Friday Night Gaming: Conquest of the Fallen Lands, Mare Nostrum
September 25, 2009
Friday morning, my RAID 1 external hard drive crashed. I no longer had (and continue not to have as of this post) access to my superhero game files and was unable to conduct playtesting as I had hoped and promised. So, it was board games again.
Conquest of the Fallen Lands
I came in last on this one, but the overall scores were closer than our first game. Unlike my first game, where I traded in cards 2-for-1 and ended up stalling out for lack of cards at the end, I decided to use what I got while getting sorcerers early so that I’d get more cards later on. My hand was dominated by higher-cost troops and they all required craftsmen. For example, I had 2 cannons and 1 catapult, which are great cards if you can get them on the board. Since they cost 4 and 3 craftsmen, respectively, I wasn’t able to field them until late. By then, my forces were split and I didn’t have access to the juicy parts of the board. In the mid-game, I was dying for some low-cost spearmen that I could deploy.
A key element to the game is being able to maximize your resources and capture 2 or 3 hexes in a single turn. Not only does it give you a jump on the opposition, but it gives you the most money for minimal cost. You can achieve this by deploying multiple types of troops and/or opportune use of spells, which can boost an attack.
The end game was soured a bit by kingmaking with Brian and Merwin deciding whether to hurt Robert or Ian. In the end, Ian ran out of the cards he needed and Robert was able to end the game early (when everyone passed, trying to build their hands) for a close win.
Mare Nostrum
It was just past nine o’clock when we pulled this out. We went well past midnight, in part, because it took us a while to remember how to set up and play. After an initial random deal of starting civilizations, Robert and I both called fowl when he and I ended up with Rome and Babylon (again), and we re-dealt. He got Greece and I got Egypt. Brian was Carthage (much to his dismay because it begs to be played militarily), Merwin Rome, and Ian Babylon.
While everyone took their first turns, I desperately tried to remember the trick to having Egypt win on the 3rd turn. I then had to convince them that I wouldn’t do it and thus make myself a very early target. During the “expand a few territories out” phase of the game, Brian and I came face to face. And in an uncharacteristic move, I attacked him before he could attack me. I had already decided to use my mythical creature, the Phoenix, as much as possible. Normally, these units cost 6 resources to deploy. Once killed, however, the Phoenix can return for only 3, the same cost as a legion or trireme. Sacrificing my Phoenix against Brian’s inevitable counter-attack was part of my plan.
As the game progressed, Merwin threatened Robert, Robert threatened Merwin, and Ian was left alone to catch a considerable lead. Ultimately, this game is won or lost during the trading phase. The goal is to buy 3 heroes and/or monuments, which cost either a set of 9 commodities (with no duplicates) or 9 tax cards. If you manage to get 12, you can buy the Pyramids and win straight-away. After the first expansion turn, it’s not uncommon for people to be collecting 9 resource cards each turn. The trick is to use the trading phase to dump your duplicates, pick up ones you don’t have, or convert them all to taxes. And it is a trick. It’s easy to mess up and pick the wrong cards from the wrong people. It’s easy for the other players to not notice what you’re collecting and pull a stealth win.
For my own part, people were preventing me from getting too many taxes, which meant I never got a set of 9 until the very last turn of the game. Ian claimed he screwed up and failed to get the 12 uniques for an insta-win. On a different turn, Robert was close with 11 taxes. Since we knew Ian was a major threat, we started watching him like a hawk and colluded against him during the trading. Eventually, whether to fatigue or kingmaking, I managed to get 14 taxes and built the Pyramids (it helped that I was the Political Leader, and so got to build first). Basically, I pulled off my “three-turn win” three hours into the game.
Part of the problem we have as a group is that too many cards get traded. The lowest this game as six and we traded nine more than once. Paradoxically, this lengthens the game by dragging out the trading phase, but it also allows for insta-wins that bring an abrupt end to the game. If we only traded three cards each, getting the magical twelve would be much harder. You’d still have to watch for Egypt (and Greece) getting too many taxes (and buying the favor of Hermes has to be watched, too), but I think we’d see more victories that didn’t involve the Pyramids. The advanced rules set the price of the Pyramids at 13, which is a must, I think.
