Monday 8 December 2014

Pips in Spaaaace!

It was Monday, and despite the fact that tomorrow we’d be knee deep in cubes and cards at the regular GNN meet, Sam and I met up for a little light box-based entertainment.

We began with Alien Frontiers. It appeared briefly on the GNN landscape three years ago, but failed to get an audience. Recently, Sam bought another copy, and so he and I decided to try it again. Since we knew the rules (I needed a brief refresher), it was simplicity itself to set it up and get going.


It was a pretty fast-moving game. We rolled, blocked each other and tried to colonise the planet before the other did. It was fun, and that can’t just have been due to our early decision to get shit-faced. As a semi-light game, it does okay. It’s by no means a main event, but may slip into that nether region of games that fit into an awkward forty-five minutes at the end of an evening.

It was pretty close throughout, with Sam just getting down his last colonies in the turn before I was about to end the game.

Sam 11
Andrew 10

Next we decided to be thematically consistent, and pulled Quantum down from the shelves, for more dice-based space exploration. This game of inter-galactic explosions needs no introduction. I chose the map, which means I have no excuse for what happened next. Sam swanned around the map placing cubes, while I desperately battled his cubes, trying to postpone the inevitable. A whitewash.


Sam 0 cubes left
Andrew 4 cubes left

With enough time for one more game, we went for the most predictable choice we could make: 7 Wonders. No one could accuse us of foregoing old favourites in favour of the flavour of the day (and that’s very nearly a new tounge twister) when 7 Wonders is such a regular to our table.


As usual, Dirk went for sciences. I got the Statue of Zeus for my wonder, and I chose the side that allowed you to copy a neigbouring guild. This is pretty powerful in a two player game, because if you can’t build a guild, there’s a chance that Dirk can, and you still get the benefit.


I got three guilds in the final round, along with one copied from Dirk to give me a huge 32 points. Plus, I got 18 for military, which got me first place. Dirk's sciences (26 points) could not hold off Sam’s blue buildings (39 points) and so Sam avoided the ignominy of losing to Dirk.

Andrew 56
Sam 52
Dirk 47

5 comments:

  1. Andrew has possibly kindly - possibly erroneously - not mentioned his horror at discovering I didn't know (or had forgotten) the opposite sides of a die add up to seven. "I'll have to mention that on the blog" he said, with the gravity of someone saying they couldn't keep my affair a secret anymore.

    Alien Frontiers (I didn't buy it, honest, it were a trade m'lud) was like a sneakier Quantum: less openly combative, but still plenty of opportunities to screw with your opponent. I liked it.

    7 Wonders is always good...

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  2. Yeah, I quite like Alien Frontiers too, though Quantum has surpassed it for me.

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  3. I like Alien Frontiers, but don't know many who share the love, so I don't get to play it that often. I'd still rather play that than Quantum, mind.

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  4. I found the cards in AF a step too far, along with the dice, area control and subsequent special powers. But I'd enjoy revisiting it now I think.

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  5. I love Quantum and if I was choosing between them that would win out. But really enjoyed AF and have only played 2p version so far - supposed to be be better with more.

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