Thursday 25 October 2012

Gentlemen, the King!

Since we Bracknell fellows combined evenings and became a trio, I have been itching to break out one of my favourites El Grande. Back in the fledgling days of eurogames this was the daddy of them all. I was hoping that in the 5 odd years since I last played it could still stand up against todays flashier offerings.

not that exciting

Because, one of the first things that strikes you when you get all the components out is how dull it all looks. When James went through the rules on Sunday evening he said it was touch and go whether he would make it to the end of them. I reassured him that gameplay was a lot more fascinating and onwards we went. I took up an early lead with my central but highly prized territory of New Castille and strong bidding for some of the choicest cards. James adopted a cautious opening and concentrated on filling his court with caballeros and Paul reignited his passionate love of the Castillo. With my early dominance being slowly eroded, a turning point occurred when Paul intrigued his way into my home territory. Spending the next turn repairing the damage I didn't notice a rather plum card for James sitting there, "score the 5 regions". He was in first place in all of them and raced up the track only for the next round to present the same card, which he plucked out again as Paul decided on a better move for him.

A late rally from me could do nothing to prevent a debut win for James who played a canny game and took advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves. All three of us felt that the game had stood the test of time and for me it's always been the game with the most replayabliity that I've owned. Not as heavy as Agricola and not as light as, say, Ticket to Ride it has a balance which is mirrored by it's in game mechanics. You might be able to tell I like it….

James - 138
Chris - 134
Paul - 122

There remained enough time for James and myself to have our posteriors returned to us by Paul in Alhambra. By developing possibly the most expansive collection of buildings I've witnessed he romped home to a 70 point win and maybe the largest 3 player score.

Paul - 184
James - 114
Chris - 111

4 comments:

  1. Posting that for you Chris I was shocked that El Grande didn't come up as an autofill option in the labels. Have we really not played it in that long....? Terrible state of affairs.

    It remains a classic for me too.

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  2. That's a whopping Alhambra score by the way. Pretty sure it's a record for us.

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  3. From the first scoring round Paul had a wall of around 20 and was 1st place in towers. Steam rollered us!

    Thats a great picture. It's probably full of brightly coloured advisors.

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  4. the real castillo (made of cardboard) stands up straighter than that one

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