Downtime Habit

Today on Two-Player Tuesday we tackled Olympos again. We both like the game and its mechanisms but I have a problem with its inevitable "downtime". Since actions are paid for on a time track, and it is always the last player on the track who plays next, it is possible for someone who has, for example taken a "wonder" for seven time spaces, not to have a turn for a long time. Even in a two player game there could be two or three plays before he has another chance. If his opponent suffers from "AP" the wait can be huge and as it is more than likely that the other player's choices will affect his own, there is only a limited amount of advanced planning that can take place.

At one point I did the washing up and made a pot of tea while waiting for another turn. Still it was an enjoyable game and a very close one. My own cause was not helped by the Zeus card which compels one to discard all destiny cards. Although we were equal on Zeus points and this therefore affected both of us, Crabro only had only one card to my six. More importantly one of them was a star which I was about to to include in purchase of a wonder.

In the end I managed to obtain the wonder but didn't recover from the loss of the cards (six points in themselves, plus additional from their use). Only myself to blame for not using some earlier I suppose. The scores ended at 37-43.

As I declined another immediate return to Olympos we turned to a game I have been trying to get played for a couple of years: Dungeons and Dragons the Fantasy Adventure Board Game. This and two expansions were irresistible when they turned up very cheaply at a remainders book shop and a charity shop, because the components are so attractive. They have colourful specialist dice for example and most important of all have large and highly detailed "minis".

The game from Crabro's point of view had even more downtime than Olympos because as the "DM" he had only one turn in five at the best of times, and when the "heroes" were exploring a room without monsters or traps, he had nothing to do even when it was finally his turn. This game may have potential with higher level scenarios injecting more action and excitement and perhaps would become more interesting still with more people taking on playing the heroes but as it was the first two levels were very easy, and would have been even easier, I subsequently found out, if we had been playing it correctly.

If we never play it again I think it should still be possible to justify the low-cost purchase by using the lovely figurines in other games. It should also be possible to devise a way of playing it without a Dungeon Master, either solo or co-operatively.