British - Violet Willis
Polish - Rebecca Smith
Americans - Cameron Sibley
Bought this game at a boot fair some years ago for a single pound. Been meaning to play it for a while and I took it out of storage today, as I have fond memories of it from when I was a child.
We agreed on a time limit of 2.5 hours and set the alarm on my phone to go off after this time had past. The first allied player to make two escapes in that time would win. If not then the Germans win. I made a rules mistake as I used the guards to block the doors, but I noticed this error after about 15 minutes of playing, so I agreed that when the alarm went on the phone, that the allies could have an extra 30 minutes.
Also there was no looking at the time either, so this created a very tense atmosphere as no one was sure how much time remained.
The Allied players quite quickly picked up the essential civilian equipment required, but once they started gathering the escape equipment (rope, wire cutters, passes and keys), I kept on slowing them down with arrests inside the castle courtyards.
Rebecca finally managed to get one POW out and though I chased he managed to escape. Cameron and Violet cooperated on the chapel tunnel as the alarm went on the phone. I reset the alarm giving the Allies the further thirty minutes as agreed. I also agreed that once that alarm went too that I would press the snooze button, which would give them an extra ten minutes, to make up for rules reading, tea breaks, loo dashes etc...
The arrests kept racking up, I captured Violets tunnel escapee, but just then Cameron gave Rebecca a move to card, which allows a POW piece to move directly to a room on the map...the alarm went, snooze button pressed. Rebecca rolls the dice and her POW just moved by the card clears the walls using rope. Then Violets go, then mine...Rebecca wanting everyone to hurry up. My guard gets to within one space of Rebecca's escapee. Cameron then goes and is nearly free with one of his POW's.
Rebecca's go... She is 16 spaces away from the escape point....she rolls double six followed by a 4, exactly the roll required for a deserved win...with a few minutes to spare!
I really enjoyed the game, it had a good sense of theme and mounting tension. We made some rules mistakes which we will not make next time, but everyone had fun playing an old classic.
No comments:
Post a Comment