Recent Gaming: 1861, Pax Renaissance, White Eagle Defiant

I’ve been playing some heavy strategy games lately, thanks to several willing guests.

1861: The Railways of the Russian Empire

Last year Jim and I did a deep dive into Undaunted: Normandy. We both love 18xx games, and even though 1861 is not a proper two-player game we gave it a go.

Jim and I last played this game at BGG.CON back in 2010 with Nate Sandall and likely a few of of our Austin TX friends. It truly is a good (re)learning 18xx game because it eases into full blown company management. It would have been better with one more player as we never really had any route conflicts, and there was little cross-company investment.

Dave tries to save Poland

Brother-in-law Dave and I were just hanging around in the air conditioning waiting for folks to return from an airport run, so I pulled out an unplayed tiny wargame: White Eagle Defiant.

I had Dave take the Poles, which in hindsight was a poor choice given his style of play. You see, Dave is an aggressive, restless player. If he feels like things are slowing down, he’ll just attack. Probably not a good idea for Poland in the first days of the invasion to try a counter attack in Prussia. We both played fast and it was over quickly for Poland. I’d like to try again and see how the Poles can fare with a measured defense. Looks like this game would play well solo.

Mike and Dave playing Pax Renaissance

The highlight of the brothers-in-law week was Pax Renaissance, a game I’ve played 13 times and probably taught new players 10 times. Practice helps as this is not an easy game to teach, though this is better than trying to learn from the rulebook.

Pax Renaissance is brilliant despite the challenging rules. The problem isn’t ambiguous or reduntant rules: it is that they are almost too streamlined, too well factored. This is the Ecklund style; it is as if the rules are written to train a bot rather than teach a human.

These were my first plays of the 2nd edition, and I have to say I’m not impressed. The color choices and overall user experience could be so much better with this big box version. The player guide could be a much better complement to the terse rules by incorporating more of the fan-created (or even suggested) “how do I do xyz…” material that’s been available for a while.

Still, we had so much fun! Dave and Mike picked up the rules quickly and were patient with my incremental teaching as cards with new effects emerged.