Last month we looked at the Qinghai-Tibet scenario, one of the most recent scenario designs. It’s popular for its depth, a poster-child for Snowdonia’s potential as a scenario-based game. Before that, we looked at the Daffodil Line, an earlier scenario that’s a fantastic place for those with a few games under their belt to hone some essential skills while whetting their appetite for more. Today though we’re going even earlier, to what was once the only alternative to Mt Snowdon: Blaenau Ffestinog. Coming in at an absolutely flyweight 8 cards, Blaenau is a bit of an experiment. A pioneer for the entire scenario concept. How does it stack up?

Overview

Blaenau Ffestinog offers a few simple but meaningful changes to base Snowdonia:

1. Players may be split between the two ends of the railway during setup and work towards each other, the game ending when the 2 tracks join.

2. The engine shed is open from the start of the game. 

3. Only the last 3 spaces of the event track are used. Train maintenance is instead triggered via excavation.

4. Where you can build is not longer determined by the progression of excavation but instead by the position of your surveyor.

Stations

As a non-Welsh speaker, I am suddenly very glad that this is a series of articles rather than a podcast. 

Blaenau Ffestiniog introduces one of my favourite Snowdonia mechanics: non-VP rewards for building. Minffordd, Penrhyndeuraeth, and Tan-y-Bwlch all offer additional resources from the bag whenever you build there. They’re very generous offers here too! The spaces rewarding these are already good in their own right, and the extra resources are all pure gravy. A shout out to the bottom space in Minffordd boasting the incredible trade of 1 stone for 7 points… before then giving you your stone back!

That said, you have to factor in that you’re only permitted to build in stations your surveyor has reached. Moving him further along is a high action tax that you will have to factor into the building prices you’re contemplating paying.

Interestingly, which stations you will have access to vary depending on which end of the track you choose for your surveyor to start on. I’m of the opinion that Porthmadog Harbour is the better starting point on paper; the extra resources are just too sweet vs the 1 or 2 extra VP on the Blaenau side. However, that creates a more interesting fork than one would first think… Do you choose the stronger side at the risk you’re elbowing over the opportunities with other players? Or do you take the slightly lesser route in the hopes of potential exclusivity over it? The placement of the track cards can shake up this decision even further.

Events

The event track is set up as if event 7 has already happened, meaning events 8, 9 and 10 will be looping for the entire game. Usually in Snowdonia there are always two events that don't affect the railway: engine shed opens and train maintenance. Removing these means that the events will more aggressively work towards closing the game out. The engine shed also starts open, meaning that players can grab trains immediately and speed up the game even further. Be prepared for a fast game. That said, having one cube locked into position 7 means that there are only ever four event cubes in the bag at a maximum, slightly softening the effect.

Events resolve from alternating ends of the railway via a “neutral surveyor” placed during setup that switches between the two starting stations after each event. This is particularly noteworthy because, unusually, the first event of the game here is a station closure. If your side starts with the neutral surveyor, you’ll have to act fast to make use of your starting station. The neutral surveyor’s starting location is chosen by the last player to place their surveyor in setup, deepening the fork I mentioned earlier about which route to choose at the start of the game.

Train maintenance is now triggered via the excavation of Plas Halt, which, I would argue, is probably easier to predict than train maintenance. This also opens up potential for a player to deliberately trigger train maintenance themselves though. If you can see any opponents lacking steel bars, it could be a brutal chance for you to scrap their trains!

Surveyor

Outside of the setup fork on surveyor placement, our staff-bearing fellow’s main purpose here is to determine where you can build. Surveyor VPs here are dismal, peaking at 6 points for 4 actions in the middle, then actually declining from there if you choose to continue towards the opposite end. You need to be confident about what you want to build or these surveyor moves will be wasted actions.

I find the idea of running your surveyor into the other side’s half of the track to “invade” and build their stations very fun. I’m deeply unconvinced it’s a viable strategy though. Realistically, just focusing on the core loop of excavating station spaces and laying track to fulfil good contracts will almost certainly trump this.

Jaya’s Design Thoughts

Blaenau was the first ever scenario designed and though that shows in places, I think it pulls off an impressive amount considering it’s pioneering the concept on an 8 card component budget. I see this scenario as a fun tasting board for things to come; it’s to this scenario’s credit that every concept it tries features again somewhere in future, whether that’s being fleshed out as the main attraction (for example the 2-sided tracks of Channel Tunnel and Siege of St Petersburg), or becoming series staples (many future scenarios offer non-VP rewards for station building or breathe new life into the surveyor).

All that said though, I doubt Blaenau Ffestiniog is one that many reach for often these days. Tony will be the first to admit that he’s since made bigger and better things. That’s self-evident in the scenarios that followed and even more so in Grand Tour! But it proved that scenarios were a viable concept for Snowdonia and I think that merits giving it a try.

Have you played Blaenau Ffestiniog? If you played it when it first released, did you prefer it to Mt Snowdon? I’m curious!

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Jaya Baldwin