Thebes - 22 January 2014

We dusted off a four-player game we hadn't played for a long time, the archeological dig game Thebes.  Great theme, a fair bit of luck, and lots of sniggering opportunities watching each other (mostly me) pull token after token of sand from the excavation bags instead of artifacts.  Final score: Kieron 55, David 49, Andy 46, James languishing far behind on 30.

Thebes & Vom Kap bis Kairo - 19 October 2011

With only four this week, it was a good opportunity to look at games for maximum four players.  The popular choice was to try Thebes again - the turn of the century archaeologist game.  It's got a great theme, quite a bit of luck in the excavation phase but enough opportunity to try different approaches like developing the most specialised knowledge or attending congresses/exhibition.  Orhan was the most successful digger, James the most knowledgeable but David's many congress talks brought him first place.  Final scores David 54, Orhan and James on 50, with Kieron on 38.

After Orhan left, we still had enough time for a quick game of the card game Vom Kap bis Kairo, building railway tracks across Africa from Cape to Cairo.  It was a very close run thing but David got his second win of the evening.

Thebes and Stone Age, 25 May

Four Rivals round at Adrian's this week for a double feature: Thebes and Stone Age, both four player games that had not yet been road-tested.

First up was Thebes, an attractively produced German game in which the players have to amass knowledge and kit in Northern Europe for archaeological digs in the Mediterranean and Levant. The key (and unique as far as we could tell) mechanism was a time track on which each player expended turns which corresponded to how long the actions they chose would take. For example travelling from one city to another would take a week (the game is set in 1901), conducting a dig could take 12 weeks. The player who was furthest back on the time track would take the next action, so the player order was very fluid - cleverly so. Risk management played a big part given the fair degree of luck and randomness in the game. Points could be acquired through methodically collecting cards, but greater points were to be found by digging up treasures - literally, by drawing tiles from a bag, with the majority of tiles being worthless (sand, dirt etc). As it played out, Kieron went to one extreme in terms of tactics, opting for lots of card collection and only excavating later. Adrian went to the other, going for early and multiple excavations. Kieron and James had below average luck in the draws, Orhan and Adrian above average. In the end the scores were Adrian 55, Orhan 50, James 41 and Kieron 31. Good fun and worth another play (as opposed to being a trade-in at the Games Expo).

Given that the game was also quick we then had a go at Stone Age. Another beautifully produced game in which players seek to optimise the activities that their tribe undertakes each turn, whether collecting food, or resources, or building buildings or inventing civilization. Sort of like Agricola, but much faster and intuitive. Multiple different routes and scoring options mean that different tactics can all be deployed. In this case Orhan's gold hoarding and tool development stole the show with a spectacular 228 points; Adrian next on 145; James on 135 and Kieron on 122. Well worth playing again.