I have just had three game sessions 3 days in a row so there is a bit of catching up to do. This review is based around Small World. Last week there were seven of us sat round the table to play games so we split into a 3 and a 4, the group of 4 chose Kingsburg whilst Joe, Wendy and I played Small World. I do not know how Kingsburg went other than everyone enjoyed the game and thus onto Small World.
Small World Box Lid
Small World is produced by Days of Wonder, designed by Phillippe Keyaerts, it is for 2-5 players aged 8 or over and plays in 40-80 minutes. The box on opening is nicely laid out with holes for everything, and a lift out counter tray. There are 2 two-sided map boards, crib sheets, 36 Board and Game Markers, 14 Race and 20 Special Power Badges, 109 Victory point chits (coins), a reinforcement die and Rules Booklet.
The Rules Booklet
Victory Point Chits, Mountains, Races and Skills Tokens
Small World is a derivative of Vinci by the same designer which was published by Eurogames; it has been upgraded with a Fantasy Theme, had some minor but telling alterations to the rules and is now supplied with a small variety of maps depending on the number of players. These map boards show various coloured regions depicting different land types with some containing special symbols defining a power or resource base. So how does it play?
Stout Wizards (a la Pratchett?) and Diplomatic Humans (Damn Politicians!)
To start with 6 race badges are randomly picked and laid out, together with a randomly picked Special Power, the two tokens mesh together and you get a number of troops as shown in large red discs on the tokens. These troops start from a board edge and attack a chosen land space. To attack an area you place 2 troops for the land and an extra troop for each defending unit, an additional troop is also needed for attacking Mountains. Any troops in hand can go on to attack another adjacent land area in the same way. You keep going until you run out of troops. With your last attack you need not have all required troops, in such a case you can roll the die which will provide from 0-3 extra troops for that battle only. After all attacks, you count up the number of land areas you own and take that many victory points. Then the next player takes a turn. On your next turn you can choose to either take spare units back into hand and continue to expand or you can go into decline. In decline you just leave one upside down counter (they are double sided for this purpose) in each area you own and score as before. On your next turn you can choose a new pairing of Race and Special Power and attack with this new combination, you will then be scoring points with both your active empire and your empire in decline, however you may only have one declining empire.
Ratmen Counters
Counter tray
Special Tokens
The extra twists in the game are given by the race and special power badges, these may give you bonus points for owning particular land types, or bonuses in attacking, some even allow you to break some of the rules such as attacking non-adjacent areas or having more than one empire in decline. Most, but not all, powers do not work in decline. There is a fine balance in the races and special powers and it is choosing the right combination at the right time which will win you the game.
Diplomatic --- Tritons
For those who want to know about the differences with Vinci, other than the map board which for Vinci is of Europe and the Small World maps appear to be purpose built for the player numbers, they boil down to three things. The first is that in Vinci a players’ new empire may not lay adjacent to their declining empire, this rule does not exist nor is it needed in Small World. Vinci does not have a random die for the last battle, so cool calculations are required to get the best from your empire; the last is that victory points are secret and therefore there is no long winded calculations going on in the last couple of turns. These changes take it away from the “wargame” feel of Vinci into the fun family game realm and knocks about 20 minutes off the playing time.
5 Player Board
So how did our game go? Sadly for me not very well, Joe had a good game and had picked Heroic Sorcerers which he kept from start to finish, he also played an aggressive game, so I played a defensive game leaving barriers across most of the board, Wendy did not have as good a time as me, at one point she had a null turn where she could not attack or defend and so went into decline, as this was the penultimate turn she had no chance to recover either. Saying that, it was an enjoyable and fairly close game. The game was spoiled by one thing and that is the crib sheets which accompany the game. First of all they are large so take up too much table space and secondly we used them to explain our powers, but they are horribly incomplete; an example being that they state the Sorcerer can change a solitary unit of every other player in the game once per turn and misses out the all important word “Active”. In the end we ditched the crib sheets and just used the rule book.
