Board game club: Sunda to Sahul, Löwenherz, Union Pacific

We had another pleasant meeting of the Board game club last Sunday. A typical crowd of about 15-20 people visited during the several hours of gaming. At the best we had three games played simultaneously.

As expected, I played Sunda to Sahul - five games, actually. Four of those games were played in a row with the same four players. I might say it was well received, really... At least one player was really excited about it. We even tried the more advanced rules, using tribes. After one game, we decided that tribes might be better with a limit of three tokens, at least in the no turns game. Also, I think tribes is the most complicated advanced rule to use in the fast game - I'd like to try the turns game with all advanced rules. I won all five games, but in one game, my margin of victory was only two points. That's terrifying.

The only new game I played was Mamma Mia!, another inventive card game by Uwe Rosenberg (of the Bohnanza fame). It was actually quite clever: first players stack pizza ingredients and pizza cards, then after the draw pile is exhausted, comes the second part: players start to resolve the pizzas. The played card pile is played in the same order as it was constructed and when pizza comes up, ingredients are counted. If there are enough, the pizza can be made. Ingredients used for that pizza are removed and the player who did the pizza scores it. Whoever makes most pizzas during the three rounds, wins. It's a clever game - not a classic masterpiece like Bohnanza, but a fun and quick game. Some memory, some luck, in a fairly good doses.

I also played Ra and actually won the game for the first time. Way cool. My second game of Löwenherz was a lot more brutal (and much more interesting) than the first. I tried to finish my areas quickly, so I could start expanding. I had a nice region with six knights and I could expand quite freely. However, I did not win. It's interesting how the game was very equal, all players within four points when the deck was in D cards or so, but in the end the scores were spread about 20 points.

I also played a game of Union Pacific. It was fun, again, even though I made a small mistake when making up the share deck. Because of that, the game lasted a bit longer than it should have. It didn't spoil the game, however, it was good fun even though I did not win.