Evo, Colossal Arena
While all the beautiful people are in Essen, the rest of us are still getting on with it. Christo and Duncan came over last night and we had a lot of fun. Christo has written it up at his blog.
Evo
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. It is light-hearted and reasonably quick, but requires plenty of thought and player interaction. Bruno Faidutti’s description is the best I have found. I really enjoyed how it felt like a race against time and the mutation auctions are very tense.
Rating 7/10, and that could easily rise.
Colossal Arena
For the second time in one blog post, Bruno Faidutti does the best job of describing a game. He also describes Reiner Knizia’s evolution of this simple game mechanic.
I bought Galaxy: The Dark Ages on eBay a couple of years ago, and we played it back in April 2004. I had heard it was inferior to Titan: The Arena, but I tried it anyway and we did not really enjoy it. Colossal Arena is more elegant and fun.
Having enjoyed this simpler version far more, I will try to play Grand National Derby with my Galaxy cards. We can always upgrade to Colossal Arena or Galaxy, with the same cards, if we get bored.
Rating 6/10.
When playing Colossal Arena, it is a must to use the alternate game ending rules available in the FAQ (http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/PDF/ColossalFAQ.pdf).
It makes the end game far more satisfying…
mjwills
17 Oct 05 at 00:00
Thanks for the tip. It seems like the end of the game could be quite abrupt otherwise.
Iain
17 Oct 05 at 10:28
I like Titan the Arena quite a bit and it used to be the game Bridget always wanted to play (certainly before San Juan came along) but we haven’t played it for several years now. However, we’ve only ever played it 2 player and we never (and I mean never) finished it in under two hours!
Michael Longdin
17 Oct 05 at 14:04
It’s certainly a good game. 6/10 might be a harsh.
2 hours is unbelievable for that game. Good job you never tried Galaxy!
Iain
17 Oct 05 at 14:10