Monday, June 05, 2006

Have a good weekend!

I sure hope you all did, cos mine was great. I had a blast playing a couple of quality boardgames yesterday with some old friends, and a new one. Yesterday sure was the highlight of the week for me, playing two great games in Antike and A Game of Thrones.

Antike has been sitting on my shelf for quite a number of months and I hadn't gotten a chance to play it yet. I've been keen to get it on the table and decided to round up a number of people to join me. We had 5 players and Edwin (the new friend) managed to win the game in the end. I won't go into too much detail, but I really enjoyed the game. I know both Mark and Edwin felt that the game was really light, and not quite as meaty as they would have liked. Mark also didn't like how the game usually ends in a huge fight, trying to capture temples. They both make valid remarks and I can see where they're coming from. The game is light, and if you were expecting a sweeping historic epic, you'd be quite off. Most everything is abstracted in the game, and the mechanics were simple and quick. Each option available in the game was not quite as in-depth as other games in a similar genre. The tech tree is limited, there were minimal rules for combat/movement/conquest; The simulated economy was adequete at best. But while each part wasn't the absolute best, the sum of it all, in my opinion, outweighed the individual parts.

The experience was really satisfying to me. I had to keep an eye on my opponents, and the available victory points. I wanted to push forward, but decided to hang back instead of leaving myself open and vulnerable. I found myself constantly changing my plans mid-game. I was first thinking of going heavy on Gold, and win a bunch of research points (which I could have done), but each turn presented a new, more tempting opputunity somewhere else. I didn't even think about winning the navigator points til Shaun grabbed one. And the player interaction was great. I'm sure I could find a meatier game, which I prefer sometimes. But for a game that offers this much fun, in under two hours (inclusive of rules explanation), and this many varied options to victory, it's hard to replace. This will hit the table again sometime soon.

The other game I played was A Game of Thrones, which is one that I love. Irene had to leave so that left Mark, Shaun, Edwin and myself at the table. I mentioned it on Saturday, that though I liked Antike very much, I just absolutely love A Game of Thrones. I've read the books, so the theme appeals to me even more. This game is just fun, and meaty, and not luck-driven, which is almost everything I look for in a game. So to be able to play this again, was an absolute joy. I haven't touched it in almost a year, but the time apart has just made the experience all the more sweeter. I was on the brink of victory but I was stopped short. My armies were in a precarious position and if I didn't grab it then, I knew I'd be going downhill from that point on, which was true. Shaun's armies came roaring down from the North (The Starks are coming!!) and secured victory through a few really good moves. Man, I love this game!

We played two games over 5 hours, from 2pm til 7pm, which was just awesome! But the rest of the evening was fantastic too. The 4 of us grabbed dinner at a local haunt, and spent hours just talking about our various gaming preferrences and experiences. What better way to round of a day of games than kicking back and talking about these games of ours (TGOO).

Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

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