Monday is the new Tuesday

This week's games day was Monday for a change, and for another we didn't play Memoir '44. We initially decided to play both it and Runebound, a game which has been sitting on the shelves unplayed for too long. However, I wanted to play it first for various reasons including being able to set it up beforehand and not take up Crabro's gametime with that, and a chance to get to know it before he arrived.

In the end it wasn't just the first, but the only, game of the day as, even allowing for the gossip, banter, tea, lunch and 'phone calls, it took something like five hours to resolve. Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable and immersive experience with plenty of tongue in cheek "role-playing" narration and dramatic readings of the flavour text.

The game is of the quest adventure fantasy type, which involves travel (using the mechanism of matching dice faces to types of terrain) and encounters which involve combat with an assortment of monsters or tests against your character's or allies' skills. There is a very large number of items available to buy to enhance your character's chances against the really evil foes you will meet later in the game, and the opportunity to trade experience for improved skills.

In the first edition base game, the object is to collect three runes or kill the big baddy (Magrath) and in the final phase Crabro and myself took one each of these approaches.

Crabro came out the winner as he managed to dispatch three of Magrath's minions to obtain the necessary runes while I raced down the board to attack the evil Lord himself. After a bruising first encounter I retreated to a nearby town to lick my wounds and I never got another chance to assassinate him as, in an epic combat against one of the Runelords, Crabro became the posessor of his third rune.

Unfortunately, owing to the length of time it took to complete the win, we decided that it probably wasn't suitable for the whole group on a Thursday night. I'm rather sorry for that as I would be happy to play it again and am intrigued to see how it changes with a lot more players.