Tinners' Trail

Last night, Oct 13, 2008, got to play my second game of Tinners' Trail at Via Cappuccino. I played about a month ago at That Board Game Thing, and loved the game enough to order a rare copy of it. Martin Wallace (designer) published only 1500 copies, and I got signed copy # 1482. Wallace is one of my favorite designers, and this one is the best of the lot. 

TT is the first of his new Treefrog line of games. The next (After the Flood) is due out next week. I have it on pre-order.

TT is a medium length game (experienced players can play in no more than 75 minutes), and I would say a medium weight game. Easy to set up and explain, you can be up and running in just a few minutes.

A characteristic design for this and all future Treefrog games is that no cards are used and all "bits" are made of wood, except the game boards and dice. Very nice as I love wood playing pieces.

In the case of Tinners' Trail, each player gets a set of wooden Mines, wooden discs, and investment cubes. In addition there are sets of orange cubes representing Copper Ore and white cubes representing Tin. These are the items you "mine" during the game.

In a nutshell - you bid to place mines in likely places, then improve the mining capacity of the area, mine the ore, sell it for current market prices, and then invest your earned money in the "market" for victory points. The most victory points (VPs) wins the game. The only way to get VPs is by investing your money to purchase VPs. However, you also need money to win auctions for land to mine and to mine the land. So, there is a delicate balance in the use of your money between investing, mining, and purchasing land. This creates lots of delicious choices. 

More detail. There are several improvements to be made to increase the capacity and/or to lower the costs of mining. One can obtain water pumps (to pump water from a mine and lower mining costs), adits (canals to drain off water, and increase mining yields), workers (to increase mining capacity), ships (to reduce water), railroads, etc. However, only a limited number of theses are available each turn.

The game lasts 4 Turns. Each turn consists of many "action rounds." Each round a player can take only one action - take a ship, railroad, worker, water pump, adit, bid for a mining site, mine ore, sell pastries for $1, or pass. Once he passes, his turn is over. 

Each action taken uses different amounts of "time" and each player has only 10 "time points" each game turn. So, when he has used up his last action time, he must pass and his turn ends.

After all players have passed, players sell all the ore they mined that turn at the current market prices. Players then take their money and invest it, prospect for new minds, and then end their turn.    

At the end of 4 turns, players total up the VPs they purchased during the game. Most VPs wins. 

I really enjoy this game and think it provides a lot of meat in a short time length. Other games are meatier, but longer, and much more fiddly. I like the fact that this game is fairly "clean" in the sense that it is not a fiddly game. Further it plays in a fairly short time and offers great decisions in a short time. Winning gives you great satisfaction, and everyone sits back and discusses what they did right or wrong. That's the sign of a good game.

Hopefully other publishers will pick up this game and make it available to a wider audience.