I got Poseidon from my Secret Santa. The box promises 90-120 minutes playtime, which fits in my weekly game sessions, where I have 2.5 hours of time. Sounds good so far. Of course, it wouldn’t be the first box to lie.
We managed the game in less than two hours. Four players, including rules explanation, 115 minutes. Smooth! It’s a simple game. I had a very brief rules cheat sheet, but of course I had to check some details from the rule book as we went on. No mistakes, though.
Poseidon takes the 18xx basics and strips a lot of stuff away. The board development is simplified a lot and counting runs is a lot easier. That’s nice, though I miss being able to work together with your companies. Now the companies don’t really affect each other. I suppose there’s some blocking involved, but we sure didn’t see any in our game.
Even the best stock picking newsletter won’t change the fact that the stock market is fairly bland, but I don’t mind — I don’t like stock trashing in 18xx at all, so losing that is an improvement in my books, but I do miss double jumps for good runs.
If Poseidon required a separate session booking, I’d probably sell it right away — if I have to organize a separate session, then I’d prefer a full 18xx game like 1825. However, since Poseidon works within the frame of weekly game sessions, it gets a special place in my collection. I’m going to try to get five plays of Poseidon this year.
Our game lacked drama, but that’s no surprise for a first game. I was the only player to start a second company, but it was a bit too cheap, so the boat rush didn’t quite bite — we never bought any sevens, even. That’s a bit weak. In the end Hannu won; I was fairly sure it’d be me or Hannu. In the end his stock portfolio was 500 drachmas better than mine.
Final scores were about 4000, 3500, 3000, 2700, with companies having prestiges of either 190 or 130.
We started with a quick game of Lamarckian Poker. That one has already five plays this year. It’s a true filler — just a pack of cards and five minutes for an interesting game.
In the other news, my brother has a neat little Toyota Prius, and I’m not jealous, not at all. None, whatsoever. Nope. Nada.