Game 42: Final Touch

   .  .  .  and this was the other game that Caleb gave me and David as an early birthday gift (along with Sagrada).  This is a very casual game that plays quickly and allows for talking during play - doesn't take too much concentration - unlike the other game we played this morning, Dutch, which I'll post about tomorrow.  The idea in Final Touch is that you are an art forger who has been hired as part of a team of forgers to recreate masterpieces.  You can work with your fellow painters or you can work against them.  The player (or team) that finishes the masterpiece gets the full payment, so if you sense that you (or your team) will not be able to complete the painting you can "smear" it so that although the other team still gets the pay, they get less pay.  First player (or team) to $25 (yes, twenty-five dollars) wins the game.  Maybe there's a lesson there about forgery not paying off?
 You start with 5 cards in your hand, each representing a color.  After your turn you draw back up to 5.  You have to play at least one card, but you can play as many as you want - although if you're going to smear the painting you may only play one card on your turn.  Three smears ruins the painting.
 The back (or unfinished) side of the card shows what colors are required to complete the painting.  Part of the strategy is figuring out how close to completion you want to bring the painting on your turn.  We played with four people, so we had two teams of two people.  I was always trying to figure out how to get the painting close enough so that my team-mate might be able to finish it off but not so close that the person sitting between us might be able to finish it off first.  It's sort of a Nim-type game in that way.
 You end up finishing famous - well, sort of - works of art, such as Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, shown below (sort of).  The 12 in the corner is the amount of money you're paid, so this card alone gets you nearly halfway to a win.
 My team-mate and I won the first game with 3+8+12+6=29 points (as seen in the top right-hand corners of the cards).  Notice that the 3 cards on the right are all completed masterpieces, but the card in the top left is still on the unfinished side.  There are fewer points on that side than had it been flipped over because this was one the other team smeared since they knew we were going to get it.

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