Wednesday night wound up being pretty fun. There were only three of us that showed up to the hotel for game night. We first played Scythe again, because one of the guys who showed up this week really wanted to try it last week but was too sick to come. So the owner taught him that while I helped with set-up. I didn't do anywhere near as good this time though when all was said and done. I started off strong becuase I was the faction that lets meeples cross rivers and I got my Riverwalk ability really quickly, so I was zooming around the map capturing the objective tokens to get cards with my leader. Last time I played I didn't bother producing or building and I didn't thing I would be strong in those aspects for this game either, so I was hoping to use all the cards I was netti to get me a ton of resources or good benefits. I did get some good stuff but it was all for naught; I made some serious errors with my battles in the last two or three rounds and wound up with all of my mechs defeated and not holding territories at game's end. I think I had 26 points or so, compared to the winner's 70-something.
I know we all know what Scythe is like, but here is a quick shot before turn one begin:
After that we began playing Burgle Bros. I explained the game pretty well I thought, we got set up, and then began a three story game of the Bank Job. It was The Peterman, The Raven, and The Rook (me). Finally, my first time to play the game! We lost within something ridiculous like two full rounds of play. The floor one guard was in one corner of the floor so we entered on the opposite corner, which turned out to be the stairs. It was a corner with one wall next to the tiles, so a dead end. Upon trying to leave, we discovered that we had a fingerprint room right next to us that would set off an alarm upon entry. One guy decided to take the stairs to the second floor but things weren't much better up there with where the guard spawned. Back down on the first floor, two of us decided we had to try to rush out and trip the alarm anyway but the guard was heading towards us before setting off the alarm. It ended quickly as we were still in an area that led to a dead end and the guard passed over us multiple times in a row in such a way that my stealth tokens were gone before the game had really gotten underway.
After setup before game one started. We wound up entering in the corner towards the right side of the image and got boxed in.
So we decided to make another go of it. We rotated the building 90 degrees to give a slightly different layout, reshuffled all tiles and cards, and began again. The first two floors fell really quickly. The Peterman cracked the first floor safe as the other two of us went to the second floor so The Peterman would have some breathing room on the first floor and less guard movement. The room we entered into on the second floor was a deadbolt, which requires three actions to get in. The loot The Peterman picked up from the safe required him to spend an extra action to enter a room with another player in it and he needed us to remain in the deadbolt room so he could easily come up without spending another turn on floor one. Luckily he was able to stop below us and my character ability as The Rook let me move him up with us and disregard entry costs. The second floor's safe fell quickly as well, once again getting fracked by The Peterman. The third floor is what took us the longest. We did uncover a lavatory that acted as a free stealth room but floor three was a tough one. We went through the patrol deck many times, which meant that the guard up there was moving at max speed for a lot of our time up there. The Peterman was able to crack the third safe and we got really lucky with some events that prevented the game from ending a couple times. On one turn, I had no more stealth tokens and the guard was going to move over my space guaranteed before I could prevent it. No way for the current player to set off an alarm or anything to draw him away. Luckily, we convinced the current player to draw an event that caused they are to go straight to his destination, which spared me. I made it out of the building after the safe was cracked and spent a couple turns waiting for the other two. It was a close one, but they were able to make it out.
Here an image towards the end of that game, with me waiting on the helipad off to the left. You will also notice that the high rise tower is upside down, something I didn't realize until I looked at the images a few hours ago. I did wonder while playing why the struts overlapped the board on the third floor. Now I know.
My overall impression of Burgle Bros is positive. It was a bit of a brain-burner at times and really tough, but fun. The heist theme is so great as well. Maybe one day I'll try to form a proper review of the game from my jumbled thoughts on it, after a few more plays, but I look forward to playing it again sometime soon.
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