While we waited for Hannah and Adam to arrive, we banished Anja to the upper room so she could finish reading the rules to Spartacus without any distractions, and me, Joe, Sam and Steve sat down for a game of Love Letters. We only played one round, and Steve won. Hannah arrived mid game, so we stopped, ate some sweets (including meeple-shaped flapjacks courtesy of Hannah) and discussed what we should play.
Spartacus was already on one table, but what about the other? Joe had brought Bora Bora, the new epic from Stefan Feld. After some umming and ahhing, and perhaps persuaded by the pretty lady drawn on the inside of the box, they chose it over the other offers.
Steve, Anja and I went through the rules of Spartacus, the game of blood and treachery. Since I'd never seen the TV series, I didn't recognise any of the people on the cards, but it wasn't important. What was important was the bidding, the bribing, the battling. All of which was mostly lacking in the first round, as none of us really knew what was going on. In the first gladiatorial contest, Steve ran away from a fight, only to find that there are no hiding places in an arena.
But fighting isn't the only way to win at this game. You can host games or discard cards for influence. The blood part relies on dice-rolling, with a few cards that can help you re-roll, while the treachery part reminded me a lot of I'm The Boss, in that one person tries an action (with a card) and another player can block it (with another card, sometimes needing a dice roll, other times not) and there was no way of responding to that.
I found it all a bit soulless. Relying on dice, or the right cards just didn't seem to be much fun or need much skill. I also found it very slow. We thought at the time it was just because it was our first go, but I looked on Boardgamegeek and the recommended game time is two and a half hours. There were some laughs along the way but, again, mostly prompted by a result of a dice roll.
It ended on an anti-climax, too. Steve and I were poised to battle our two finest gladiators, with Steve destined to hit the maximum twelve points if he won, Anja stepped in with a card that rigged the game, allowing her to change Steve's gladiator for a slave. In the event, Spartacus won easily, meaning Anja won the game with her twelve points. Steve then read the rules and found to his dismay that he could've won the game earlier in the round.
Anja 12
Steve 11
Andrew 10
Meanwhile, on the big table, Sam, Joe, Adam and Hannah played Bora Bora. It looked baffling, but it had fishing in it, so I felt like I'd missed out. I shall leave it to the others to explain the game, except to say that Sam admitted his win felt like a fluke.
Sam 139
Joe 138
Adam 128
Hannah 122
Two epic games, stretching the length of the evening. What an experience. All that remains is to mention the scores of the game on Steve's birthday when the Easton group played Snowdonia. Happy birthday, Steve!
Steve 110
Hannah 89
Anja 79
Adam 66
| Points | ||||||
| Steve | 2 | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 18 |
| Anja | 1 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 19 |
| Sam | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
| Hannah | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 21 |
| Joe | 2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 22 |
| Adam | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 22 |
| Andrew | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 23 |
