Είναι όλα τα ελληνικά σε μένα ...

Tonight there were only four for Thursday Games Night and we played Olympos followed by Alhambra with elements of the fifth expansion: The Power of the Sultan.




Olympos was an attractive looking new (2011) game from Ystari designed by Phillip Keyaerts who also designed the Vinci reboot, Small World which I really liked.

I found I liked Olympos too but I had some reservations. Primarily the problem for me was the huge amount of downtime if you took certain actions which meant you didn't get another turn for some time.

Actions are regulated by a time track and certain actions move you a considerable way. The two main actions are expansion and development.

Development moves you a massive 7 stages on the time track and expansion can also mount up, especially if it involves "combat". Combat works on the basis that the attacker always wins but can get expensive in time terms if your opponent has a lot of "swords"

There are some nice and original-feeling mechanics here and an attractive board. The fact that the last player always gets to play next and can move a short distance on the time-track making him STILL the last player and hence the next to play, can mean it is a long time before your next turn. That aside though I enjoyed it and for once also won it.

Alhambra is a simple colourful and pleasant game which I invariably lose. Tonight was no exception, but for a change we introduced a couple of the many mini-expansions. These were the caravan and the art gallery from expansion set 5: The Power of the Sultan.

Like all the expansions to Alhambra that I've played so far, these didn't make huge changes to the rules, although we did find this time that the game seemed to take quite a bit longer and it almost looked at one stage as if the game would end before the second scoring round card had appeared.

There was some confusion over the scoring of this one. I noticed that ProfMudlark had moved Crabro's scoring token on after scoring green buildings whereas it was me who had the most and Crabro should not have been entitled to anything for that colour.

In the confusion, as scores continued to be put on, it took a while for me to be able to register my doubts so it was difficult to satisfactorily resolve. Sadly it would not have affected my position anyway. I think it might have taken the win away from Crabro and given it to the Professor though