Under Prussia

Sam and I met up for a brain storming session for future writing projects and after a whole hour (including a meal), we decided to treat ourselves to a game or two. Or five.

We chose Maharaja: The Game of Palace Building in India. We had both prepared for this new game by watching an introduction to it on BGG where a silky voiced Australian promised us “delicious options”. How could we turn that down?

After we scratched our heads over another inadequate rule book, we brought up a player aid on BGG and used that to guide ourselves through the rules and we were off.

It’s an interesting take on the worker placement genre, whereby you only have one worker (the architect) and while you can build buildings anywhere, you need to have the architect present to build those all important palaces. Because what do palaces make? Prizes. Palaces in a city earn you money, and at the end of the game, money decides the winner (unless someone was smart enough to build a seventh palace before their opponent(s)).

Sam, after a shaky start, took the honours in its inaugural game.

Sam 10
Andrew 7

After this, we decided to break out good old A Castle For All Seasons. Since it’s already gaining favour for it’s depth in the two player options, this now needs no introduction. I hogged the market and then hoarded money like Ebenezer Scrooge after the Ghost Of Christmas Future told him about a stock market crash. Sam went for the unfinished buildings bonus and silvers. In the end, I just edged it.

Andrew 81
Sam 80

After this, I suggested Samurai. It’d been a long time since I’d played it, and it showed. I was comprehensively beaten, with Sam winning on two categories of items, and us drawing on a third. The only positive thing I can take is that Samurai isn’t leaderboard, since I can’t work out how to convert the final result into points. Phew.

Then we brought Campaign to the table. I have a dim memory of playing this in the 1970s with my brother. At the time, it seemed like a dazzling new variant on chess but now, with eurogames offering a new gaming experience (and with my own greater appreciation for chess) it just seems like a hollow strategy game. I also remember thinking that “Prussia” was a made-up name for a country, and I was surprised when I found out it wasn't. That was the first time I found out that a country could disappear off the map.

Each player has their pieces and they roll a dice to see how many movement points they get. In other words, the player who rolls highest, on average, will win. It looked nice and, I suppose, for 1973, it was a brave attempt at something new. It hasn’t aged well, though.

We abandoned the game in favour of something else.

And that something else was 7 Wonders. Quick, exciting, and we both knew it well. Dirk was up for it, too.

Sam went down the “no-resources” route, relying on Dirk and me to bail him out. And also relying on military might, along with a little bit of everything. I threw in my lot with blue buildings (including the palace) while I offloaded sciences onto Dirk, just so Sam couldn’t build them and exploit his wonder’s benefit.

It was an odd game. There seemed to be a lot less resources around for anyone, meaning I couldn’t build my wonder until late, and Dirk barely got started on his. In the final tally, the Palace came through again, just pushing me ahead of Sam who, at one point, had serious fears of being overtaken by Dirk.

Andrew 49
Sam 46
Dirk 33