inconsequential ruminations

(That’s the start of one of my favourite tracks from my teenage years – any guesses?)

Almost a month in fact. The strange thing about blogging is that the longer you leave it, the harder it is to start again. It’s a bit like going to the gym – although less worthwhile.

Stuff I have been up to:

• 7 Ages – I played this at a full day session at 100%Blades’s (Michael’s) house. Chris Farrell hates it, but I enjoyed it very much. Maybe he is just much more experienced at these long Civilisation-type games and this one is just too average for him? It is definitely long. Our game took over six hours and we still only managed almost three ages. That is definitely a problem, but ultimately, this game is about the experience of playing and not about winning. Unless you could leave the game laid out, you could never finish it in one sitting. For me, a game of this length has to be random so that everyone feels they are in with a chance. Being crushed non-stop for five hours would be no fun at all. The main thing I enjoyed about this game was the wonderful flow of history. For instance, my Romans were immediately extinguished with a Treachery card, so the Etruscans ruled Western Europe until the end of the Third Age. I would not say it is a what-if game, but it is fun to see the permutations. A lot of the game seems to be founding far-flung, hard to reach, but profitable civilisations and keeping out of trouble. It’s ludicrously long, but it is still an 8/10.

• Domaine – It pulls a lot of the same levers as Tigris and Euphrates. 9/10

• Shadows over Camelot – We got thumped in our first game. Chris wrote a session report. The gameplay was fun, but unearthing the traitor was the high point. I will definitely play again, but a couple of people in my group dislike cooperative games and I doubt it has long term staying power. 8/10, but only for the traitor.

• Louis XIV - Dry and abstract, but exquisitely fine-tuned area control game. Simpler to play than to explain. Requires at least a couple of games to get the most out of it, but I am not interested enough to keep it in my collection. 5/10.

• San Marco – I had not played this since early 2004. It was not as robust as I remember it. Duncan only got to choose first once in the whole game. It is not a huge advantage and it should usually balance out, but it was disappointing. I hope we can get it to the table again soon. The board is beautiful and the choices are excruciating. Still 7/10.

• San Juan – Still holding up very well. Might be upgraded to 10/10 soon.

• Monkey Madness – My little boy turned three, so I got him this, purely because it was designed by Reiner Knizia. He really enjoyed it and was laughing his head off when I lost by a mile. It is simplicity itself. You have coloured boards with several slots for your monkeys. You have a bag full of little coloured plastic monkeys. You reach into the bag, like in a lucky dip, and pull out monkeys. The monkey goes to whoever owns that colour of board. It’s perfectly pitched for this age group. 7/10 for three year olds.

I bought the new edition of Polarity, which looks excellent, but very fiddly and difficult. I also got the Dark City expansion for Citadels, which is extraordinarily overpriced. I am surprised at Fantasy Flight. On one hand they are selling Britannia in a 2kg box for about £23, but they are selling 15 or so new purple city cards for £7.