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Ben Bateson
United Kingdom
Ross-on-Wye
Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
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Ben and Becky were just putting the finishing touches to a game of Glen More when Ian and Bill arrived. Playing with the speed of Mercury, Ben put the finishing touches to a lean and sheep-butchery-based victory, because the real objective was to break out his new Collectors Edition of Ankh-Morpork.
Things got off to a bit of a lukewarm start when we discovered that the manufacturers had neglected to include any trouble markers, but it wasn't difficult to find substitutes. Bill got off to a particularly obtuse start, managing to quickly activate the Demons of the Dungeon Dimension, swap his character card and riffle through the remaining ones. But it was Becky who came good, taking control of four districts with about a quarter of the draw deck remaining. Tony rolled up not long after we'd started and seemed to be broadly impressed with the game.
Personally, I'm really enjoying Ankh-Morpork. The cards are magnificent little bits of art, there's theme in spades for Discworld aficionados, and a nice little area control underneath. People have complained that it's too light and I can't really argue with that. They've also complained that it's random and I disagree - there are a lot of cards drawn at random, but only a handful of different effects they can have: a lot of the apparent randomness is just well-worked chrome. Perhaps the most worrying complaint is that it's too easy to pick on the leader and run the deck dry for a Vimes win, but I think with a reasonable degree of aggression this shouldn't be too much of an issue. And, of course, the fact that Vimes is out of play in nearly 50% of games adds that crucial element of doubt.
Games for 5 were the requisite, and my new copy of Chinatown wanted to oblige. A bit of a veteran, this one, and brand new to all and sundry. With a setup more complex than actually playing the game, we dived in and started horse-trading. Tony got a big group of four tiles together early and ran away with it somewhat, finishing with close to a million dollars. A very niche game, Chinatown, and it's important to play it with the right group, which thankfully we had. It's equally important to keep the momentum and stop people sitting and doing the calculations, otherwise it becomes a drag. What rescues the game is the unexpected emergence of theme, because all the banter and negotiations really do bring to mind a bustling market in Chinatown. Our old friend Big Ding threatened to make a reappearance, but was hastily repressed.
Bill, having lost Chinatown dreadfully, selected a Ross-on-Wye favourite and Dixit, along with a handful of cards from the expansion, hit the table. This one has retained enough momentum for half a dozen plays at Ross, and even though Becky is sure to pick up Odyssey at some point, I fear its time may be nigh. It doesn't stop everyone enjoying it, though: Ian and Tony fought a tight battle to the end, leaving Becky (who seems to expect to win this) trailing, and Ian just pipped it by a point or two. After starting with an oblique Bonnie Tyler reference, I was mercilessly mocked for the rest of the game, which is about standard fare for Dixit these days.
Bill and Tony turned in for the night, but we still had half an hour to kill, and Ian, Ben and Becky closed out the night with Colossal Arena, Ian making me realise how dependent I am on card games and promising to convert us to dice at some point. We'll see.
Colossal Arena is definitely one of Knizia's better efforts, definitely at its best with three, although we reasoned afterwards that the special abilities of the cards are probably overkill and unnecessary. And people invariably forget to use them. Still, they elevate it beyond a standard 'Knizia deck' of numbered cards, and for that we should probably be grateful. I carved out a fairly straightforward win by being the only person to get a secret bet down and guiding my Trolls to the end.
So, dice next week? Elder Sign has been promised, and there's at least two of us who want to break out Alea Iacta Est for an overdue inaugural run. I shall have to polish up my dice tray.
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Owner of original 'crappy art' GtR and pleased about it.
