Paddle harder!

 

I know I said the next post would be about spaceships but we're going back to the French and Indian War instead. I got invited to play with a new (to me, not to the area) group of players who were play-testing a canoe race scenario for an upcoming con in Leavenworth, Kansas. I don't remember the name of the rules. The game featured two canoes of trappers who were trying to get their beaver pelts to the local trading post ahead of four canoes of Native warriors. Each canoe was controlled by a player. Each canoe was manned by two men with one musket per canoe. The trappers had two bundles of pelts in each canoe. Activation was controlled by hands of playing cards; trappers activating on black suit cards and Natives on red. Number cards were the number of inches moved per turn and face cards caused rolls against an opponent on Random Event tables. Aces were "wild" - either a move of ten inches or a cancellation of an event played against the player holding it.

 

I played the trappers in the blue and white hats; my team mate Grant had the blue and red. We would win a major victory if we got both canoes with the pelts to the Post and a minor victory if just one made it. Obviously the Natives wanted to stop us!

 

 

The trappers started out slightly ahead of the Natives but the first bend in the river also featured a sandbar that jammed us up and allowed the fastest Native canoe to catch up.

 

There was brief melee (paddle vs paddle!) and then a "9" played by me and Grant's gracious agreement to me moving first in our turn had me surge ahead out of the bottleneck while he traded musket shots with the closest Native canoe.

 

I was able to safely navigate the beaver lodges and dam while My Hero Grant fended off the Native canoes that piled into the bottleneck. 

 

 

Grant was wounded and his canoe "holed," but he and his Unbeatable D20 still managed to out-shoot and outfight and finally sink/kill 3 of the 4 Native teams!

 

At this point in the game I was well on my way to the Post; I just had to navigate the rapids or portage around them. I decided to slowly float the rapids since I was so far ahead of the last remaining Native player, who decided to leave Grant behind to make a last ditch effort to get to me.

 

 

But to no avail as I beached my canoe - loaded with pelts - in front of the post and received the minor victory along with the local parish priest's blessing. 

 

 Definitely a team win - Grant did all of the heavy lifting!