Isle of Skye: From Chieftain to King- Build Your Own Whiskey Empire
“No, I’m convinced, Birds of Prey was the best DC movie!”
“You’re so wrong! Wonder Woman was so much better!”
Walking back to the car after the movie, this was the debate. A debate that was raging across the nation at that point and time I’m sure. Once we got to my car though, it was clear there wasn’t going to be a debate regarding game night when we got over to Jan’s. It was sitting right there on the front seat.
“Oh, Will, you brought Isle of Skye?”
“Yeah, I haven’t played it in a while, and I really would like to get it to the table, if that’s ok with you.”
“Yeah! I already have it and I need to play it to see if it’s going to leave my collection!”
Well! That was easy! And so, we made our way back to Jan’s, to establish our dominance over the Isle of Skye. Isle of Skye is primarily a tile laying game, with aspects of set collection and an auction. Each round, players bid for tiles, and also buy tiles from the other players. Once you have gotten tiles, you can arrange them to score points based on scoring tiles that change every game. Depending on what you draw, you could need to control lots of mountains, have a bunch of sheep in your clan territory, or even have the most lighthouses!
After recruiting Jan’s wife Vivian to play with us, we were off. In this game we were focusing on having mountains, sets of buildings, tiles in our kingdom at least three tall, and topographical features that were at least three tiles large. And, of course, getting whiskey back to our castle. In Isle of Skye, your income to buy tiles from round to round is based on the amount of whiskey you can have following roads linking back to your castle, making tiles with whiskey on them extremely valuable!
Unsurprisingly, all three of us made sure that whiskey was a main focal point of our first auction. I made a play for mountains, since they were going to be scored first. Jan started to build structures, since they would be scored next, and were going to be worth 5 points for every set of three. And Vivian started to build out her road structure, so that the flows of whiskey to the castle would be assured, hopefully securing income for her clan for the rest of the game.
Tiles flew back and forth, money changed hands several times. Tiles were axed to keep them away from players who wanted them, tiles were bought that people desperately wanted to keep, but people still paid the highest prices the sellers were able to put on their tiles. And then, disaster. In my zeal to secure the most mountain points, I had completely neglected the three points for terrains at least three tiles large. And even worse, I had choked off my supply of whiskey from my castle! I had blocked off the castle by with mountains and fields. I would be stuck with only six income for the rest of the game.
But then, salvation loomed on the horizon. Jan pulled a tile that would fit ever so perfectly in the spot that would re-connect some of my way off whiskey in the hills, and give me at least two terrains of three tiles. I priced my tiles just right. I had reserved a majority of my money, because I knew Jan was going to price that tile high. He was a ware of my situation, I could tell. Then, the moment of truth… 3… 2.. 1… reveal! AUGH! THE AXE!!! HE AXED THE ONE TILE I NEEDED! Turns out, he may have been paying slightly more attention than I realized. Devastated, I did the only thing I could. Buy a tile from Vivian. Because she’s much nicer.
And so, the game ran the rest of its course. I had led most of the game because of my huge mountain points, (6 points per scoring!) but in the end the lack of whiskey definitely hampered my clan’s ability to do much of anything. Jan took the victory with his giant freehold full of massive fields, lots of lighthouses, and merry farms full of sheep and oxen. The Isle of Skye had been conquered by Clan Neacail. The best the rest of us could hope for was to be well taken care of by our well whiskeyed overlords.
