Felds of Glory

Monday night, and Andrew and I arranged one of our little two-player sorties into gaming territory. Before Andrew got there and with the boys out for the count upstairs, I started popping the in my new copy of Stefan Feld game Amerigo. Ten minutes later I was still at it when Andrew arrived... both of us were tempted to try it, but with plenty more gaming to come this week, not quite tempted enough to embark on what looked an epic voyage. Amerigo will have to call slightly louder next time, though I very much look forward to it.

Instead we broke out another Feld, Castles of Burgundy, which I had proposed earlier in the day. Apparently there are still GNNers among us who haven't played this - more abstract than Macao, but, with the right players (ie Andrew and I, who probably don't think enough) faster-moving also.

Burgundy

However it's also, as Andrew noted, very much a multi-player solitaire with player interaction minimal to non-existent - at least, until the latter stages of the game when some tactical play is open to you in closing off your opponents preferred strategy... but this must be balanced with achieving your own aims. I blow slightly hot and cold with this game but tonight it really scratched an itch for both of us. I ran out a narrow-ish winner thanks to a player board with loads of options of area bonuses.

Sam 197
Andrew 174

It was early yet, and we were both in the mood for Raj, the instant hit of the last 2 or 3 weeks. With two players the potential for hilarity is admittedly less than 3 or 4, but it still had us giggling like goons at several stages and cursing like dockers at others.

Two tied bids, a decider about to come

We kept playing one more game until we'd managed a best of five, which Andrew won by 3 games to 2, twice narrowly outbidding me on the final game as I attempted to keep my powder dry for the final tiles, by which time the jig was up.

The jig up in game three, where our last cards tied

Lots of fun, played to a soundtrack of my birthday CD, and a great primer for tomorrow. Thanks Andrew!