Unuseful Crib Sheets
This game played slightly differently when I played it 2 player when I visited peter in June. Our game also played well with two different strategies going on Peter was the more aggressive attacking my active empire whenever he could and when he didn’t have the troops for this he went into decline, I on the other hand was concentrating on easy targets – empty areas or his declining empire and trying to get the most points out of an empire before declining. I won in the end. As a note Vinci does not play well as a 2 player game.
2 Player Board
The final verdict is a nicely balanced game no matter the number of players, I would say careful choosing of race and powers is very important, more so than in Vinci, it also scores over its predecessor by having a shorter playing time.
Sorry for the lack of posts, this has been mainly due to carpal tunnel syndrome (in both hands). Anyway on to this report.
I first started writing this report a couple of weeks ago, since then Smite has had a number of airings, so it now is a composite of those playing sessions. Smite is an outdoor game and is the UK version of a Finnish game Molkky. According to Wikipedia Molkky has similarities to Kyyka(aka Finnish skittles, aka Karelian skittles) whose heritage lies in Karelia where a wooden bat is thrown at a line of skittles 10 metres away.
The Wooden Box
However back to Smite. The game is produced by Smiteonline.co.uk , the designer is not acknowledged. The game can be played with any number of players and works as well with 2 as it does with 6 or possibly more and can accommodate singles, pairs or teams equally well. A game with six players usually plays in about 20-30 minutes.
Contents (minus rules)
Smite comes in a nice wooden box, and contains 10 skittles numbered from 1 to 10 and a “smiter” made from a light but durable wood. The box also contains a small sheet of the rules which are clearly written.
The "Smiter"
The skittles are set up in a triangular formation about 4 metres away from the box with the point furthest from the players, players then take turns throwing the “smiter” at the skittles with the aim of being the first to reach exactly 50 points. On their turn a player has one throw at the skittles and scores a number of points equal to the number of pins they knock over, however if only a single pin is knocked over then the player scores the value of that pin. Skittles that have been knocked over are stood up at their resting place for the next thrower, thus as the game progresses the skittles get knocked further away from the other skittles and become easier solitary targets. If a player exceeds 50 points, they reset to 25.
My Set Up (opposite to rules set up)
So how does it play? Well several weeks ago there was six of us and we enjoyed about an hour playing 2 games where several tactics were noted to improve peoples chances, Wendy elected “The long stride” stretching as far forward as possible, Joe went for consistency, Naomi for the lob and Steve liked the “aim at Kevin” technique (as I was the re-righting the fallen skittles I was generally stood near them). All these techniques were for nought as Adam won the first game with a very neat throw. Undaunted, we launched into the second game where my obsession with aiming at the 10 pin eventually, after a number of misses, won me the game.
Steve throws
Position after several rounds
The next session was played in a back garden in Bromley with different friends where a large number of 30 point games were played
Jonty & Wendy watch Lee throw
A singleton hit for 3 points
The most recent session was back in Canterbury where we played three 50 point games. Smite is fun and an excellent garden game. Every time I have introduced this game to people they have insisted that they play more than one game and some have even sent off for their own set however we do play with a few house rules which (I think) makes it a “friendlier” game whilst still retaining the skill element. The first is that you can only go out on a single skittle (this is the added skill factor). Secondly exceeding 50 is treated the same as in darts in that you bust and retain your old score (not reset to 25 as in the rules which seems a bit harsh). The third house rule is that if everyone in a round does not score, then the box is moved a yard nearer to the pins. The rules have it that anyone that does not score 3 times in a row is eliminated from the game – again we felt this overly harsh for what is a garden game for all to enjoy, so I ignore this rule. The last house rule is that throwing is done with one foot touching the box (anywhere) whereas the rules are quite prescriptive with a throwing line, if we had that we would never get to see Wendy’s “lunge” shot!
Wendy watches Steve for alternative throwing techniques
Final synopsis is that Smite is a lovely game and easily adapted to minor rule changes to suit different groups of players without spoiling the game. There are also Championships played, Smite has an event in Cornwall and the World Molkky Championships are in LahtiFinland.
