2024: Year of Legacy Games

It was an intense and hectic game of Ticket to Ride: Legends of the West... My strategy was a simple one, I would only focus on two tickets whilst trying to find as much gold as possible in the gold rush. Cathy's strategy was a better one. She tried to complete as many tickets as possible whilst also trying to find as much gold as possible in the gold rush. Both of us were furiously scratching our gold rush cards and both of us took home a lot of bacon. But Cathy's strategy did win the day. And yet Cathy had another advantage in the "Gambler" employee card. This card doubled one of her routes, ensuring, not only her victory, but a commanding victory. Although I lost, I did complete one goal of mine- finding the treasure of Sierra Madre. The treasure took the form of the fertility god from "Raiders of the Lost Ark". And so it's onward to California, which has been hit by an Earthquake and... has... um... California has broken off of the continental United...

It is not easy finding treasure in Sierra Madre. Believe me, I have tried. I collected at least 6 map pieces, but they were all "B" or "D" sections. Even with a postcard to help find the treasure, I simply could not find the treasure. This was more than frustrating. There are just too many cards in the deck with skulls on them. So maybe my treasure hunting strategy was not the best. I still eeked out a victory and then chose to add the Cascadia region to our map, leaving California as the lone region, yet to be discovered. Cascadia introduces Gold Rush scratch off cards to the game. So even if I never find the treasure of Sierra Madre, at least I will probably find treasure in Cascadia.  Things remain tense as we now have only 3 games left in our campaign. With so much to accomplish, I just don't know how it will all PAN out (Gold Pan Pun). Onward and Excelsior! Next Time: The Gold Rush in Cascadia

It bothers me not knowing if I am currently winning or losing a game. Especially a game that is played over 12 sessions. Paranoia set in. I had do take measures to ensure my ultimate victory. And so I picked the "Promoter" card during the employee draft. This would give me an additional 2 coins for claiming red routes (6 coins total). Knowing that most colored routes were located on the east coast (the western frontier is still a bit of a wasteland), I picked tickets that correlated to the east coast. From then on I simply claimed red route after red route and if the route was into a big city I was sometimes lucky enough to pick a red bonus card. I ended the game with over 100 coins, which was enough to handily take first place. Yet I'm still paranoid. What if Cathy has been slowly vaulting postcards. What if she has more shares than I do? What happens if at the moment of Manifest Destiny she eeks out a win? Nope. That is not okay. No, sir. So I will continue to develop m...

It is clear to me that "Legends of the West" is one-time experience. Once the 12 rounds are over, we will not be able to return to this game, not without purchasing a whole new set. Even in that case, we would know all of the spoilers. So, this is a once in a lifetime experience. "Legends of the West" is also like a video game. There are so many elements being slowly introduced. And with each element comes a new possible strategy. Juggling all of the strategies makes for an interesting experience. I always think I am winning and I'm not really noticing that Cathy is also crushing it. Both Cathy and I thought that I was victorious at the end of 1883. I had been scoring big in the Haunted Wastes- claiming the tunnel routes and raking in the dough. But Cathy was raking in money by claiming company bonuses. And in the end (even after we thought I had one) she pulled out a postcard and she overtook me (again). And so I ended up with the caboose card and she ended up ...