Tuesday 7 February 2012

Up Pompeii

Tonight was all about Italy. I arrived early, and was introduced to a quick two-player game called Ponte del Diavolo. This simple game of bridge building and land reclaiming is simple to learn but difficult to master. There's plenty of scope to stymie your opponent, while trying leave yourself with enough options so you don't become the stymee to your opponent's stymer. For the record, Sam squeezed past for the win, 21 points to 18.

By this time Jonny and Joe had arrived and a new game, The Downfall of Pompeii, was unveiled. This was Joe's birthday present from Sam, and with a pedigree like that hopes were high. We got the Frankie Howerd impersonations out of the way early, and then Joe talked us through the simple rules. The game goes through two phases: re-populating the city of Pompeii after an earthquake that struck in 62 AD, and then evacuating the city again after Vesuvius erupts in 79 AD.

All through the game, each player has ample opportunity to cast other players pieces into the plastic recreation of the volcano, through various Omen cards, or by drawing out lava tiles in the later stages of the game. This was a lot of fun, even if it was a shame that lava didn't flow diagonally.

The first game was a closely fought affair, possibly due to us not knowing the correct strategies. Joe came out first on a tie-breaker, and Jonny snaffled third from me in the same way.

Joe 8 (6 in the volcano)
Sam 8 (8)
Jonny 6 (12)
Andrew 6 (13)

On the second game, we were all a little better prepared, but the random ways of lava cannot be predicted. At the risk of sounding like a moaner, none of my lava tiles hurt my opponents. Meanwhile, a well-drilled lava-aware population were able to get out in greater numbers than before. And this time, not even a tie-breaker could separate Joe and Jonny, who took joint first place.

Jonny 11 (8)
Joe 11 (8)
Sam 10
Andrew 8

An excellent game, accompanied by Sam's generous helpings of cheese on toast. I enjoyed this evening a lot. Even Finn the cat kept his plaintive mewing to a minimum. Meanwhile on the form table, Joe advances to a commanding lead, while Sam falls to joint second with Steve. Jonny leaps two places to fifth.








Points
Joe1 1 2 1 3 8
Sam2 2 1 5 2 12
Steve 4 4 112 12
Adam5 311313
Jonny1 3 5 3 3 15
Andrew3 4 3 2 4 16
Anja2244517
Quentin1355519
Hannah2355520

2 comments:

  1. Yeah! Wow, the air up here is really thin . . . •cough•
    The timing of things in Pompeii seems to be spot on. The first half finishes just before you can place all the pieces you want to, and the second half is a real race against the clock. I was sure Jonny would win the second game, as he had a few more pieces on the board which were not in danger of getting burned, but then of course the tiles run out and it's game over.
    All that and short enough to play two games back to back.
    Thanks Sam for the game; a perfect choice!

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  2. Well, happy birthday ol' buddy. I'd like to know what Joe's and Jonny's strategies were. In the first game I tried to get as many pieces on the board as I could, but having watched them melt into the lava, screaming as their legs contorted beneath their flaming torsos, I decided in the second game to try and bunch my guys together. Neither worked!

    Lovely game though. It's in the 200's on BGG, not around 1000 as I had somehow imagined...

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