So we gathered today to play a new game to our group called Magna Grecia, by Leo Colovini of Clans fame and Michael Schacht. It took some time explaining the lenghty rules but the game is easy to understand and play.

Here is a picture of the cover of the game.

So we started by setting up the game, which doesn´t take much time. I was orange, Nelson was brown, Artur was yellow and Rui was red.

Here´s the game right at the start.

Being the first game of Magna Grecia we played we were unsure what to do first. I started out in the south, Nelson went to the east, Rui in the west and Artur started north. We started by founding a city in the green villages and building roads from there, not expanding any city. This game has a good learning curve and by the 4th turn we were able to understand a bit better the game.

The game after the first turn. Everyone started far away from each other.

The first things we did was to take control of the nearest oracles. They are worth 4 points each. Then we started to approach each other, which is good. You see, this is kinda like a cooperation game, where the cities we build will be worth more if they have as many roads connected to them as possible. Isolated cities not only generate few points but are also a waste of resources. You want to have lots of connections to your city. So as we approached each other we started to connect our roads to other cities but ours.

Around halfway through the game. Cities start to grow and everyone starts to connect roads in every city possible.

We didn´t buy many markets to place on other cities but our own. By the time I wanted to build markets it was too late, as the price of the market I wanted to place was too high for my meager points. In fact, very few markets were built, although Artur did buy some excellent positioned markets. As the game evolved everyone was connected to everyone in the end. I must mention something about this game, the order of the players isn´t decided at start, it´s decided by the game itself. This is very good, since it doesn´t give a first player an unneeded advantage. By the end of the game, there were markets everywhere, roads were exhausted and cities had grown quite large.

The game near it's end. As you can see, we tried to connect as many cities as possible.

In the end, Rui was the winner, I came up second, Nelson came up third and Artur was last. To note that the difference of points between first and last was only 5 points, which is a sign of a well-balanced game. It may be abstract and a bit dry but I recommend this game. It´s quite fun.

Well, well... the A.A. Gamers together again. Note the neat mugs! Yes... Artur's good old grog mugs! I wonder how long these will last...