The latest game session had 8 of us ready to play and the elected game was Croquet. Okay, so Croquet is not a board game (I am not including Carpet Croquet or Tiddly-Winks Croquet), but it certainly is an excellent game combining both tactical and physical skills.
Man armed with a Croquet Mallet
So what is in my big croquet box (and it is a big box)? A Centre Peg, 6 Hoops, 4 Mallets, 4 Balls and a small Rule Book. Before going too far I ought to talk about quality of equipment. If you are going to get a set it is worth investing in a decent set. The balls need to be weighty to run properly on the grass and you need a solid mallet to get proper strikes. The hoops need to be solid enough that they don’t shake or move when a ball hits them, the set I have (and which is shown in the photos) is at the lower end of the scale of decent sets. My set is quite old and most sets now include corner flags, scoring clips (I use painted clothes pegs) and a wooden mallet (to knock the hoops and peg in) as well as the above items. There are quite a few companies who make croquet sets and I cannot comment on who does or does not do a decent set, the set in the photos is a Townsend set and my match mallet (not featured in the article) comes from Jaques
The balls split by team colours
A hoop with scoring clips attached
So how do you play Croquet? I will give only the basic rules here so no complaints please (the official rules I have is nearly 50 pages long), we were playing for fun and an introduction to the game, so full rules were secondary. Each team (a team can consist of one player and normally not more than 2 players) plays with a pair of balls either red and yellow or blue and black. The aim of the game is to get both your balls through all the hoops and then hit them on to the central peg. On their turn a player goes on to the lawn and uses the mallet to hit one of their balls once. Then it becomes the turn of the other team. However a player may earn bonus strokes, the first method is by running a hoop, that means getting your ball completely through the metal hoop, success results in getting another turn. The second way is by hitting another ball with your chosen ball, yours or your opponents, this is called a roquet. After a roquet you pick your ball up and place it touching the ball you hit, you then strike your ball with the mallet again, in a way so that the other ball moves, this is the croquet shot after which you get one more free stroke. You may roquet each of the other balls once in a turn, an extra bonus is gained if you run a hoop as the roquet count resets and you may once again roquet all the other balls. In this way it is possible to complete all the hoops and peg out in one turn.
Joe shows how to run a hoop
An old man leaping at the chance to roquet
The skill of Croquet is in how you play your shots, a little knowledge of angles and vectors helps as does practice in the various types of shots you can do with your mallet. Roll shots and stop shots by putting top spin or bottom spin on the ball; on a perfect lawn there is also the nap (similar to a snooker table) to consider. A good player will run several hoops before their turn ends. Once you get to this stage preplanning of where you are placing the other balls during your croquet shot is very important, its not about splitting your opponent up (though this can be a satisfying consequence) its about placing balls ready to run the next few hoops.
Joe finds hoop but no blue ball, where is it?
Hidden behind a tree, Team 2 deny their ball is off the lawn
So on to our particular game. The first thing to mention is the lawn, a lot of hard work had gone into carefully mowing it prior to the game, it was an open green complete with trees, manhole covers and tussocks and although smaller than a competition lawn it still required a certain skill and deftness to negotiate successfully. We split into 2 Teams with the 2 captains taking turns to pick. Team 1 was Wendy (Captain), Steve, Adam and myself; Team 2 was Becky (Captain), Joe, Steve and Phil.
Hoop 2, Team 2 got there first
We were only playing 6 hoops so the Rover hoop was at hoop 6. Initially we were all playing well and although Team 2 got there first, we were running neck and neck through the first 2 hoops. Team 2 then started to slowly edge ahead and were on hoop 6 whilst Team 1 who had missed a couple of hoops, including myself missing a sitter (aaarrgghh the agony of it all), were still on hoop 4. Team 2 then made their assault on the centre peg, pegging out one of their balls, Team 1 saw their opportunity to attack and pushed Team 2’s remaining ball towards the corner, but not far enough, they returned to the peg on their next turn and Team 1’s second attack failed, Team 2 pegged out their second ball and one the match. The final score was Team 1 - 7 points, Team 2 - 14 points. Team 2 must be congratulated for a level of accuracy which Team 1 never quite achieved, also their team spirit, sometimes calling on all members of the team to discuss and plan a shot before playing it.
