The second outing for 6-player Mare Nostrum, this time at Kieron's. We opted to use the complete set of heroes and wonders, but kept the pre-programmed starting positions. The game saw less trading than usual in the early rounds. Stu as Egypt built up a commanding lead from his tax revenues. Although he was threatened (a bit feebly) by Kieron's Greece, and Andy worried him by almost moving a piece into his territory, we didn't display the killer instinct necessary to stop Stu winning rather easily. James on the other hand, who, as Rome eschewed building legions in favour of shopkeeping, was royally clobbered by Deej (Atlantis) and Kieron. This stopped him winning, but couldn't stop him securing a clear second place. Adrian (Babylon) did nothing all game. So the final scores afforded 10 points to Stu, 6 to James, and 2.5 to everyone else (an equal share of the remaining points for grabs).
Mare Nostrum felt a bit funny. Perhaps it was the lack of trading, or the abruptness of the win, or the starting positions, but at any rate despite it being a fun evening, the game lacked bite. If nothing else, having a situation where the Egyptian player will almost certainly win unless others attack them is a strange starting concept.
Games averages: James 6.42; Stu 5.38; Kieron 4.67; Deej 4.23; Adrian 3.97; Andy 2.36.
2 comments:
An odd game. Looks great and is a lot of fun to play, but does have something missing. The interaction between players (at least how we play it) is limited to clobbering the person who is just about to win. But despite that, I'd still be happy to play it again...
The trouble is that it is all over too quickly. I think that each of us races full pelt towards the victory conditions, ignoring most of the combat options. The results in very limited interaction between players. I expect that we are supposed to do more with the military options available to us, but as there is a serious limit on caravans, at the beginning it's tough to justify spending on legions and let the other players have all the caravans.
Maybe next game the tactics will diverge and some of us will attempt a military approach.
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