-
Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
-
This work lark is all very well but it does, sometimes, put a strain in one’s gaming activities. Carl has solved this by eschewing work, at least for the time being, and berating us – be it by email, text or voice – for being ‘late home’. If he had a wooden rolling pin and a plastic hair-net, the picture of 70’s British domestic dystopia would be complete:
“What time do you call this?”
“I should’ve listened to my mother”
“You treat this place like a hotel”
etc
Wee bairn Brendan was joining Big C, the Beard and myself for an evening of quite heavy entertainment. Even though Quarriors! was perched tantalizingly at one end of the table, it was the more thoughtful fayre that won out.
First up, as a quick filler (ha!) to lead us to supper time, was Dungeon Lords; the bastard love-child of a thinky Euro and Pratchett-esque humour (with a ‘u’, of corse!) and a(n un-)healthy dose of chaos to really mess with your mind. It’s clever, its colourful, its probably got too many bits and pieces – all of which I like and admire, but it also punishes your little miscalculations quite drastically and, equally as often, punishes a solid and considered approach with random acts of ‘precipitative ordure’.
I have no real idea how to go about winning this game, often placing second by a couple of points. The same was true this evening, with Carl – on his first play – taking the laurels. The Beard performed admirably well in a fourth place only nine points behind Big C, even though he had a 21 point penalty gap to make up over the rest of us! Fine play, indeed.
Remarkably, quips about ‘sending an imp up my passage’ or similar were few and far between.
All the talk of food and ‘feeding monsters’ was leading to rather over-gluttonous looks from Carl in mine and Richard’s direction so we hurriedly telephoned our order to the local Chinese Takeway and hastened to collect. Pausing to remark that it was colder in Richard’s dining room by some way than outside, Carl suggested we play our next game ‘al fresco’.
Lummey! When it’s suggested we enjoy access to someone’s front garden, I get all hot and bothered! (aaaaaaaaaand…we’re back on track).
The evening’s dessert (apart from the banana fritters currently dribbling their way down Carl’s front like the alien slugs in ‘Slither’) was the splendid Key Market. Slightly easier in the rules explanation than Dungeon Lords and a lot less components!
Brendan looked to “cheap to hire” / no-pay workers to power his Manor House/Retirements, Carl opted for early and more profitable selling/buying, Richard went for better production (and almost constant start player) and I slapped my Key worker (oo-er) into a village and then produced FOUR luxury goods per Season – quickly getting to Master of two guilds (10 pts per luxury pair, Key Worker produces +2). In one splendid Farming phase, I upgraded my farmhouse, became Master in the Wheelwrights and retired a wheezy old labourer!
I believe my Guild-ish set-up was the subject of a vigorous debate (and contested ‘rules update’) a while back, but seeing as Mr Breese ‘he say no’ I continued to exploit this uber-productive combo. Despite mistakenly selling luxuries into the market for extra cash (making them available to the others), I took the high podium spot with 152-127-124-95.
We had been pressed for time, with Brendan needing to be home by 11.15, but it turned out that our brisk 90 minute playing time (not bad with TWO noobs) meant he was only slightly at risk of turning into a vegemeeple. Of course, his mother would be perched on the door-jamb, rollers in her bouffant head-carpet, scowling like the bull in a Bugs Bunny cartoon:
“What time do you call this?”
“I should’ve listened to my mother”
“You treat this place like a hotel”
etc
It’s the circle of life, innit?
|
|
