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Stephen Groves
New Zealand
Auckland
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My game group plays weekly but has that problem of too many games which means we rarely play a game enough to leave the rulebook in the box. I have played Alexandros 3 or 4 times now and have to admit I like the gameplay a lot for its originality and the fact it simply works.
The game started with me claiming a small 2 point area. Alexandros headed into the centre of the board with a few other small areas being claimed. Shaun claimed the first sizable area (8 points?) and with his other small areas got a lead through a couple of rounds of tax collection. Matt who was trailing claimed an equally big area but this area was first scored by me as I immediately stole it from him and collected taxes. Shaun's lead got shut down by the division of his areas and his inability to claim any new large areas.
Boyd then took over by claiming the biggest area to date (12 points?) which he got to score off a few times as no one else had the resources to challenge and Alexandros was tootling around the other side of the board. Matt and I had got into a tit for tat reclaiming the same area which was costing us cards but I was the only one scoring off it.
The main play of the game came when Shaun acquired the largest area of the game (15 points?) but it was the next move that finished it. Matt moved Alexandros next, away from Shaun's area which allowed it to remain intact while none of us could afford to take it. Had he sent Alexandros into the middle of this area his subsequent gains would have been curtailed and potentially the areas could have been stolen. So Shaun took off toward the lead, quickly catching Boyd who had been scoring well mainly from his large area.
Disappointingly, I was put in a Kingmaker situation of taking Boyd's large area. I was one card short so had to use 2 governors. This in effect stopped Boyd's gravy train but earned me nothing that round while Shaun remained unchecked. I finished the game next round and got to score the most but this just put me in 2nd equal with Boyd. I can't remember the exact scores but it ended something like this:
Shaun 80
Boyd 74
Moi 74
Matt 60
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