Game Night was scheduled to be at Riverton Drive on January 27, but owing to the untimely illness of one of Bob's youngsters, plans were hastily made to take it on the road to Murray Equipment, the old standby emergency site.

Tom, Brian, Rob and I assembled around the table for a game of Antiquity from Splotter Spellen. Bob dropped in for a quick delivery fly-by, but was unable to stay.

Antiquity proved longer than advertised, perhaps because it was our first play, but it made for a great game. The idea is, starting with six stacks of wood and four or five guys, to stock a city and produce enough food to keep its residents alive. To do this requires a careful balance of building in the city and building in the countryside (which produces raw materials but spoils the area) so as to provide enough food, not too much pollution, and hopefully some luxuries. To win requires the building of a cathedral, which is then dedicated to one of five saints, which determines the victory conditions. Each player may choose a different saint, and so may have a different path to victory.

The game started slow, as could be expected with only six stacks of wood. Eventually Rob and I dedicated our cathedrals to the saint that provided unlimited storage space but required us to stockpile 3 each of 8 different goods, not all of which were easily aquired. Tom and Brian opted for the saint that allowed re-location of buildings on the (rather restrictive) city grids and required the player to build every building to win.

The game picked up speed in the middle. Tom used forced labor to good effect while Brian built a market and assembled what he needed through trade. I built a faculty of Biology, and kept my workers in the field planting and harvesting the things I needed to win. Rob had a more difficult time, advancing slowly. When cities began to expand I began to worry, having no clear path for expanding my own. But this was a case of looking for growth rather than keeping ones eyes on the victory conditions; I didn't really need to expand, as I could gather all the products I needed in the small spaces around my initial city.

I ended up fulfilling my victory conditions a turn or two before Tom and Brian would have. I was able to produce a large amount of "stuff" - especially food - and then trade it to Brian and Rob (who also had a market) for the things I wasn't producing.

I really enjoyed Antiquity, and look forward to playing again sometime. While it took a rather long time - about 3.5 hours perhaps - I think this playing time would decrease in the future. Antiquity isn't a difficult game, but it does have a bit of "fiddliness" to it, so that players have to pay attention to the costs and benefits of each building. It is also generally unforgiving, as failure to correctly plan in the city building phase for what you're going to need in the country building phase can make an unhappy player. I think we each felt that at times, as we got to the point where we could execute our master strategic stroke, only to find out we were a laborer or stack of wood short. That can be fun, too...when it happens to someone else.

All told, another good Game Night...and many thanks to Brian for arranging the venue on short notice, and to Mr. Murray for allowing us the use of his facility. It's good to know people who know people.

The next Game Night will be Feb 10, back at Murray. This time Brian is the official host, and has selected Serenissima for play.

Although I never found my balance to Antiquity, and more so, never really had a functional "master plan" to winning, learning the art of the balance, was very fun. Within the game flow I connected with the imagery of the game as well, painting a picture of the town being built, woodsmen out chopping and land resources being pillaged & restored. A good game for sure.