Thursday 8 December 2011

Digging up the Past.

"I would like to play something with a board." Paul answered when asked what he would like to play for the final game. Previously in the evening we had steamed across America in Ticket to Ride, but it was another outing of Citadels which prompted Paul's plea. On the journey to Bracknell station Paul reflected that he doesn't really get on with games that don't have a board to put all your stuff on.

I surveyed my modest stack of games and caught Stone Age coyly winking at me. As much as I love the old flirt (SA, not Paul) I thought maybe tonight was it was time for a change. Tikal had been lurking around in my attic for several years, unplayed, until I noticed some months back that it had 2 players written on the side. This game, it must be said, was always well received and it's surprising it never received more plays.

In Tikal you adopt the role of a director on an expedition intent on uncovering Mayan sites located in the dense Jungle. You take turns to reveal tiles which may have any one of a blank space, a temple, an artefact haul or a Volcano! (Quite how you would miss seeing a bloody great volcano is beyond me). The latter tile sparks off (pun intended) a scoring round, of which there are four in the game. The tiles can be laid in any adjoining space that allows a path back to the start and are revealed in a semi random fashion.

Each player gets 10 action points to spend on ...err actions. They can be dig for treasure, develop a level of temple, add expedition members, create a new base camp and so on. The essence of the game is to get yourself in positions of power around the temples so that you may gain the points during the scoring round.

Unfortunately it wasn't until the second Volcano had come and gone that I realised we hadn't been doing the scoring rounds correctly. Crucially, both players are allowed 10 action points before they score however we just played whoever it was that got the tile. Me. Although I was slightly ahead Paul graciously turned down my offer of equalising the scores.

The game played out as I expected it would, like a a mad trolly dash to grab the abundant goodies with little to prevent you doing it. The 3 and 4 player game (Like so many of this type) have a limiting effect on resources. The rules did not have amendments for 2 players which I felt it needed. In the end I ran out the winner due to my well excavated temples!




Final scores on the night went as follows
TTR
Chris 127
Paul 106

Citadels
Chris 31
Paul 13

Tikal
Chris 172
Paul 153

On Monday I met up with James again and we managed to squeeze in 3 games, two Citadels and one Carcassonne : Discovery.

It was a whitewash and he won all Three.

Dang! A trip to the games shop in January I feel to expand the collection..

4 comments:

  1. I only played Tikal once, at Stabcon last year. It didn't quite float my boat, I have to say. I think, although it's along time ago now, that it felt as though the game petered out, as the bits of temple left to discover gradually dwindled. It fizzled out, which is not what you expect from a game featuring volcanoes.

    I also think I'm not a big fan of games which have action points. All games have a choice of things to do on a turn, of course, but when you can do a number of those things, in any order, I become a little AP-prone.

    Tis a mighty pretty game though, that I will concede. Excellent choice of meeple colours — I love it when games break from the blue/yellow/green/red norm.

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  2. Also very much digging the big tin of Heroes beside the board.
    Ah, Christmas gaming.

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  3. Yeah Paul and I made a sizeable dent in that!

    You are right about the AP though. In order for Paul to catch his train we embarked on a round or two of Speed Tikal! Made for a much more entertaining end game. I don't really mind games with action points, but they are a deliberators paradise!

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  4. Cadburys Heroes. I ate too many once. That wasn't a good Christmas.

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