Making light work of it

Four gamers convened on Sam's kitchen table for the chance of some Saturday gaming. I, either by habit or an abundance of caution, texted ahead to say I'd be five minutes late but in fact I arrived on time. As I entered Sam mentioned my punctuality and I wondered if I should have texted ahead to say I wouldn't be late after all.

We (Sam, Adam, Ian and me) were playing Last Light, the cheery game of extracting energy from the last solar system in the universe. However, the impending end of reality does not play much of a role. Instead it's a game of exploration, exploitation, extermination and the other X. Only this 4X game can be played in an hour.

The mechanic is similar to Concordia, in that everyone has the same hand of seven cards representing actions (move, mine, research, etc) which everyone plays one at a time and also a Refresh card, allowing you to pick up your used cards and play them again.

The game was like Eclipse lite. Ships could be built and enhanced, but only a little. Planets could be mined but Mines could be blockaded. Sam even replaced the game’s cardboard pieces with ships from Eclipse, making the game a little more visually engaging.

As for the game, Sam’s earliest planets contained only grey minerals while Adam's early conquest got him amber minerals and light (light=points). Adam made a charge for the centre and, too late, I turned my ships against him. On his next turn he realised he'd passed the 20 point mark to declare a victory. And then he saw that he'd completed his hidden mission so he probably won the turn previously.

Adam 24

Sam 13

Ian 6

Andrew 6

A interesting game. Afterwards we decided to stay in space with Quantum. Maybe we were swayed by Adam's vague recollection of the rules. Surely us three seasoned professionals would prevail.

Well, no. Adam used the card that converts Research into Aggression and in an unstoppable turn, he picked off two ships, added an aggression and was able to place his final cube even though Sam had done his best (and, I thought he'd done enough) to stop him.

Adam 0 cubes left 

Sam 1

Andrew 1

Ian 2

And so, with Adam the undisputed king of the universe, we returned to earth with So Clover. I had a tricky clover, and got completely stuck with Donkey/Border.

Sam was first to have his clover ready but we were confused by a difficult decoy. He wrote Pontoon and we paired that with Suit/Pair when it should have been Suit/Stick.

Ian had some really clever clues and he scored 6 out of 6.

Adam was also stymied by a cruel decoy. His clue of Taoiseach was matched with Irish/house but it should have been Irish/pepper. Adam's logic (?) was that Taoiseach sounds like a sneeze.

I think that my clover got 6 out of 6 as, thankfully, Sam, Ian and Adam seem to know how I think. My clue for Donkey/Border was Impass. Get it? ImpASS. Oh, me so clever.

I left here but the night went on without me. Sam became Mr Biblios.

Sam 7

Adam 5

Ian 3

And they finished off with that old classic Take It Easy.

Sam 407

Adam 402

Ian 368

Thanks all. Full steam ahead for the big games weekend (but, alas, not for me).