siden, hvor han lovede, at der kommer nye kort fra hans hånd ved Essen 2006... Endnu holder han kortene tæt til kroppen og vil ikke ud med hvilke. Men altså noget at glæde sig til!

Så er der nyt fra Ted Alspach igen! Ganske overraskende nyt!

De to nye udvidelser har titlerne: Age of Steam Expansion: Disco Inferno og Age of Steam Expansion: Soul Train. Alene titlerne indikerer, at her er der nye boller på suppen: Noget som nogle vil elske og andre vil hade!

Om udvidelserne hedder det sig:

Age of Steam Expansion: Disco Inferno

From Ted Alspach, the designer of Age of Steam Expansions Bay Area, Northern California, and 1830's Pennsylvania.

This Age of Steam expansion takes place in a Disco Inferno, where “satisfaction comes in a chain reaction” and everyone keeps shouting “Burn, baby, burn” as you set up routes for disco dancers (goods cubes) to be shuttled between various discothèques (colored cities) on a map covered with flames. Unique features for this map include:

Disco Infernos: Once a discothéque no longer has dancers, it burns to the ground and is no longer a delivery location. Players take a track tile and turn it upside down on the burned down discothéque (or simply flip a "New City" tile if it was a lettered city that burned), creating a city that can't be delivered to or have any cubes placed on it via the production action.

Chain Reactions: Players have the ability to deliver a "chain" of dancers, up to the players' locomotive length. For instance, a player with a locomotive length of 5 could deliver a dancer three links, and then pick up another dancer at the same location and deliver that new dancer two more links. This unique twist on delivery has a profound change on the way you view deliveries in Age of Steam, yet is a fairly simple rule change to understand.

Instant Population of Urbanized Towns: When a town is urbanized into a discothéque, it come with three dancers on it already.

Production Directly on the Board: Players choosing the production action are able to place dancers directly on the discothéque of their choice, which can be critical for keeping important delivery location alive for another turn.

Players: 3-6

Optimal number of players: 3 or 4

WARNING: The "Disco Inferno" theme may very well be offensive to railroad purists (after all, this is "Age of Steam," not "Age of Funk"), and has the potential to cause straight men to become slightly uncomfortable. To make the theme even more obnoxious, the towns are named after famous disco-era songs ("I'm going to urbanize Boogie Oogie Oogie,") and the Discothéques are named after disco-era singers and groups ("Oh no, KC has burned to the ground"). You may experience shunning by your local gaming group by merely suggesting to play such a heavily disco-themed game, so purchase this at your own risk.

Link:

http://games.bezier.com/AOSDI.html


Age of Steam Expansion: Soul Train

From Ted Alspach, the designer of Age of Steam Expansions Bay Area, Northern California and 1830's Pennsylvania.

Souls are in jeopardy, and only you can save them! Build a train to carry souls (goods cubes) from Hell to Earth, and then deliver them to their final resting spot in Heaven. This Age of Steam expansion uses a three-part board in a unique “flip” fashion, with a linear delivery system that provides a strategic challenge to Age of Steam players. Unique features for this map include:

3 Part board "flip": The first part of Soul Train uses the bottom of the Age of Steam Expansion: Disco Inferno board, along with the Earth portion of the Soul Train board. Initially, players focus on delivering souls from Hell to Earth; when 10 or fewer souls remain in Hell, track, cities and any remaining souls are removed from Hell, and Hell itself is picked up and flipped over to reveal the Heaven side of the board, which is placed above Earth. Players then have two turns to deliver as many of the Earth-bound souls to urbanized towns in Heaven. No turn marker is used, with each game taking on average one turn less than a turn-metered game for the same number of players.

Track Costs and Engineering: While track on Earth is the typical Age of Steam cost ($2 for standard spaces, $4 for mountains), building track in all of Hell is $3. Heavenly track costs only $1. Each player may build up to six pieces of track per turn, but all track must begin and end in a city or town. To help offset the cost of so much track, the Engineering action now reduces the cost of track to half the total cost rounded up.

No Production Action or Goods Growth: The only souls in the game are the ones on the board. When souls are delivered to Earth, they remain on the board, awaiting transport to Heaven in the second part of the game.

Urbanization and New Cities: There is only one city per color for the new cities that may be urbanized. When the board is flipped cities in Hell are placed on towns in Heaven in player order, one per player, providing a dynamic city placement phase that changes with each game.

Income bonus at flip time: Instead of getting victory points at the end of the game for track built in hell, players receive income when their track is pulled up as the board is flipped, at 1/3 of an income point per track, rounded down.

Players: 3-5

Optimal number of players: 4

WARNING: Soul Train does not endorse, nor is it intended to challenge any existing religious doctrine. To the best of my knowledge, no current theological beliefs are based upon a series of train tracks that carry souls from Hell to Earth and then give worshippers two turns to deliver them to Heaven. However, if such a dogma exists, this game should not be used as a substitute for that religion's practices.

Link:

http://games.bezier.com/AOSST.html

[Frouvne]

Så er der nyt om, hvilke udvidelser vi kan forvente os fra Winsome Games i år. Vel hjemkommet fra ferie ligger der i min indbakke en mail fra John Bohrer med følgende beskrivelse af udvidelsen:

AoS: Eastern US & Canada" is an Age of Steam expansion that combines with the standard map and expands the game from Savannah, Georgia to Quecec, Canada. This historically based expansion is for 3-6 (not 3-8) players for about 2 hours. The game introduces the Marketing
action and a few new rules concerning track building, goods growth and
production, among others.

Som vanligt optrykkes udvidelsen kun i 80 nummererede eksemplarer - så man skal vist være lidt heldig for at få sat sig på et eksemplar!

[Frouvne]

Nu kan man så også læse reglerne til de to udvidelser: Age of Steam: Disco Inferno og Age of Steam: Soul Train.

Link til reglerne:

http://games.bezier.com/ST-DIRules.pdf