First up was Innovation, an ingenious card game, riffing on the theme of civilisation.
The aim of the game is to move through time developing science, cultural, military and other innovations. It is a pure card game but with some effective mechanics that allow for you to use cards in conjunction with one another to build to one of several possible ways to win.
I developed more slowly at first than Matt or Ross, but I recognised I could dominate time periods, by gathering influence points faster than they early on; this along with the uses of carefully chosen special cards allowed me to ultimately be victorious.
One of the nice features of the game is the way that cards from each period - it divided history and therefore the decks into ten periods - can remain useful throughout the game, and the cards used to score influence are also from those decks and so each game will feature different innovations, and so different winning strategies.
After this we move on to Amun Re:
Amun Re is a game of Pyramid building and farming, aiming to glorify your Pharaoh. One of the interesting aspects to this game is that sme elements allow players to work together, or betray one another, whilst others are about bidding and construction.
I developed a strategy for the game to buy mid priced sites, which conformed to whatever my initial bonus card would reward, then to use my excess cash to gain favour of the gods, and to build. I guess we all had pretty similar strategies, but I managed to get mine just right and so won again! hurrah!
Amun Re, is perhaps a little dry, but no more so than Monopoly or Cluedo, and would certainly stand as a good replacement for ne of those at Xmas. It is easy to learn and fast to play. Innovation would take a little longer to explain and grasp, but is a more engaging, if longer game.
Overall though, two little gems, both worth another go.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment