The Tao of Gaming

More Scepter, Roads and Boats


Last night I played some 2-player Scepter of Zavandor. Six characters means fifteen potential matchups, and our three games took about three hours. I ran away with two of the games, but one was touch and go the whole game. I'm definitely enjoying the revival. And Zav graciously sent me another deck (which provides a 4th set of artifacts), so I can potentially set up anywhere from two to seven or eight players. Although I have to figure out some balanced variant mages. But not just yet.

After Roma and Starship Catan, we set up a four player Roads and Boats. It was the second play for everyone but one player, and I was closest to him, so when the opportunity came to thieve a pile of bricks and lumber, I took it. I probably should have pointed out the position to him. Actually, by the time I noticed things the opponent was in an unsolvable position ... not enough transport to cover all the goods. (I had a raft able to pick several target hexes).

And this is the issue with Roads. Optimization is nice, but stealing pays off. In fact, I missed a chance to steal from the co-leader later on, which almost cost me the game. So it's a three-hour (or more)that's mainly solitaire; but when you interact it's nasty. Turn order tricks and mine-poaching (for gold) are valuable. No doubt I could discover new tactics, but my desire fades. It's not out, but dimming. It's certainly no Indonesia...

Qarl (www):
I am quite impressed by Scepter as a two player game. It almost feels like it was designed to be two player. The competition for artifacts is very important, and the artifacts seem to go just at about the time Sentinels become viable. The end at 5 sentinels works much better than with any other number of players, and the scores can be quite tight.
9.21.2006 6:30pm