Autumn Games - Times Square

Game number eighteen was Times Square by Reiner Knizia, about competing night club owners trying to get the popular celebrities of the day to frequent their club.

The board consists of a seventeen space street with a manhole in the middle. Players draw and play cards from the deck, allowing them to move the celebrities to get them to their side of the board. Each celebrity has special movement rules, so the game is a constant back and forth tactical challenge.

The celebrities in the game are Saucy Sue, whose cards allow her to move one space at a time; Saucy Sue's two Bodyguards, who can move 1-2 spaces but must always stand on opposite sides of Saucy Sue; Handsome Hal, whose cards move him 1-3 spaces; and Dancing Deb whose cards will move her 1-5 spaces or back to the manhole cover and whose cards can be used as a joker to move other characters. Finally, there's Champagne Charlie, who can't be moved with cards, but moves toward a night club whenever Saucy Sue and both her Bodyguards are on one side of the manhole or when a player moves any celebrity onto their night club entrance spaces.

On your turn, you play as many cards of one color as you wish to move a character or characters. You may alternatively lure a character (except Dancing Deb) to Handsome Hal by moving them there without playing any cards. Once that's done and you've redrawn up to eight cards, you then move Champagne Charlie if appropriate.

If a player gets either Champagne Charlie or Saucy Sue to their night club entrance, they win. Otherwise, you go through the deck twice and when it runs out, whoever has Saucy Sue on their side of the board wins.

After much jockeying back and forth, neither of us could get Sue or Charlie to our night club to end the game. As we came to the end of the deck the second time through, Carol had Saucy Sue on her side of the board while I had one final turn, giving me an opportunity to win. Unfortunately, I didn't have the necessary cards in hand and couldn't bring her back to my side.

Carol wins Times Square and increases her lead to two games for the first time.