Steve, Phil, Becky and Joe (Team 2) discuss a difficult lie
Adam, Wendy and Steve (Team 1)
It was an excellent match, the threatened rain stayed away (except whilst I was setting up the course) and everyone had fun. Next time though Team 1 will be giving no quarter.
Whilst I have been recovering from a tooth extraction Wendy and I have been playing a few games at home, this week. Last night we played Thurn and Taxis, designed by Andreas and Karen Seyfarth, published by Hans im Gluck, it plays in about an hour for 2-4 players aged 10 and above. It is a game that works well 2 player and over the 3 years we have been playing, wins have evened out, however last nights victory was mine. This is a game to be reviewed on another occasion.
Thurm and Taxis
We have also played Kingsburg this week which although Wendy says I am better at, it is always a close run thing. I still think lucky die rolling is half the battle and I certainly did well on that the other night. I am still not sure that this game flows nicely playing 2 player; do not get me wrong it does work, but I think it lacks a little something. One small thing I have noticed, especially 2 player, the winter battle can have a significant affect on your position, to the point of unbalancing the game. However I am sure it is in for quite a few more plays and a verdict will follow with the review.
Kingsburg
The game that has been played three times this week is Jambo. This2 player card game is designed by Rudiger Dorn and produced by Kosmos, I have a Rio Grande edition which is essential for English speakers as there is a lot of text on the cards and it is aimed at players aged 12 and above.
Jambo
So what is in the box? 112 cards, 52 Gold Pieces, 36 Ware markers and 5 action tokens, and the rules all neatly packaged in Kosmos’s standard 2 player game box. The rules are clearly written, though I did not understand the use of Utilities – perhaps because all that went through my brain when reading the word was the water and electric board! As mentioned this game is text intensive so ensure you get a language version you are happy with. The aim of the game is to have the most gold at the end of the game which is triggered when a player gets 60 gold or more, the other player then has one more turn. The only elements which are hidden are your cards which you get dealt 5 at the game start. The theme is that you are a stall holder, your stall can carry up to 6 goods (or wares) and it is buying and selling of these wares that gains you your profit.
Players start stalls, Gold, Wares and Cards.
The cards are the driving force behind the game and there are 5 different types. First the goods cards, these will show 3 wares on them and a buying and selling price, if you buy the set of goods you must pay the smaller amount and take the 3 items, and if you have those items on your stall you can sell them as a set for the selling price. You cannot buy goods if you do not have the room on your stall. There are Utility cards, these you play in front of you, once down in front of you, you may action them once a turn for a special ability. You are limited to 3 utilities at any one time. There are people and animal cards which are essentially one off actions, the animal cards being an attack card which can be negated by use of a Guard card. The last type of card is a stall extension which allows for a further 3 wares to be held.
Ware, Person and Utility card
On your turn you have 5 actions, the action markers are there to help you remember, though most of the time they are not needed. For your first action you may take a card from the face down deck, if you do not take a card for your first action, you may not take a card later as one of your remaining actions. If you do not want the card, you can discard it and take another card, but this costs an action too, you may repeat this until all 5 actions have gone. You may also play cards, each card you play costs an action, you may also use a utility, this costs an action. You may also forfeit your last 2 actions to gain 1 gold. An example of a turn could be :- 1) Pick up a card, 2) Play a new utility card in front of you, 3) Use the utility card, 4) & 5) Take a gold. Another example :- 1) Play a ware card buying 3 goods paying 3 gold, 2) Play a second ware card taking another 3 goods paying 3 gold, 4) Play a 3rd ware card selling 3 goods for 11 gold, 5) Play an animal action card.
