Issue 52 of Counter has just been published and runs to 84 pages this time. As is usual for the first issue of the year, several of the contributors run down their top 5 games of 2010: Lots of love shown for Navegador, 7 Wonders, London and Age of Industry but I was also quite pleased to see Greg Schloesser have Telestrations as one of his picks – not the usual Counter fare but an excellent game all the same.
There is also 45 pages worth of reviews including 20th Century, Alien Frontiers, Civilization, Rallyman, Troyes and Vinhos as well as many others. Also included are the usual letters pages, a summary of some Essen expansions and the Counter Guide to “Top and Tail Games”, otherwise known as fillers.
Just spent a nice sunny week in Lanzarote. On this occasion my Mhing box contained the following games: San Juan, Wyatt Earp, Meuterer, For Sale, Mr Jack Pocket, Die Wiege der Renaissance and Haggis. We managed to play five of the seven, with a first play for Meuterer which I enjoyed as a three player but am sure four player would be better. The two that missed out were Die Wiege der Renaissance and Haggis. Jan and Chris probably enjoyed For Sale the most because it’s short and they both won a game while I did appalingly in each game.
This week, there were five of us and I’d brought along Mousquetaires du Roy (The King’s Musketeers), which is a semi-cooperative game of one player, Milady, against the rest, the Musketeers. I decided to be Milady, as I more or less knew the rules and suspected that her role was likely to be less interesting than the others. And it certainly is, as Milady’s decisions are fairly limited in terms of working out which adversaries, traps and location to choose on each turn and then watch while the Musketeers do their thing. That said, Milady is still involved in the dice-rolling combat but she has no decisions to make. I made up for the lack of decisions by ensuring that my dice-rolling was on top form, making it very hard for the musketeers. Milady never really seemed troubled and easily defeated the Musketeers in La Rochelle with them still only part way through the second quest.
We then shifted from Paris to London for a game of Reiner Knizia’s Members Only, which I appear not to have played since 2002. This is a great 45 minute game of finely judged betting and card play, which this time turned into 90 minutes of jockeying for position as nobody seemed to be able to score any points in the Cup o’ Tea category, while all of the others were close to getting maxed out by most players. Eventually, Mark K managed to get a score in Tea and that proved to be decisive as he edged victory by a single point from Steve. Good game but went on a bit too long on this occasion (even without Guy!)
SoRCon4 will take place from 2pm Friday 25th February 2011 through to 6pm on Sunday 27th February 2011. The convention will take place at the