Night at the Square Table

Andrew and I often squeeze a little two-player game on a Monday and tonight it was Artus, which I got dirt-cheap off Ebay and was subsequently collared trying to smuggle it into the house. I thought my smuggling skills were good, but clearly I need more practice - so obviously will have to purchase more games.

Artus is in English Arthur, head Knight of the semi-democratic round table. In Artus you're trying to curry favour with him by getting as close as you can at the table - to pass him condiments, perhaps - except that he keeps moving about, and spinning the table with him, and occasionally getting dethroned by one of a triplet of hungry princes.

It's weird. The mechanics in no way match the theme (except the table is round) and every turn is a cluster of mathematically-inclined choices. Do you shuffle a knight around, or one of the princes, or the king himself, who will spin the table as he moves? We played the basic game and then the 'expert' (Andrew beat me at both) and the latter was much better, as it brought in an extra move each turn (letting you play combinations of cards) and an additional deck of potentially damaging or lucrative cards - depending on where your knights were located.

It's an odd game but quite a lot of fun for two. As Andrew said, four players and you can imagine each turn taking an age to complete.