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Planet Steam by H. G. Thiemann
It is Thursday night following the day time thaw and the roads now glisten with headlights glare rather than the grey slush that has kept so many of us in our homes during the snow falls and freezing wind of the past week or so. Dicken and Kendall make the relatively brief journey to Peter’s burning with a keen desire to play Planet Steam again before they forget all the rules drummed into them at Derek’s place a couple of weeks ago.
Kendall has driven and speaks eloquently during the journey of the game designing process and the buzz that comes from putting a mechanism into a game that really delivers the goods. We are only halted in our discourse by the opening of the door by Pierre and it’s game on!
Planet Steam is a fantastic looking game – lots of specially designed playing pieces and artwork to die for – production standards through the roof and thus a commensurate price tag. This is not a cheap game and fortunately it delivers like an expensive game should, no disappointments that the game falls short of the ‘look’.
Phil and Paul are waiting and following a brief recap of the rules and an explanation of the advanced rules – we are playing with all the variants tonight, just as the rules state (no house tweaks), we are off.
Paul makes a top bid of 30 credits for the first choice of character card and chooses Lady Steam – she allows you to go first in almost everything. Kendall raises an eyebrow at the amount bid but Paul insists that in previous games this has been the sort of amount considered reasonable and that going first is good, very good. Paul has forgotten that he is playing with 5 tonight and the game only lasts 4 turns – he continues to play with some aplomb however until the end of the turn and then declares that he might as well go home now as he has ‘botched it’, spending too much and also not realising that prices at the end of the first turn plummet.
Dicken claps him supportively on the shoulder and insists that he is not out of it and that a comeback is possible. The others nod and Kendall relates how he had botched not one but three turns in the first game he played – the reassurance intended is blunted somewhat when he admits to coming last – but it is well meant and play continues with more thoughtful bidding from all at the start of the second turn. Dicken and Peter have purchased ‘Deeds of Ownership’ in the first turn and wink conspiratorially as they tuck them away – these babies are worth 50 credits each at the end of the game and only cost 1 ore and 1 quartz each.
Turn 2 sees all the tanks bought up with Dicken missing out (1 credit short of the required amount). He keeps his disappointment to himself as there is quite a poker like element of bluff involved in Planet Steam. You don’t want to give your strategy away as other players actions can easily influence what you can buy and sell. Frustrations are axiomatic in this game as you will often see the price of what you wish to buy or sell move in the wrong direction given your place in the turn order.
The character cards have a nice balance between turn order number and what your special ability allows you to do in the game and the Venturer, who Peter insists on calling the Ventura (must be a big Jim Carey fan) is highly sought after – he allows you to pick a shaft for auctioning off (extra to the shaft everyone gets each turn) and also allows you to pay half the winning bid if you yourself win the auction. Considering that each shaft with your platform on it is worth 25 credits at the end it’s an easy way to make profit and you get to go second in the turn! Bargain!
Some wheeler dealing goes on in turn 2 and Dicken although missing out on a tank gets himself another Deed of Ownership hee hee! And a Compressor (also worth 50 credits at the end).
Turn 3 sees the bidding going very low compared to the previous 2 turns - the boys are learning fast. Some tanks are built and Dicken gets one this time, but it will be his last – 3 in the whole game. Everyone else is trading as much as they can but Phil makes a cardinal error, selling all his energy for top dollar but leaving himself with none to feed his tanks to produce in the last turn. He is downcast but like the old gamer he is he has a plan…. But Peter and Dicken get to buy their 2nd and 3rd Deed of Ownership respectively and the last ones available to boot. Phil missing out due to the turn order.
The bidding is fierce in turn 4, both Dicken and Phil taking the bidding for first choice up to 28 credits in rapid order – the others fall by the wayside aghast at the heights these two old asteroid belters are prepared to ante up. Eventually Dicken decides his profit margin will be cut too thin if he continues and lets Phil have it – this lets Phil choose the IPF Agent (the Banker) who gets one of the resources available (an energy) and also lets him buy another resource for 1 credit (an energy) – see what he did? Now he has energy to power up his tanks!
The last turn sees the price of quartz and ore at maximum so lots of production and selling goes on with Paul making a fortune by selling first and Dicken making a pigs ear out of his decisions and probably losing 20 credits that he could have made. However, Dicken did get the Ventura, sorry Venturer and made 19 credits on that shaft/platform plus his own platform via a Building License acquired in the previous turn, so he’s not unhappy.
When everything is added up Peter reads the scores out and it’s Dicken first by 40 credits from Peter with Kendall, Paul and Phil bringing up the rear. Kendall queries the merit of the 5 player version if Dicken can win with only 3 tanks on the board, but Dicken had a lot of platforms plus the Deeds plus he’s the only player who has invested in a compressor (which by increasing the production of a tank in effect is like having another tank). So, Dicken defends his win as being the result of making the best choices available to him given the constraints of the game and that really is what Planet Steam is all about. More variables than in Puerto Rico but essentially it’s still about making the best decision at each point in the game plus some nice tenseness created by the auction system.
Planet Steam is good if not very good and I am sure will get more plays but it’s not for the faint hearted gamer, occasional gamers may get floored by having to keep making decisions, any of which can severely effect your chances in the game.
No evening is complete at Pierre’s without a spot of supper and a glass of wine and that is exactly how we end the night, chatting about the cricket (England facing a spanking in the last test against the Saffers) and planning our attempt on the face of Indonesia in a couple of weeks time.
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