Down through the centuries (and along the M4)

This weeks round of games nights here at Bracknell separated over two nights confirmed something to me which I had suspected for a little while now. Martin Wallace's London should never have been sold as a two player game. The restrictions that a third or fourth player puts on the resources is impossible to over come without some major tinkering. I had spent some time on the BGG forums looking for a suitable solution but could find none that didn't shoe horn a raft of severe changes that could actually make it worse. With these problems in mind James and I (Chris) embarked on a game on Monday night as I was keen to introduce him to a more heavy euro game. London is a fairly tricky game to explain even to seasoned gamers and I felt James dealt manfully with the 'cognitive load'. After a few openish rounds he was buying boroughs and opening shops left right and centre. However with all these types of game the first attempt is often a training game (Unless you are Adam or Hannah.) and what your objective should be isn't apparent until it's over. So it wasn't a surprise that I ran out the winner...

Chris 89
James 62

The game is not a short one and with the rule learning thrown in it was all we could play that night.

On Tuesday Paul made his bi-weekly pilgrimage to Bracknell for some good clean honest gaming fun.

We started off with a couple of games of Aton. With a few games under our belts we are starting to see the subtle strategies involved in this seemingly innocuous game. The first match was a straight fight for Black bonus squares and temple number 4. The second evolved into quite a difference of approach as I discovered cramming the first temple with all my counters changed the pattern of the game completely. Both matches swung my way finishing thus;

Chris 40
Paul 17

Chris 54
Paul 32

Then we moved onto a personal favourite and GNN classic Stone Age. Paul professed after the game that he hadn't actually 'Got it' until today and his new found enlightenment certainly provided a close game. Stone Age is a game which scales to two player perfectly, and with the reduction in huts to two stacks of seven it creates a further aspect of being able to effect the timing of the games end. We found our game ending prematurely with half the deck of civilisation cards left to go. The final tot up saw my civ card haul match Paul's impressive hut multiplier but my better axes and field scores pushed me ahead.

Chris 151
Paul 141

We had just enough time for Paul to thrash me at a third game of Aton as my wacky temple 1 obsession backfired on me.

Paul 40
Chris 22