We got some new games this week, so we tore the cellophane off of The Pillars of the Earth and set it up. We also tore the cellophane off of the expansion and used it too. We’re nothing if not zealous when playing games and expansions—we want it all! At first the set up looks daunting, but it went pretty fast for a game with the number of pieces and cards this one has. Plus we were also using the expansion that added even more cards. Pillars is management type of game. You are managing resources (sand, wood, stone, & iron) and managing your limited workers. The theme behind the game is that you are building a great cathedral; maybe the great cathedral. (I’ll leave you to figure out which one that is.) Anyway, the game has three phases. The first is where you choose the resources you will work on getting during the round. You assign your workers to these. You can also assign your workers to just generate victory points for you too. You can also buy craftsmen to further your cause. On the second phase, you place your master craftsmen. An interesting dynamic is that everyone’s master craftsmen are placed in a bag and drawn forth randomly. By placing your craftsmen, you earn all types of fun things like Victory points, extra workers, different craftsmen and the like. The final phase is resolving everything you did in phases one and two.
Our game went pretty smoothly with me jumping into the lead. If it would have only stayed this way, I might have won. …or at least came in second or third. I could tell that I would run out of steam towards the end of the game, but was powerless to stop that from happening–completely powerless. Even with me in the lead, the victory point values were very close between all of use. At the end of the game it was Owen, who leaped into first place with his fantastic choice of craftsman. I believe Ben was second, Mike was third, and I was dead last.
We all liked this game, even the guy that game in last. The guy that came in first really liked it.