Friday Evening at Club TreEmme

Friday evening was my first time playing Tempus. I had great expectation about this game both because is a Martin Wallace game, and usually I like a lot his games, and second because on the net a lot of people talk about Tempus as a light civilization game.

We was five: me, Marco, Sassa, Dante and his friend. The map comes out with a big peninsula on the right, a lake and a big continent on the left. I started first occupying a grassland close to two fields: Dante start close to me, Sassa take the north and Marco and Dante's friend share the peninsula.

I got the first civilization advance, since I was occupying already two fields. Dante's friend started building city soon; Dante and Sassa was expanding slowing while Marco take a reproduction tactic: no city until it was at the end of tokens.

we play the game (and now I think was not the right way) fighting hard to be the first to make the civilization advance. I built 3 town (2,3,3) in the south and let Dante enough space to expand, trying to avoid as much as possible the war.

The game plays in a good equilibrium and I was enough smart to get the trains advancement. I was controlling Sassa (that was the strongest on the map, with a lot of cities) and in the last turn I was able to build a 4 points town and use the 3-5 movement to spread in the map.

The game ended with me and Sassa both at 20 and Marco at 19 (in the last two turns he built a lot of cities). Dante's friends got the flight advance bonus but wasn't enough for him to reach us.

The game is nice and you need a good strategy to win but, at least from this first game, is not at all a civilization game. The theme is just a little part of the game and I never got the feeling to be a civilization evolving: it is quite abstract at the end. The mechanics are good and the game plays well in less than 2 hours. I think I would like to play it again but is not the "light civilization game" I was waiting for.

After Tempus was the time for Yspanha that is one of the game I like to play most in these days: it is quick, it is easy to teach and it is fun. And, until now, I always won!

We was four: me, Sassa, Marco and Dante's friend.

Me and Sassa have already played, the other two was at their first game. Since I got a lot of money in the first three days I try to play running for the building. I was lucky and I got enough camels to pursue my strategy. At the end of the first week I was last, since I got no points for tokens in the map but I was able to build 3 building (extra camels, extra money and extra tokens). The second days I played using 3 golds and I got a really lucky roll: I was able to full occupy all the suburbs in the richest neighborhood.

I won the game, in the end, with more than 25 points on the second. I got all 6 buildings.

I find Yspanha a great game: just a bit random driven but not too much. It could happens (like in this game happened to Sassa) that you are blocked since you are not able to get camels, but is not a common problem. At the moment one of the best Essen 2006 hits.

Finally there was time for a Football Tactics against Sassa. I loose the game 1-0 (but we played just half an hour). I confirm my impression: it is a funny soccer game, with a lot of randomness but funny. I like it

good play to all
Liga