A mini meet was held last night as I wanted to give El Grande a go. I recently picked it up as its in the top ten games on the geek and looked pretty good. After reading the rules earlier in the week I thought it looked like a very basic game and one that I was surprised had such a high rating.
Anyway, four of us sat down and started the game off, after the second round we realised something was wrong. We were playing the power cards wrong so started again. This started off well for me and even better in round 2 when I was able to bid the highest and use an action card to score a whopping 27 points. This put me well in the lead. for the rest of the game it was a race for second place. I think I finished on around 135 points, a very good game. Simple but very well thought out.
My luck turned for the next game, Mow is a card game about flies and cowes. Its all about playing numbered cards in order and not being unable to place a card. Its a fun game that is very easy to pickup and play. I came last after three appalling rounds where I picked up between 30 and 40 flies.
With an hour to go I pulled out a few games to choose and Blokus was picked. Four player Blokus is a very good game and one I enjoy playing. Lost the first game and won the second with only a single 3 point piece left that I was unable to play.
A diverse mix of games, area control abstract and flies. El Grande stood out and I was really impressed with it. Price point is maybe a bit high but it did come with 5 expansions so there is plenty of game play in the box.
Noticed that the Kingsburg expansion has just been released so that on a wish list, also the new Middle Earth Quest game has appeared out of nowhere. That needs a bit of a look to see what its all about. But above all the expansion for Pandemic is slated for this month and that's a must buy.
4 comments:
I'm glad to hear you liked El Grande. After you've played it a few more times, the game will flow much more smoothly, and you'll start to see more and more of the depth.
It's top ten for a reason.
El Grande is a fantastic game - although if you've bought it with the five expansions it's possible you are confusing rules.
Stick with the base game first, until you see all the myriad beauties of play, only adding expansions after 20+ plays.
As I recall the Dicentennial edition (or whichever it was with all the expansions) also had a number of misprints on the cards ?
[ie some cards with text missing]
I will check the cards for errors but everything seemed ok.
We didnt use any expansions, the base game is more than enough for now.
Yep, great game and one that will be played again soon I hope.
Post a Comment