Harrowed Halls

This week Owen brought Rise of Empires, so we settled down to play it. We’ve tried this game two other times and liked it both times. You can read about our previous games here and here. The game started out normally enough, we all jockeyed for position trying to gain resources, gold, people, and victory points. We caught Ben cheating a dozen times, and Mike once or twice. A couple of times we had to backup and redo actions that we realized broke the rules. This mostly happened during the combat action. I sure this action has a better name in the game, like “expansion” or “exploration”, but to us, it’s “combat”. It seems hard for us to remember the rules concerning how you expand your empire. I didn’t have to remember those rules, as I hardly expanded my tiny empire anywhere.

We had a really good time during the game with lots a good natured ribbing and finger pointing. I like this kind of management-type game. I also suck at this kind of management-type game. And the reason I like is the same reason I suck at it. You have lots of options and choices available to you.  I invariably choose the wrong option or make the wrong choice. Give me a straightforward game like Roborally and I can speed across the factory floor while pushing my opponents into bottomless pits—by accident of course. In these management games, my decisions border on disastrous.

So how did our game end? Well we made it through 2 of the 3 eras in about 2+ hours. Not bad. Towards the end of the game it was obvious that Mike and Ben were the contenders for the win and Owen and I were contenders for not-being-last. I cemented my position in the game by making a huge blunder on the last turn. I was last in victory points which meant I got to choose what position in the turn order I wanted to be. In the previous round, going last was good, so I chose it. Had I only realized that now, going first was much, much better. It cost me 10 victory points and 3^rd place. I came in last. Woe is me. As for the less important first place position, Ben took that. Mike was second and Owen was third.

I’m sure when the other guys read this they’ll wonder “why didn’t you mention this funny thing or that great quip?” That’s because I’ve forgotten them all; just like I want to forget this game…that I hope we play again soon.

Chaos Steve

Once again we tried our hands (and brains) at Rise of Empires–the game where you build an empire in just three short eras. Of course, for us those three short eras took four hours. If you want to know more about the game itself you can check out my previous post. Let’s just jump right in.

Ben is an idiot and so am I. That was the first revelation of the game. It doesn’t matter why or who said those things because those involved will be crushed! Crushed I tell you! But that will have to wait until another game–maybe Roborally. 

Just like our previous game, Mike took the lead and refused to let go of it. We tried everything short of poisoning his drink to overtake him, but he just kept scoring more victory points.  I spent most of the game in last place, while Ben and Owen shuffled around in between.  Owen tried a different strategy that didn’t depend upon owning areas on the board. Instead he grabbed up victory point yielding cities, technologies, and territories. This served him well at the end of the game. Both Mike and Ben took the shipping technology, that along with island territories; gain you any type of resource you want.  This time I settled on grabbing up forests that gained me people.  It cost me a fortune in food, sending me to the low edge of the food track, but I think it worked ok. Looking back on the game–and this may be obvious to everyone else–but it seems the less you need to fight with the other players over resources, the better you are.

Our game ended with Mike garnering about 160 victory points, Owen was only a short eight points away from him in second place. I think I was about 20 points behind Owen and Ben was way in last place…at the end…behind everyone…even me…again.  

(Ben’s still in his gaming slump, but on the up side he has been working feverously on a piece of gaming terrain for Mike. Somehow that makes it all ok.)

Chaos Steve

Last night we played a new game called Rise of Empires. Rise of Empires, as you may guess, is an empire-building game in which players develop their empire from Ancient Age to Modern Age. This is done over 3 era’s. Each era is broken into an A turn and a B turn. One unusual dynamic of the game is that what you do in your A turn, dictates what you will be able to do in your B turn. The B turn is almost a mirror image of your A turn. The main part of each turn is the Action phase. In it, each player takes six actions, one at a time, in turn order. These actions allow you to bolster your empire by adding territories, cities, technologies, and resources to it. You must manage carefully what you select because at the end of each turn and at the end of each era, you must pay for what you want to keep. As far as empire building games go, this game is more abstract than most. I had a hard time getting my mind around just what I should be doing. Because of this, many errors were made. You win the game by having the most Victory Points.

After Owen explained the rules to us, I think most of us were still in the dark as to how the game would play out and to what strategies we should try to employ. By the end of the game, or at least by the time we had to stop, I was still in the dark. I strayed from my normal strategy of going after victory points; this is probably why I was in last place almost the entire game. Mike took an early and substantial lead. But as the game progressed, it was easy to see that Owen was gathering a large amount of resources, control cubes, and gold.

We only played through two eras. Just by happenstance, I had a stellar B turn in era two that earned me 25 victory points (as compared to my normal 5-10 points in previous turns.)  This thrust me into second place. Owen was out in front by now, but not by that much. Mike was in third place. A place he didn’t think his playing deserved. I agreed. I think had we continued to play he and Owen would be battling it out for first place. But let’s not discount Ben’s effort. Sure he was in last place…at the end…behind everyone…even me, but I could see him as a solid finisher had the game continued. Many of us–ok, not me actually–had empires poised for greatness. At one point during the game Owen exclaimed I was a genius. Only to realize he was looking at someone else’s tokens, then changed it to “Steve, you’re an idiot.” There were many, many other creative and fun comments during the game. Fortunately I can remember any of them.

We’ll certainly have to play this game again, and soon, so we can further work out our strategies. In the meantime, I’m looking on GeekDo.com for a playing aid that shows all of the city and territory tiles.

Chaos Steve