Sunday 10 June 2012

Lords of Easton

A rare Saturday night gaming opportunity opened up last night - unfortunately not everyone was able to make it, but with enthusiasm brimming over Andrew and I arrived at Adam and Hannah's house for a 5pm start; and our first game was the box-fresh Lords of Waterdeep.

I was quite excited about this game - partly because it's highly rated on the geek (Tom Vasel loves the box especially), partly because the Joe 'The Knowledge' Berger recommended it, and partly because even though Fantasy themes are not something I generally go for, the Dungeons and Dragons label resonated with the little boy inside me. Those heady, far-off days, when one inhabited a magical world represented by dice, character sheets, and the tempestuous whims of the dungeon master... When girls weren't interested because of my bad skin and bulbous side-parting, I could escape to this world.

But I digress. Lords of Waterdeep is only D&D in terms of its branding, so role-play is merely an optional icing for enthusiasts. The gameplay is quite simple - you send your agents out to collect adventurers and gold from the city buildings of Waterdeep, and then use them to finish quests - represented by cards. But there are a few extra options that give the game a lot of variety; you can build new buildings which you own and when other players go to that building, you get a benefit. There are Intrigue cards that either aid your quests or hamper someone else's. There are ways to generate an extra agent, or make your agent function twice in one round. And throughout the game each player as a secret identity (one of the Lords of Waterdeep) that help score you bonus points after the 8th and final round.



We really enjoyed it - or at least Andrew and I did. And I think Hannah did, because she won. I lagged behind for much of the game until my gamble in investing in an extra agent (the lieutenant) paid off in the late rounds. But both Adam and I made mistakes in the ultimate round; Adam miscalculating his quest requirements, and me wasting an agent blocking an area that no-one had an interest in; an error that cost me a possible second place. As it was Andrew finished a distant runner-up to uncontested Lord Hannah:

1 Hannah 120
2 Andrew 95
3 Sam 94
4 Adam 87

We then broke for a delightful tea of lasagne, salad and garlic bread in the garden. As Andrew pointed out, the Tuesday night Pringles won't quite have that sheen of sophistication any more. Suitably sated, we returned to the table where Adam pulled the oldest trick in the book: setting up a game in order to subsequently say "We might as well play it" - in this case, the game being Amyitis, the game of gardening, irrigating, and camel-riding in Mesopotamia. This was new to Andrew and I, but thanks to Adam's powers of communication we picked it up reasonably quickly, even if the rules evolved over the game.

Amyitis reminded me of Year of the Dragon and Hansa Teutonica: you can never do all the things you want to do, so it's about managing to do some of them without being stymied by the other players, all of whom will be trying to stymie. Whilst attempting to water the gardens being built for Queen Amyitis, you also have to keep hassling a recalcitrant camel to move around the place in order to put anything into action, as well as plant as many fields as you can to pay for the actions, and occupy as many temples as you can to collect their helpful proceeds.

It was fun. Ish. I think I find these juggling-of-possibilities games a little frustrating because it feels like the defining factor is What options are closed to you? Whereas the likes of Agricola, and the aforementioned Lords of Waterdeep, it feels more like What options are open.

In a tight finish Adam and I ended equally hydrated:

1 Adam/Sam 45
2 Andrew 41
3 Hannah 35

By now it was ten o'clock, Nina and Flossy (the guinea pigs) were in bed, so we decided on a short-ish game to finish with: in this case, Poison. Once a regular staple of Tuesday nights, it's a rarely spotted beast these days. I seemed to recall I had a bit of decent form with it, but in this case a bad round at the start and end, and two indifferent ones inbetween, put paid to that optimistic theory. It was Hannah, with her second win of the night, who advanced mercilessly on first place as the rest of us - well, Andrew and I - floundered:

1 Hannah 12
2 Adam 21
3 Andrew 35
4 Sam 38

An exceedingly pleasant evening - thanks to our hosts in particular - drew to a close and we made our merry ways home, where I personally couldn't get to sleep for an hour and a half after our gaming half-marathon. Or maybe it was the knives Adam and Hannah keep on display...



On the form table Steve keeps hold of the number one spot, but competition for second is fierce, with Hannah edging ahead of Adam and Andrew by virtue of the most-recent-result rule. I stay in 7th, albeit with a fractionally improved average.








Points
Steve212117
Hannah1313210
Adam2142110
Andrew3221210
Joe1133412
Anja4332214
Sam4133415
Quentin1355519
Jonny2255519
Paul3155519
Sally3555523

4 comments:

  1. Many thanks for the evening, guys. Lovely food, too. I enjoyed both new games, too. I got a huge stroke of luck in the last round, since I drew a quest at random in a last depserate hope, and then people used my buildings allowing me to pick up materials that meant I could complete that last quest for 12 VPs. Phew.

    Amyitis was fun too. A little more cerebral, though. But it's set up so that no matter how often you play it, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon will never get finished.

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  2. Lords of Waterdeep, despite it's easiness to pick up, has quite a bit of nuance. Each turn you're balancing how much you help other people when you help yourself. Or you should be, anyway; clearly we should have kept a closer eye on you Andrew!

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  3. Amyitis sounds like a disease.
    Sam used to have it but got rid of it; I don't think he gave it to Adam and Hannah.
    They picked it up in Broadmead I expect. Or maybe Adam got it and gave it to Hannah.
    Anyway . . .

    That's two major games nights I've missed in a week! This madness has to stop. And it will. Tomorrow night.

    I like the sound of Orcs of Cayluslight. Strange that Adam didn't win, given that he's holding the rulebook in that picture - that usually means he's devised some game-winning strategy and just wants to check the small print ...

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  4. I think everyone (apart from me) had a turn leading the scoring, Adam uncharacteristically fell away at the end. Perhaps his amyitis was giving him jip.

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