Players stall with 3 wares on it
So how does it play? Very nicely thank you (we have played it 3 nights in a row), there is a lot of thinking to be done and the interaction of the cards seems well thought out. There are cards which appear stronger than the others, but they do seem to even out. The really important thing is to try to get a turnover of cards, just taking the standard 1 card a turn will not win you the game, there are various utilities and action cards which will increase your card turnover and the importance of a Guard card to protect you position cannot be over emphasised. So if I am aware of all this why is Wendy beating me at a ratio of 2 :1 over a 4 year period?
Wendy, Alan and I had a 3 player game session the other afternoon after we had been birding where I had found myself as Mosquito dinner. We managed to get through 3 games, the first was Kingsburg where I was a little cross with myself that I made a misplacement, I knew where I was to go, I just did not do it, this led to a missed crucial build which would have given me an extra 6 resources throughout the rest of the game. Added to this my last roll of the game was a 9 and that was with 4 dice (average 14), beaten by the other 2 who were rolling just 3 dice. The game ended with a well deserved draw between Alan and Wendy. I made a mistake and suffered by it.
Kingsburg
The second game we played was Offrandes, where I was introduced to a correction of two of the rules. First off Alan put one set up for auction which Wendy won, but decided to end his turn there. A check of the rules revealed that he MAY put up another set for auction if he does not win the first set. The second rule query was in relation to the sacrifice, I read the rules on value being in relation to the value of the sacrifice, when in fact it relates to the individual animal value. My advice is when playing for the first time make sure you read the sacrifice criteria carefully. Despite all my misunderstandings I managed to pip Alan to the post by concentrating on sacrifices at the higher value altars. Wendy came last, again falling foul of the Briber in the first turn.
Offrandes
The third game was Africa, designed by Reiner Knizia, my version is by a Dutch company, 999 Games though the copywright shows Simba Toys. Takes from 2-5 players aged 10 or above and plays in just under an hour.
Africa - Box Lid (not a spelling error, this is the Dutch edition)
The game contains a game board, playing pieces (2 for each player) 20 plastic pyramids, and a large number of printed discs. The game board is a map of Africa, over which is laid a hex pattern, there are enough printed discs to place one on each hex, at random, face down. One of your playing pieces is an explorer who will move around the map collecting the discs, the other becomes your scoring token. Each player also receives two pyramids. The rules are clearly laid out, in explaining the game to others though I have noted that there sometimes is a little confusion about scoring in relation to Nomads and Animals, so read that bit carefully.
The playing pieces
On your turn you can either for your whole turn, teleport to a new location, or you get to move your explorer twice. After each movement of one or two spaces, you may reveal an adjacent token or take an action, namely drop a camp or move an animal or move a nomad. In moving though you are not allowed to travel over or onto any unexplored disc. So what is on the discs. A disc will only contain one symbol which can either be one of 5 different Animals, a Nomad, an artefact, Gold value 1 or 2, Diamond value 1 or 2, or a Monument. You score 1 point for an animal plus one point for every adjacent animal of the same type; you score 1 point for every vacant hex adjacent to them; you score 1 point for a 1 Gold or 1 Diamond, 2 points for a 2 Gold or 2 Diamond; an Artifact comes off of the board into your possession and scores at the end of the game; finally a Monument gives you a pyramid.
The Game Board
The game continues until the 11th monument disc is uncovered, the explorer gets a 3 point bonus, but the game ends immediately and final scoring takes place. During the game you can get bonus points from dropping camps (pyramids) onto the board, they score 1 point for each adjacent monument, animal or nomad. Dropping a base camp can also be used to take possession of all diamond and gold tokens. If you chose to move an animal or a nomad, the score you obtain must be greater than what it currently has and you only obtain the difference. The artefact sets gain you 1,3,5,8,12 points depending on how many you own in a set, during the game you may swap artefacts with other players artefacts, but swap criteria is quite restrictive.
