Board game club: Antiquity

It's been a while since I last visited the board game club. Bad timing and busy weekends... It was a real pleasure to go and to celebrate, I decided to play something heavier that doesn't quite work with our Thursday evening sessions. First game of the afternoon was something lighter, though: we played Verflixxt! with six players, using best bits from both expansions (same as last time).

It was great fun and quick enough, so definitely worth playing again, perhaps with even more players. With seven or eight players, I think adding the tiles you'd normally take away might be a good idea. There aren't that many good games for six players or so, so having flexibility is good. Also, I don't think I can stress enough how important the expansions are for this game.

Then, the main event: Antiquity. After a two-year break it was certainly fun to get back to this classic. Last time I wrote "I do know something: San Christoforo's time is up. I'm not using that strategy again, I'm done with it. I'll have to come up with something else the next time I play." So, that's what I did (even though I had no memory of writing that, obviously).

I won the game, by the way. My first Antiquity victory ever, but this is one those games where beating three newbies doesn't really grant you any kind of bragging rights. However, I'm proud of my achievement: I managed to play the without any storage at all. None, whatsoever. And I only had to throw away few goods during the whole game, I was able to use most of the stuff I produced.

Of course I had a bit of a problem with feeding my folks, but as every Antiquity player knows, there are two ways to attack the problems of famine and pollution: prevention or cleanup. I simply chose cleanup. I first built a new city to house the graves, then hospital there, and finally a third city. If you accumulate six-seven graves each turn and have hospital and lots of space, no problems! Pollution was a bit of a problem, but strong expansion by lakes and alchemist in the third city and that's dealt with.

I have to praise the newbies, though. Tero played a very clean game, producing almost no pollution. He had his cathedral full of food and explored like crazy, driving the famine level up on purpose. That's just downright fiendish - but of course a brilliant strategy. Tero's choice of patron saint, Santa Maria, prevented him from winning, but I'd bet my money on him winning the game next time he plays.

It's a brilliant game, despite all the fiddling with the tiny counters. Our game took about three hours plus rules, not bad considering there were three newbies involved. The time went by swiftly, like it should.

Afterwards I relaxed a bit by playing two-player Race for the Galaxy with Robert and then a round of Set. Thursday's session left me hungry... This time I didn't make a single wrong call, winning the game. Great game, indeed.