Boardgame session 9July2017

It has been a while since my last post. Our diary has been pretty packed for most of 2017 so far, and gaming (especially wargaming) has therefore taken a back seat. On Sunday, our friends Val and Chris came for a boardgame session, and I was keen to revive an old favourite ‘Glory to Rome’. Elaine and I played a practice game on the Saturday to re-familiarise ourselves with the rules, which seem simple but hide the complex underlying strategy of the multi-use card deck. Elaine won convincingly by getting off to a fast start in terms of buildings and good combinations of their special abilities, and I spent my time trying to catch up with her.

The 4 player game on Sunday flowed well, both Val and Chris picked up the rules quickly, and the result was a clear win for myself. I think the higher player count improves the game and certainly increases to use of the attacking ‘Legionary’ role. I also think the ‘Merchant’ role is under appreciated and I gained significant points by doing this role at key moments in the game. I have the early version of the game (with the 4 card decks in a plastic flip-box) and really like the cartoon style of the artwork. I know many prefer the ‘Black Box’ edition, but I think the more abstract, line drawing artwork lacks theme and is not appealing. In conclusion, ‘Glory to Rome’ remains one of my favourite games and deserves to be played more frequently.

Next we played a couple of games of ‘Sushi Go, Party’ (purchased at UKGE2017). An excellent light-hearted filler game that hits the spot when time is short and the participants want to chat about other things, whilst playing. I cannot remember which ‘menus’ we used, but Elaine won the first game and I won the second. My only criticism of the game is the sorting/shuffling required as you put together the deck for each menu combination. There is no way around this issue, but it does tend to push players into repeat playing of a single menu rather than sorting out a different combo.

We did not have time to play the third game on my play-list, ‘Roll for the Galaxy’, which I recently bought. This will have to wait until the next time we host a session. Finally, I will give a very brief update on my wargaming activities. I have not had time to visit my local club for any games in the last 6+ months, so I have been limited to solo gaming. I have played a couple of Napoleonic games using the new ‘General d’Armee’ rules, and I plan to write a post on my thoughts fairly soon, but I would like a few opposed games before undertaking this. I have also played some solo games using RFCM rules; Bloody Barons and Regt of Foote (1^st version), plus a RCW game using Red Actions. I did plan to attend the Battlegroup South show at Bovington but diary pressures intervened, so I will have to wait until next weekend when Attack in Devizes occurs. Progress on painting my 1940 Germans is slow because the weather has been too hot and sunny for any serious work to be done.