Antike - 20 February

The last time we played Antike was June 2008, which is a reasonably long time to forego playing a clever little game which, like Imperial, uses the Rondel mechanism, but unlike Imperial lacks the twisty elements that sometimes exclude players early on. We played on the Western European side of the board and opted to take the countries that our choice of seats around the kitchen table indicated. Asymmetrical play occurred from the start with some players going for the temple strategy, others looking to expand and others again going for knowledge. The early game was dominated by border tensions between Andy, Orhan and Deej. Andy as Carthage amassed a large army south of Orhan's territory and asked for clarification on exactly how many men he'd need to wipe it out. This bit of Derrening probably over-achieved as Orhan (who had not only been the first to build armies) was also the first to use them in attacking Andy - clearly pre-emptively... Alas, fighting gave Orhan no pleasure as he looked longingly at the peaceful lands to the East where James, Adrian and Kieron quietly gained technologies and settled new cities.

The game played out faster than we remembered as players amassed victory points quickly. The highest scoring players all had a mixed economy of scoring methods, but Adrian marched to victory in the end. Points: Adrian 7, James, Kieron and David 5, Andy 2 and Orhan 1.