Sunday 05/07, at CHG

Sunday was a lazy day. I got up late, having been out the night before with Jerod, Luke, and Roger. I went downtown to Daydreams and picked up my comics. Then, I ran over to the store to say hi to Luke before he left. I grabbed a bite to eat at Peking Buffet, and then went back to the store to read comics and hang out.

I sat around for a while watching the four person AGOT draft, which Lucas won. The Heroclix tournament got over, and I asked Tim and Jerod if they would be up for learning Princes of Florence, which I bought a few weeks ago, but hadn't had a chance to play. They were interested, so we set it up, went through the instructions, and got started.

PoF has an auction element, limited actions, tile placement, and some interesting resource exchange choices. It also plays deceptively quickly, compared to it's complexity. About two thirds of the way through the game, when we all had a bunch of money and I exchanged florins for pp's for the first time while constructing a work, we decided we needed to play again. We finished up, with me in the lead, but Tim ended up winning handily on the strength of his two Prestige cards, leaving me in 2nd and Jerod in 3rd. Things we noticed in this game were that builders seemed very good to get early, and the Prestige cards were quite powerful. I had a suspicion that we were letting things go too cheaply in auction.

We stayed in the same seating order and started another game right away. I ended up winning builders on all of the first three turns. The first one was certainly valuable. The second two I bid on to not let others get them cheaply, and then they ended up giving them two me. I ended up only getting two buildings for free, though. Having only two actions really limits the usefulness of the builder. I took professions early, trying to maximize the points I would get from playing works on the upcoming turns. I did take a turn to play a work, for sub-optimal points, when I was going last and someone hadn't played a work that turn. I think, with three builders on turn three, that I should have just bought buildings. However, I thought that the pp's for the works would just end up being more. I need to look at this, though, as I think It's pretty close. This meant that most of my last few turns were taking either bonus/building/prestige and laying a work. This paid off, cancelling Tim's "most works" prestige card, as he ended up not being able to get enough pp out of the profession he drew in turn 7 to be able to build it. I ended up winning, with Tim in 2nd and Jerod in 3rd.

Our impression was that the game was good, and quick, and would probably be more exciting with the pressure added by playing with 4 or 5 people, when buildings would be limited, and it could take a lot longer to get a builder. We also felt that the game, for our two plays at least, would have benefitted from another turn, as our palazzos were not really too crowded at the end of the game. I had a feeling in this game that you could easily get by without a builder, making me want to investigate the possibility of a successful building strategy even more. It should be fairly simple to work out the timing of a works strategy also. It certainly seems better to pick up prestige early, so the timing of that particular strategy should rely on early game prestige picks and mid-late game flexibility. The first couple turns are going to be taken up buying freedoms, and the second action should be determined by your strategy. Although, I guess, if you are just building you don't need freedoms. Prestige probably does.

Well, there's a few thoughts on the game, anyway. We all agreed that it was a good game, and are looking forward to playing again with more players. Hopefully, Jerod will get it into stock, and then host a game night for it at the store. I think we will also get another play at Chris's next Game Day, as he expressed interest in getting it on the table. For now, a few days off of gaming will be nice.

GG, GL