The Discs
So how does it play? The actual mechanism is fairly straight forward, but luck does play a part on what symbol you reveal, I find that on average animals score about 1-3 points, nomads 2-4 points, gems 1-2 points, but having the most at the end of the game gives a 10 point bonus, 6 for second place. Artifacts generally give a score of about 2-2.5 points each. As all this point grabbing seems to average out during the course of a game, tactics actually do come into play. I believe in area control and usually manage to leave myself more unexplored tiles than my opponents leaving them to waste a turn teleporting, I also try to gain control of Gold and Diamonds; Wendy excels at utilising Nomads and never misses an opportunity to maximise her scoring during a turn.
An example of (from left - right) Animal, Artifact, Gold, monument, Nomad, Diamonds
This game ended as a close run thing, Wendy won with one point separating each of us, myself just ahead of Alan. So was it luck or skill? Africa always leaves me in doubt on that question, but I cannot help feel it is luck, but when I look at how Wendy beats me (and she often does) it must be skill and she is the better "Africa" player. No matter whether luck or skill, it is a light fun game and generally gets a regular airing.
This gaming session there were two games played, the first was Offrandes which I picked up at Essen last year. Designed by Cedric Lefebvre and produced by Ludonaute, it takes from 3-5 players and claims to play in 60 minutes, only having played it twice I think this can only be achieved with experienced players, it is aimed at age 10+.
Offrandes Box
The box contains 3 separate playing boards, a quantity of cash, a number of discs in player colours, 7 auction cards and the best bit – lots of wooden animals, namely chickens, pigs, goats, sheep and cows. The rules are clearly written with examples to help. The theme of the game, if not already guessed, is that the people of Greece in an effort to fend off a plague which is devastating their cities are offering sacrifices to the Gods. It is the player who gains the most points in the game that wins.
The playing boards
The game is played in a series of rounds. In each round every player runs a number of auctions after which corruption takes place, then points are awarded for prayer and each player may make a single sacrifice at an altar gaining further points. The game ends when all altars have a sacrifice or someone gains 100 points, at which point game end bonuses are added. As a brief aside for the purists I have missed out a few of the “if and but”/minor rules, so no complaints there please.
Rule book
There are seven jobs up for grabs which are dealt with by way of auction. The auction process was difficult to get to grips with when I initially read it and equally difficult to explain on the two occasions I have introduced other players to the game, however saying that, after everyone has completed their first round of auctions it all seems so simple and the games have ran smoothly; so feel free not to understand the rest of this paragraph. In short the first player chooses 2 of the jobs for auction and makes an initial bid, if another player is the winner than the first player chooses a second pair to auction off, the winner of the first pair cannot bid. If again another player wins he gets to auction off a third pair in which the previous 2 winners cannot bid. If the first player wins any pair he puts up for auction, then his run of auctions ends at that moment and no further pairs are put up for bidding; all the jobs are collected together and the second player then runs some auctions. This continues until all players have run some auctions. A player can choose to forgo their run of auctions and just pass the job stack on. Now perhaps is the time to explain that money is tight, and at times, very tight. Each round after the sacrifices you get an income of 10 Drachmae, this must last you all the auctions run by all the players this round, the good news is that you can carry money over between rounds but there is a maximum holding of 25.
Drachmae and start token
When a player has run his set of auctions all players get to move their markers up the scale of the two jobs they obtained, before handing back the tiles to go to the next player to run his auctions. So what are these jobs, the first is the peasant from whom you take the animals, the higher up his scale the better the type of animal you obtain. The water carrier purifies the animal and the flower carrier adorns the chosen animal type. The lowest on these two scales dictates how many animals get sacrificed. The TempleGuardian allows you to sacrifice at a higher level of altar, the Priestess scale is where you pray for additional victory points during the sacrifice phase. The Briber allows you to corrupt a player whose token is lower than yours on the Soldier scale.
The Jobs for auction
After all the auctions, players have moved their tokens up the various scales, now the Briber takes effect, when you corrupt another player you get to move their token down one space on a scale and you move yours up one. This may sound devastating for the victim, however the amount of corruption in the game is low due to the Soldier which provides protection, and most of the time where it does take place the corrupter usually falls victim to another player and often their own victim, thus balancing out the corruption they did themselves.
Soldier and Briber
Victory points are now obtained from the Priestess, and then in player order everyone may make one sacrifice. They take the animal(s) as dictated by the Peasant, Water and Flower carriers and place at an alter level or lower than their TempleGuardian token. They get points equal to their sacrifice rating. You leave a player token with the sacrifice as altars score bonus points at game end. You may replace another’s sacrifice at an altar, provided your sacrifice is different and of an equal or greater value than the one already there. After sacrifices, the turn marker moves on, cash given out and you start again until game end conditions are met, when you get the altar value of all the sacrifices you have remaining at altars.
Altar Board
So how does the game play? After the initial round of bidding where players get to grips with the auction system, it runs very smoothly and various nuances within the game system become apparent. The choice of jobs you put up for auction, and who wants what jobs become quite important; the last player in a round to run an auction has more control as cash is limited by then; you can lock out people from auctions due to cash, and if an auctioneer wins their own first auction they will be the only one to advance tokens that phase. My advice to this particular group of novices was to look to bid a maximum of around 3 Drachma, so the very first pairing went to 3 Drachma and I talked through the various possibilities saying that at this stage a bid of 4 was stupid and a bid of 5 suicidal; it was only a few turns later that I made a bid of 7 and the mocking began! One of the players tried hoarding his money to gain greater control in auctions, this cost him dearly in that he was not advancing any tokens and then in the later auctions he just ended up paying more as he was pushed up in the bidding. The net effect was his tokens were now behind the other players. It is interesting to note though that a holding of just a few drachma more than other players can be very useful. Another player due to circumstances got hit with corruption in the first 2 turns without being able to defend, normally this would not have had a lasting effect, but in a game of first time players, recovery was a little longer and she fell too far behind to catch up. So as the most experienced player did I win? Not by a long shot. I was neck and neck with Alan throughout the sacrificing stages and was even sacrificing a better class of animal, to edge slightly ahead; however Alan’s sacrifices were at a better class of altar than mine and I lost heavily in the bonus point stage at the end, gaining only 40 points to Alan’s 75.
Animals in close up
It was an enjoyable game and all players said they would be happy to play it again. I myself like the game a lot. The underlying subtleties of doing certain things at the right time keep you thinking throughout the game and the interaction of current token positions with jobs put up for auction will make every game different, and to top it off it comes with loads of wooden animals. Fantastic!
Loads of wooden animals
The second game we played was Kingsburg from Stratelibri, this game is well thought of in gaming circles and there are enough reviews out there for me to keep this one short and sweet. A brief overview of the game is that there are 5 game years over which you try to accumulate the most victory points. Each game year is split into the four seasons; in each of the first 3 seasons you get to roll a set of dice, place these dice on the playing board, gather resources based upon your selection and then use those resources to build one building. In the fourth season there is an attack which every player must defend against. Success brings bonuses, defeat results in losses.
Kingsburg Box
The resource spaces may include one or more of the following resources/options :-
Gold, Wood, Stone, A Good of choice, Combat Bonus, A +2 Chit (which can be used to boost a die roll) , A Victory Point, and Advance information of the enemy to be fought in the last season. Most of the victory points you gain will be from the buildings you build, however these also provide in-game benefits such as combat bonuses, die rolling bonuses or boost to Victory Points when doing certain things.
During the game you will build about half of the buildings, so early choices have to be made as certain advanced buildings cannot be built until the relevant minor building has been built.This game again was new to the group, however the basic rules were easier to explain and the building/crib sheet is an excellent player aid. Despite not finishing until we all had a good game and everyone was happy for a revisit on another occasion. Gary won the game and it pays homage to his capacity for new information that this was the third new game that evening, that I had taught him the rules to. The first being Antiquity by Splotter, as we were soon to be playing it by post.This had taken the first hour of the evening as I had had to run a dummy game through the first few turns to fully explain the interaction of the mechanics. A review for another day.
Anyway, back to Kingsburg, this will be a favourite for a while with its very well balanced mechanism, playing equally well with anywhere between 2 and 5 players. I am hoping to pick up the expansion set for it soon, I will do a full review of this game then.
