Manorcon XXVIII – Day 2

Day 2 of the 2010 Manorcon Boardgames convention was a long day – 16 hours of gaming in total, with  13 plays of 9 games.

The day started with a gentle game of Hive – always a somewhat cutthroat experience!

The it was time for our daily fix of Dominion – especially when the group split into two and some went off to play Dungeonlords. 3 games of this by the end of the day. It’s still a good game, but I’m not sure just how much it’s worth getting any expansion past the first – I simply don’t play it enough.

Then time for a game of Forbidden Island – what do you mean “It’s a kids game?” We lost horribly within the first two turns the first time we played – and only just managed to beat it on the second. Light, simple, fun.

Then the first of a couple of games of Roll Through The Ages. I’ve now played this 4 times and it’s a really fun civilization game – not too long either.

Talking of games that are too ling, we then played Betrayal at House on the Hill. I’d heard so many good things about this game that I was looking forward to it – but over 2 hours later when it still hadn’t finished I was beginning to wish that it have never started. For me, another game that seems to promise so much and yet the final product really isn’t worth the build up. I know it’s popular, but personally I can’t see why.

After that, it was time for something much lighter, with the game Havana (The card version of Cuba, which some guys ended up playing on Sunday) – a fun card game, a great filler for 30 minutes or so.

And then for the big game of the afternoon – Steam, Rails to Riches (the remake of Age of Steam) by Martin Wallace. I’ve not played Age of Steam – or many train games to be honest, and so at the start this game, despite playing the ‘easy’ version, took some time for us to get our heads around – it didn’t help having an extra set of pieces in the box, which took us a while to find out were just not needed for anything. However, once we got a couple of turns under our belts, we were up and running with a great (and very pretty looking) game. I’m not sure if we are ready for the extra complications of the ‘Standard’ version, as the Basic game is already a challenge – perhaps when we are much more familiar with it. Game of the day, as far as I was concerned.

The end of the day was finished off with a couple of lighter games as other members if the group played Dungeonlords again. I finally got to play Race Through The Galaxy. It’s one of my favourite card games, but I’m finding that the learning curve is so steep – especially with all the expansions in play, that it’s very difficult to get people to play. I only managed a single game over the entire weekend, which was a real shame.

Finished off the day with a game of Summoner Wars. This really is an excellent game, and despite the fact that it’s a little on the expensive side, I think it might actually become a firm favourite  especially when Josh (my son) gets to play.