Friday Night Gaming: E.T.I., Snow Tails

June 12, 2009
We had the normal group of 5 this night.

E.T.I.: Estimated Time to Invasion
I was surprised at how smoothly this game went, considering that it is a rather odd game. I did my best to explain it, having studied the rules the weeks previous. The theme is of defense contractors preparing to defend the planet themselves against an alien invasion--an invasion that will be orchestrated by one of them who has been secretly infiltrated by the aliens. They conduct research (draw cards) to complete projects (get different cards) to improve their Defense and their Fame. But there are always fewer available projects than players, meaning that they are always fighting with each other. When the aliens invade (once a certain number of projects have been completed and the alien player reveals himself), the alien's launches attacks (plays cards) against each company. Among the companies who withstand the assault (have a Defense score higher than the attack total), the one with the highest Fame is the winner.

One might mistake this for a cooperative game, but it really isn't. There's constant backstabbing and self-interest reigns. The only thing that matters it that you survive the attack with the most Fame. You don't care who else dies. There are event cards which trigger some negotiations and voting of outcomes, but there is no inherent incentive for working together or finding compromises. This is good; I find most cooperative games too much like group projects at work.

Robert was hit by horrible luck the entire game. He kept getting scooped on projects and during the alien invasion, he was hammered by the worst possible cards. Meanwhile, Merwin was getting the best cards for completing projects and easily survived the alien invasion--the only one of us who did.* The randomness of the card draws soured the game for me. The others didn't seem to mind as much and wanted to play again (though not this night since it did take a couple of hours).

* For my part, I made poor selections of projects, leaving myself with too little defense and was easily overwhelmed by Brian, as the alien.

Snow Tails
I have been waiting for this game for a while and when the new Asmodee edition hit the states, I ordered a copy. It arrived this week, so I forced this on the group.

Brian and I had communication problems during my rules explanation. Part of the problem is that though Snow Tails is a racing game (in this case, with dogsleds), it is not a simulation. It uses cards for controlling speed and steering, doesn't involve any die rolling for maintaining control and avoiding crashes, and the physics of steering (what Snow Tails calls drifting) is actually backwards.**

As with many racing games, it it can be difficult to impossible to catch up when behind. There is no direct way to interfere with those in front of you and you just have to hope that they screw up and/or you get better luck. But this is true of real-life racing too. I can certainly understand why some people don't like the entire genre of racing games, but I enjoy them if they are quick, allow for interesting decisions, and are not simply dice-fests. This is certainly true of Snow Tails.

I was the first to cross the finish line, but Ian was not on my heels and was able to just pull ahead, finishing his turn one step ahead of me past the finish line and taking the win.

In the second game, we tried a different map from the rulebook, adding a section of saplings and a bottleneck. I had what seemed to be a good start, but I floundered in the u-turn and fell behind. Conversely, Brian really cruised through the turn and took a commanding lead. He finished first; I finished last.

The second game went very quickly and easily within the posted 45-minute time listed on the box. Only having 4 players (Robert left at his usual 11:30 time) helped, but the big difference was in how much more quickly we could execute our turns. In my case, I was able to use the time between turns to figure out what I wanted to do and once it became my turn, it was simply a matter of checking to see if I was in danger of hitting anyone.

As a card game, winning in Snow Tails requires some luck, but it is all about managing what you have the best you can. The quick game play and clever mechanics make for a game I'm proud to own and happy to play any time.

** Having a faster dog on the left causes you to drift to the left, but it actually should cause a turn to the right, as the slower dog adds drag and the left-side "circles" to the right. To this, I simply say Pfth! and don't worry about it.