Andrew arrived earlier and we bashed out a quick game of Polarity. This has been sitting in my cupboard for a while (on my gravestone it'll probably say Sitting in his Cupboard) or more accurately, being distributed around the house by feral children. Made of magnets and a cotton mat, the game consists of trying to balance - or position - circular magnets in such a way that the repelling effect holds the magnet in a gravity-defying position.
It's fairly nuts, and to me, tricky. I started well but after an initial couple of successes, morphed into a kind of gaming Mr Bean, the archetype of cack-handedness. The points were really swingy, but Andrew's steadier hand and brain-gauge saw him trot out a whitewash:
Andrew 43
Sam 3
Chris arrived in time to express disbelief that such a game could exist, and then we broke out Giants. This has been sitting... etc etc etc and it was nice to finally play it. I knew the basics so we ripped through the rules in about 15 minutes and embarked on an Easter Island odyssey, building Moai statues and placing pimp-style hats on them. The game is a mix of bidding for the statues, but then transporting them to their coastal destinations is an entirely different kettle of fish, often working co-operatively whether you like it or not.
Chris seemed increasingly resigned about his chances, but his statue scoring was the same as mine and his collection of Rongos (who knows?) scored him a whopping 18 points to claim the win.
Chris 93
Sam 77
Andrew 67
I thought I might have won, but I also thought if I hadn't Andrew would be the victor. Maybe Chris' tactic is all about maintaining a forlorn air - look out for it, guys.
It's a nice game actually, but my, that first play was fairly long - over wo hours.
After that epic, Andrew was threatening to leave but we tempted him back to the table with a bit of Biblios, regaling Chris with the tale of Andrew being beaten 18-0 by Ian. We decided - or maybe I did - that the King Biblios title has to be a something-to-zero score, and I wondered if anyone would manage it tonight... not quite, though Andrew did notch up a second zero. I was pleased when the very last card in the auction stack was the blue I'd hoped for, and bid 16 gold. Is that a record?
Sam 8 (Mr Biblios)
Chris 5
Andrew 0
It as now well past 11pm, so we called it a night. Thanks guys.
Giants showed promise. It's a crowded board in the later parts of the game so there's a lot of interaction. It'd be nice to try it again, and since we know the rules we can probably explain it to any newbies quickly so it shouldn't take two hours to play.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've completely lost my Biblios mojo. The confidence is gone, strategies are confused, and I feel like I may never win again.
As for Polarity: meh.
I thought Polarity was fun, but probably because it's so silly. Also Giants only took two hours because of Chris' insistence on 'conversation'. It'll never catch on.
ReplyDeleteI promise you my "forlorn air" was genuine! By the time I'd worked out what was happening you guys had statues on plinths scoring good points and I noticed mine were a little low. That big score for Rango's was a total fluke! I was only collecting them incase they counted for a tie breaker I didn't know they scored points.
ReplyDeleteAnd that's my defence your honour!
I know that! I'm just teasing. I've done the same myself plenty of times.
ReplyDeleteAh, yes. The conversation. Mostly made of double entendres about getting things erect and how "it gets harder the more you go on". Sam's plea for sobriety with "Come on, guys, let's pull ourselves together" only sent us into more schoolboy giggles.
ReplyDeleteMyself, Andrew and Ian bashed out a game last night and got it down to 1hour 40 including explaining the rules to Ian. So I think really it's a 90 minute game.
ReplyDeleteI won with a big set of rongos and we were concerned this was a necessary route. They are funny because although it's nice to spend a tribe token to get them and wait to see what the other players will do, if everyone has tribe tokens it can end up that you're going in circles picking up rongos.
A simple fix might be to do without them entirely and use two tribe tokens to place your chief as a sorcerer. Much quicker game and the scoring is all about the Moais.
I'd like to give Giants try sometime. Note that the designer removed Rongo scoring at some point. From a review on the Geek: "First, there are rules issues; the published rules state that 3 victory points are awarded for each complete Rongo tablet, which is far too many; the latest rules provide for no victory points. Personally, I find that 1 victory point is about right – it provides sufficient use for tribe markers, without making the collection of the available Rongo tablets too high a priority."
ReplyDeleteWith regard to time, "Further, the game tends to be long for what it is. There’s a fix for this noted in the rules, too – hidden in the game preparation is a suggestion of starting each player with two workers, which again I would strongly recommend."
Hope this helps!
Thanks Andy. We started both games with two workers! But the 1pt for each rondo seems like a neat solution.
ReplyDelete