Ripping the shrink off Fire in the Lake
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I have a few unopened games laying around, still in the shrink wrap. Typically, I just leave new purchases in the shrink because I don't want the distraction of having a new, unplayed game, and if I don't get around playing, games still in shrink often fetch retail prices on the secondary market. So, a game in shrink isn't really an "asset," but it does hold its value well.
Thus I'm reluctant to break open new games.
However, one of my regular opponents, AS, picked this up at the local game store a couple of weeks ago, and has started working through the rules. Since that gives me someone to play against, why not tear the shrink off Fire in the Lake?
Playbook tutorial
The game comes with an extensive playbook, which seems a natural place to start.
And right away I bork the setup: the playbook clearly states to start with the full scenario setup on the last page of the rule book, so I setup for the short scenario instead. Clearly, not reading clearly.
I tend to speed read to get a feel for the big picture, which reduces my attention to detail, which is what I missed here.
The problem with reading in detail is the details make no sense without some notion of how the details fit into the bigger picture. Which is what the tutorial does: provide some notion of the bigger picture.
The play through took a couple of hours to get through the seven turns. Fun game. Will be playing it tomorrow with three others.