Friday morning, my RAID 1 external hard drive crashed. I no longer had (and continue not to have as of this post) access to my superhero game files and was unable to conduct playtesting as I had hoped and promised. So, it was board games again.
Conquest of the Fallen Lands
I came in last on this one, but the overall scores were closer than our first game. Unlike my first game, where I traded in cards 2-for-1 and ended up stalling out for lack of cards at the end, I decided to use what I got while getting sorcerers early so that I’d get more cards later on. My hand was dominated by higher-cost troops and they all required craftsmen. For example, I had 2 cannons and 1 catapult, which are great cards if you can get them on the board. Since they cost 4 and 3 craftsmen, respectively, I wasn’t able to field them until late. By then, my forces were split and I didn’t have access to the juicy parts of the board. In the mid-game, I was dying for some low-cost spearmen that I could deploy.
A key element to the game is being able to maximize your resources and capture 2 or 3 hexes in a single turn. Not only does it give you a jump on the opposition, but it gives you the most money for minimal cost. You can achieve this by deploying multiple types of troops and/or opportune use of spells, which can boost an attack.
The end game was soured a bit by kingmaking with Brian and Merwin deciding whether to hurt Robert or Ian. In the end, Ian ran out of the cards he needed and Robert was able to end the game early (when everyone passed, trying to build their hands) for a close win.
Mare Nostrum
It was just past nine o’clock when we pulled this out. We went well past midnight, in part, because it took us a while to remember how to set up and play. After an initial random deal of starting civilizations, Robert and I both called fowl when he and I ended up with Rome and Babylon (again), and we re-dealt. He got Greece and I got Egypt. Brian was Carthage (much to his dismay because it begs to be played militarily), Merwin Rome, and Ian Babylon.
While everyone took their first turns, I desperately tried to remember the trick to having Egypt win on the 3rd turn. I then had to convince them that I wouldn’t do it and thus make myself a very early target. During the “expand a few territories out” phase of the game, Brian and I came face to face. And in an uncharacteristic move, I attacked him before he could attack me. I had already decided to use my mythical creature, the Phoenix, as much as possible. Normally, these units cost 6 resources to deploy. Once killed, however, the Phoenix can return for only 3, the same cost as a legion or trireme. Sacrificing my Phoenix against Brian’s inevitable counter-attack was part of my plan.
As the game progressed, Merwin threatened Robert, Robert threatened Merwin, and Ian was left alone to catch a considerable lead. Ultimately, this game is won or lost during the trading phase. The goal is to buy 3 heroes and/or monuments, which cost either a set of 9 commodities (with no duplicates) or 9 tax cards. If you manage to get 12, you can buy the Pyramids and win straight-away. After the first expansion turn, it’s not uncommon for people to be collecting 9 resource cards each turn. The trick is to use the trading phase to dump your duplicates, pick up ones you don’t have, or convert them all to taxes. And it is a trick. It’s easy to mess up and pick the wrong cards from the wrong people. It’s easy for the other players to not notice what you’re collecting and pull a stealth win.
For my own part, people were preventing me from getting too many taxes, which meant I never got a set of 9 until the very last turn of the game. Ian claimed he screwed up and failed to get the 12 uniques for an insta-win. On a different turn, Robert was close with 11 taxes. Since we knew Ian was a major threat, we started watching him like a hawk and colluded against him during the trading. Eventually, whether to fatigue or kingmaking, I managed to get 14 taxes and built the Pyramids (it helped that I was the Political Leader, and so got to build first). Basically, I pulled off my “three-turn win” three hours into the game.
Part of the problem we have as a group is that too many cards get traded. The lowest this game as six and we traded nine more than once. Paradoxically, this lengthens the game by dragging out the trading phase, but it also allows for insta-wins that bring an abrupt end to the game. If we only traded three cards each, getting the magical twelve would be much harder. You’d still have to watch for Egypt (and Greece) getting too many taxes (and buying the favor of Hermes has to be watched, too), but I think we’d see more victories that didn’t involve the Pyramids. The advanced rules set the price of the Pyramids at 13, which is a must, I think.
Labels: Other Games
posted by Patrick at 9:29 PM
<< Home