Rajas of the Ganges, Plague and Pestilence, and Cartographers

 Rajas of the Ganges, Plague and Pestilence, and Cartographers

After a lovely holiday week in Buffalo with family, I was all too ready to get back to playing games! My family enjoys doing different things, but playing board games doesn't rank very high with them, so I put my hobby on hold while I'm with family. Upon returning, since my friend Ted was still on holiday break and we hadn't played together in a little while, it was time to get some games to the table! We got together a little later in the evening so that Ted's wife Morgan could join us too; I can't even remember the last time I got to play games with her! Roger rounded out the group, so we counted on playing some light to medium stuff because of the late start.

Ted had previously played Rajas of the Ganges with Roger and Roger contended that something was missing for him, and so Ted had mentioned that he wanted to play it with me and have Roger try it a second time. So when we landed at Ted's, he already had Rajas set up and ready to go. So we started the evening with that!

Per BGG: "Players in Rajas of the Ganges race against each other in support of the empire by developing their estates into wealthy and magnificent provinces. Players must use their dice wisely and carefully plot where to place their workers, while never underestimating the benefits of good karma."

It's a worker placement, which I enjoy! And it features multiple paths to victory, which I always appreciate. But honestly, I rarely split terribly far from Roger when it comes to opinions on games, so I was doing my best to come in with an open mind. After a brief tutorial from Ted, we were ready to go! As I do so often with new games, I had already decided I was just going to play and not stress too much over my choices. It was especially relevant for a game like Rajas which has a decent number of decision points and a pretty busy board.

That said, I enjoyed it overall! There was definitely a decent amount of which to keep track (I didn't increase my karma once the entire game, and I didn't upgrade my buildings nearly enough to be competitive on the Fame track), but I'm sure finding that balance will come with additional plays, because I do intend on playing it again. There was a round in which Roger just jumped out in front and never looked back. He gained 2 or 3 new workers in a single round and that afforded him the jump he needed to just slam back actions every turn. Additional, he got one uncontested turn on the markets which meant that two actions netted him something like 16 money (which, in this game, is no joke). I was building the things I wanted to build, but I was told in the beginning to either really diversify or to focus in on one thing like a laser, and I hedged more toward the latter than the former, but hedging wasn't going to get me the win. Or even close to the win, for that matter, as I came in last. I moved my ship along the river decently, I thought. I just didn't work hard enough to get additional workers, and so I ended up with a scattershot approach that saw me claiming extra workers after everyone else. If you've played any worker placement games wherein you have the opportunity to get extra workers (especially in games with multiple opportunities for additional workers), you know that being the last to claim even one usually puts you behind the curve. If you're getting your first additional worker after other people have claimed multiple additional workers, then you're hard-pressed to catch up (if it's even possible at all, honestly).

I enjoyed it! My only complaint about a game like this is that a hard finish (the game ends when a player's Fame and Money markers cross each other on the tracks, and whoever finishes with the greatest difference between their crossed markers wins) is the opposite of one of the things I previously stated that I enjoy about worker placement games: I knew I was out of it several turns before the end of the game. That doesn't mean I give up or stop playing, but worker placement games are also not games in which I'm comfortable with king-making. So taking actions to prevent another player from winning feels kinda crappy to me when I know I'm not in it. I could've bent all my energies towards blocking Roger. But in so doing, I would only be opening the way for Morgan (who made a really solid run at the end!) or Ted (who was ahead of me, but never going to catch Roger) to win the game. And Rajas is not a game in which I'm interested in doing that. So I played to the best of my ability, scoring points where I could, et cetera. But the fact is that I was toast the moment Roger got the 18 money from the market. It was clear I couldn't catch him. But I still had to play out the last 3 or so turns. It's just not a design space I love. I would rather win than lose, but rarely do I mind losing big instead of losing small. It's sort of like losing an NFL game in overtime: sure, it was close! But you don't actually get anything for getting to OT other than fatigue and a little extra heartbreak. So I don't mind losing by a lot. I just prefer not to know I'm going to lose until the end of the game, if possible. There are a number of games (and particularly of this genre) that are more point salad-y, with the result being that you may win or lose bigger than you expected, as well as smaller than you anticipated. Because sometimes, specializing in one scoring category can net a lot more points than it appears during game play when we're more focused on what we're doing than what other people are doing. So I didn't love that aspect of it, but I need to play it a couple more times to see if it just happened that way this game, or if I think it's *likely* to happen because of the game design. Either way, glad to finally play it!

Next up was Plague and Pestilence, which Ted had requested so we could introduce Morgan to the game. He knew she'd enjoy the artwork and the sort of arbitrary nature of the game. It did not disappoint, as dice rolls were particularly brutal in this game, and despite having a trifecta of improvements, Morgan was the first player eliminated. Ted wiped out Roger before Roger could use his Pied Piper card on me, which meant I was able to finish off Ted with 15 Population Points left. Nothing particularly exciting about the game other than it is always fun to get to the table, admire the artwork, and just generally be arbitrarily mean to one another!

It was getting late, so we decided to end the night with Cartographers, as Ted and Morgan had never played it before, but it's a game Roger and I enjoy and decided they should play. I had brought my brand new Heroes expansion, along with the new map packs. But since we were only going to play it once and two of the four players were new, I decided to stick with the core game.

My maps will never look this nice, and I'm jealous. But also don't want to wait ten years while someone fills it in. I think Imma have to get myself some of these fancy Etsy stamps...

Overall, I think the game went fairly well! We drew into Stoneside Forest, Great City, The Golden Granary, and The Cauldrons as our scoring cards. I'm certain those were our scoring cards, but I'm only about 80% that was the order in which we had them. We drew into some ill-timed monsters, which absolutely sabotaged some of us. I know I missed out on Stoneside Forest scoring because I had played a little too close to the edge and then monsters cut off one of my mountains so my forest tiles were mostly useless. Plus, Morgan and Roger did a real good job of placing monsters exactly where I didn't want to build around them. So I kept eating penalties (probably more than I should have, honestly; I probably should've just sucked it up and blocked them with a big piece or two, but just never did). And whereas Great City is normally a great scoring card for me, I just never got it going in time to matter. I didn't look closely at everyone else's maps to see if it was the draw or just me missing opportunities. I'm sure it was a little of column A and a little of column B. I can say that I really lucked into a lot of points with the Golden Granary. Relatively, anyway. I was able to score Cauldrons decently by the end, but man, I hate that scoring card... By the time we closed out the game, Morgan came in last (she misunderstood some scoring, which is on me for not explaining it better; I find some of these objectives difficult to explain because I'm so used to playing them!), Roger came in third, and Ted edged me by one point (his 78 to my 77 or something like that, I think) to win the game.

I just really enjoy Cartographers, and I'm glad everyone else did, too! I think if it weren't so late, Morgan would've wanted another go at it because she would've done much better had she fully understood how the game scores. So I'm hoping to get it back to the table soon; I'm a bit tired of playing the digital version of the game by myself. It's a different game when other people are drawing your monsters instead of the computer, plus, I've got those excellent expansion map packs I want to take for a spin!

Overall, it was a nice night of gaming! We mostly kept it light, I learned a new game that I enjoyed, and I got to see a couple of friends I'd not seen in too long. I was grateful for the opportunity to squeeze in some games after an extended (for me) break. Looking forward to getting more to the table soon!