Sunday 15 July 2012

Pillocks of the Earth

It was a balmy Sunday evening and Sam and I met up for a brief game of Pillars of the Earth. A new game. New vistas, new adventures. And new bloody rules.

Pillars of the Earth is a nice game, but the rule book makes it far more complicated than it is. It begins by saying the winner is the one with the most victory points, but then doesn't say how to get those victory points until about three pages in. Actually, until then it doesn't even mention them, making the rule book feel like one of those "clever" films which suddenly includes a minor character from the very beginning as a pivotal point at the end and you're supposed to remember them and if you don't then that means you're stupid.

I hate that sort of film.

But once you start to play it, it starts to make more sense. First, workers go to collect resources or buy craftsmen. Then master builders go to get extra powers like "get more workers", or "avoid taxes", or "go to the market". Not really super powers, but powers nevertheless. And then finally the craftsmen give you victory points according to the resources you've got, and the cathedral is built.

By happy chance, in one pile of cards (out of four different piles needed in this game) the last two cards turned over involved a bonus due to the cathedral being nearly finished, and a bonus due to the king visiting to see the cathedral. Total luck - there's nothing to stop these from being the first in the pack - but it did give a lovely ending to the whole evening.

We weren't at all sure we'd got the tactics right, but Sam got a healthy 58-ish, to my 35-ish, even though he'd spent most of the time in poverty compared to my gold-rich lifestyle. It was an interesting game of worker placement. Like a Cuba-lite or half-Stone Age/half-Agricola, but perhaps not as good as that might sound. It's definitely a game to be played twice, and I'd be up for that, since I never have to read that rule book again.

But, honestly, Joe: you need to write something about how to explain rules properly. You owe it to the gaming community.

4 comments:

  1. Well it's already been done far more comprehensively than I could ever manage (but with more silly voices) by the How to Play podcast by Ryan Sturm. Though he's unlikely to cover Pillars since he recently listed it among his least favourite games; probably because he's such a Caylus fan, a game to which pillars owes a great deal, I think.
    But thanks for the vote of confidence!

    When we played at Anja and Steves I don't remember the rule book being too bad; I do remember their French lodger, fresh off the ferry, looking slightly shell-shocked after the 3 hour game - to this day the words 'Voulez-vous jouer un board game?' strike fear into her heart I expect.

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  2. I liked the game itself. Not up there with Stone Age perhaps but a solid 7. Or 6 perhaps. Maybe I'll decide after another play.

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  3. I think the odd thing about the rules was it encouraged new players to get stuck in but without understanding all the mechanics it's hard to know what to do.

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  4. Ah Pillars. It hasn't got out of the box much in our house, but not through lack of trying. We recently got the 6 player expansion too, but I think that's endeared it even less to the masses. I'm keen to give it another try though.

    By the way, those last two cards are deliberately placed at the bottom of the pile if my memory serves me correctly... Intentionally placed to give the whole evening a happy ending. How many games can you say that of?

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