Imperial 2030, 27 July

Six players round at Adrian's, so the hyper-modern version of Imperial came out. We played the variant where anyone, starting with the player that owned the country in play, could invest in that country. This meant that we had lots of investment opportunities, but it was extremely difficult to dislodge an existing player from their starting country (given that they always would have first chance to reinforce their position). Lots of fighting in the centre of the board meant that those on the edges, most notably Kieron as South America and Adrian as Russia, had the opportunity to build up a commanding lead. As the last turns rolled round, Adrian was in the fortunate position of having invested in both himself and Kieron, which meant a fairly comprehensive victory. Final scores: Adrian 103; Kieron 70; Orhan 63; Deej 62; James 52; Andy 38.

Imperial 2030, 30 June 2010

A first play for Adrian of the modernized Imperial but a second outing of the game for James, David and Kieron. However, this time we played it properly, in particular getting the taxation and victory track points right - which meant that we actually finished the game and enjoyed it too. The initial set up saw David as Brazil and China, Adrian as India, James as Europe and Kieron as Russia. Early military build-ups and expansionism led to some spats in S E Asia and Mongolia, followed by a seemingly unopposed European expansion into Africa and an ongoing Brazilian/US war as James picked up an American ally to guard Europe’s western flank. By the mid stages of the game it appeared that Kieron’s takeover of Europe and the running down of its military power in what looked like suicidal attacks meant that he had peaked too early, but we began to reconsider as we saw that Kieron’s Europe and Russia were able to tax and boost their power ratings, unencumbered by large military forces. China shrank to a shadow of its former self. America didn’t really break out of its home territories. And meanwhile India quietly built up. Being able to launch two fleets each time into the Indian Ocean, Adrian grew a solid force in that region, expanding into Australia and S Africa. As the end game approached it was not at all clear who was in the ascendant. On the last move - Europe taxing to finish the game - it transpired that Adrian’s spread investment approach of being shrewd (or lucky) enough to have reasonable holdings in the 4 top countries and none in the bottom two secured him victory. Final scores: Adrian 103; David 95; Kieron 91; James 90