Yesterday we had a lovely Sunday afternoon visit at Leigh’s house - Aunt R came too - to watch the kids run wild, and to play a few games with the grown-ups. It was so lovely, in fact, that when we got home at 10:15 pm (after arriving at Leigh’s at about 2:45 pm), JediBoy said, “That was too short! I wanted to stay longer.”
The kids ran amok, as usual, upstairs and downstairs, playing chasing games, and tie-up-Daddy games, and a few actual board games, plus video games and watching some tv. And begging us to be let in on the grown-up games! They did set up their own game of Pirate’s Cove in the living room, and were so dear playing it.
As for us old folk, we played two good Days of Wonder games. We have grown to love and trust Days of Wonder for grown-up games as much as we love and trust Ravensburger for kids’ games. Days of Wonder is a fairly new company and has produced great games in appealing square boxes: Ticket to Ride, Mystery of the Abbey, Pirate’s Cove, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, Memoir ‘44, BattleLore, and the two we played today, Shadows Over Camelot and Colosseum. We all have our DOW favorites, but we haven’t hit a bad game yet.
We sat down first to Shadows Over Camelot. This has been a big favorite for a few years, because it’s a collaborative game for grown-ups - not something you find very often. The game pits all the players (as knights of the Round Table) against the forces of evil. It is quite difficult to win, which makes it more addictive as we want to play it again and again and maybe win this time.
On your turn, you first must take an action for the Progression of Evil by playing a black, evil action card, placing a siege engine outside Camelot, or losing one of your life points. Then you may take an action for the side of Good by moving to a new quest, drawing white, good action cards, or playing a white action card. The fact that every move is started by an action for Evil makes the game heavily balanced towards evil, and it takes teamwork, strategy and good luck with the cards for Good to be victorious.
The knights are trying to save Excalibur from sinking, retrieve Lancelot’s armor, battle the black knight, the Picts and the Saxons, and find the Holy Grail. Simultaneously. And don’t forget that moving from one quest to another takes up your turn - and so does drawing new cards. It’s the kind of game that keeps every player involved, even during other players’ turns, because you are working hand in hand, and every Good and Evil action affects everyone.
It was the first time Leigh and Dave had played, and they seemed to enjoy it. (Yes?) I think we got into the swing of some good teamwork, but we were overwhelmed by Evil in the end. We’ll have to play it again next time and try just a little bit harder!
Then we broke out Colosseum. This is DOW’s newest game, one I got for my birthday and hadn’t played yet. The box was the same size as most DOW games, but heavier, and full of thick cardboard pieces. The rulebook was long and seemed overwhelming, but once we had read the rules and played a round, we agreed it was actually a fairly smooth running game, and certainly fun.
In Colosseum, you play Roman impresarios, hoping to earn fame and money by putting on the best Roman spectacles. It reminded a little bit of another of my favorite games, Puerto Rico, but was distinct enough to not feel like an overlapping game. In each round, players get a chance to acquire event tokens and use these to present event programs, earning points and money for the number of spectators they draw to their events.
Each of the 5 rounds has 5 phases. The starting player (which passes each round) begins by taking Phase 1 - Investing. Here, you can buy a new Event Program to be put on, expand your arena or buy season’s tickets or an Emperor’s Loge. Each player around the table then gets a chance to Invest. Phase 2 is the auction round, where the face-up event tokens in the marketplace are auctioned off. Each player gets a chance to initiate auctions. Phase 3 is a trading phase where players (again, in turn beginning with this round’s starting player) can trade, buy or sell event tokens from the other players. In Phase 4, the players present their Event Programs and add up the number of spectators they’ve been able to draw in. Phase 5 is a resetting phase, to get ready for the next round.
The Event Programs are the center of the game.
These cards have all the information for a specific program. There are 30 programs - these are programs number 10 and 16. The images below the titles match the images to be found on event tokens. In order to put on a full program of the Cavalry of Spartacus, for example, you need to have 3 gladiator tokens and 3 horse tokens. If you have a full program, you bring in 12 spectators. The Poneys of Epona (Leigh’s favorite program, right?), you need 3 gladiators, a priest, 3 horses and 2 arches. You also need to have an arena that has one expansion in the middle.
The game does take a little time to get used to how the information is presented, both on the Event Programs and on the back of your help card. But once we found our footing, we really enjoyed the game and it moved much more quickly than we thought it would. Having the auction and trading rounds leads to the player-to-player interplay and sometimes feuding fun we enjoy from Settlers, but there is a good dose of solo strategy involved in choosing what to buy when you Invest and which Programs to put on. I thought there was a good balance between those two sides of the game.
Both Shadows and Colosseum are heavier games that do best with a large group with a nice sturdy table and enough time to absorb the rules. I love games like this, though, where there’s plenty of interesting strategy to wrap your head around!
It was a great way to spend a Sunday. We all loved our games, and BabyGirl loved… the food!
Categories:
