Antike

The 8th session of Singapore Open Gaming was held over the weekend, and it was another success. I've mentioned this gaming group on a number of occasions previously, and I've made my feelings about it quite clear. I think it's a great way for me to meet new people to play with, and it's been a great motivator in my personal life now.

I just wanted to mention that I had a really good game of Antike at SOG. We avoided a situation that is commonly percieved to be a problem with the game, and we had a exceedingly challenging 6 player game. This commonly percieved problem is one whereby the game stalls because of over-defensiveness in players. This would in turn lead to a situation where players, in an attempt to secure the last victory card, would only focus on destroying temples and little else. This is a problem that did not occur in our game of Antike, and the game really shined.

We avoided this by stressing before the game started, that the point of the game was to secure victory cards, through a variety of means other than conquest. And that the mindset of building a huge army to keep defending yourself til you are able to smash through other armies, would NOT lead one to victory. The winner, Michael, ended the game with the prerequisite 6 victory cards: 2 in research, 2 in building enough cities, 1 in navigation, and 1 in destroying a temple. It was a tightly fought game, with Michael blitzing for the win, securing the 2 required victory cards (he had 5 previously). The closest other player, Cedric, could have easily stolen the victory on his following turn, with the possiblity of securing 3 victory cards had he been given the chance. I was slightly slower behind, catching up from behind to end the game with 4 cards.

What made this game so compelling, was the fact that most players did not just build and hold, but moved very dynamically across the board. The board was open, and players were not bogged down with merely consolidating territories they already owned. Cyril and Kew soon were sort of caught in this situation, and fell behind in the race for victory.

I made the mistake of NOT going for more research, which I could easily have done. Truth be told, I took over someone else's game, and he sort of bogged down a little too, but I was able to turn it around to pull myself higher up in the victory race.

This is my 2nd time playing this game, and I'm still enjoying it very much. But it's important for players to remember the objective of the game... which isn't just to fight and take over territories. One must develop their own civilisation in all areas in order to secure the victory cards.