Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Stone Age - The Verdict!

As I said in my last post, on our visit to Salzburg last week I purchased the game, Stone Age. Richard who was with us had said that it was a very good worker placement game. Well, I like the mechanic of worker placement so bought a copy. And I must say that I haven't been disappointed. The production quality of the game is excellent, all the components are top quality and the board and player boards are very in keeping with the theme with excellent graphics.

I won't go into the game in too much depth here as I expect a lot of you have played it but suffice to say it is a very clean design and everything falls into place very easily. Tina and I played 3 games over the last week and enjoyed them very much. Tina picked up on the rules very quickly and our games were very competitive. In the end I won 2 and Tina won 1. I also play online at Yucata.de and they have Stone Age. I played a 2 player game and won! The implementation on Yucata is also very good.

Players who also own maybe Caylus or Pillars of the Earth (like me) may hesitate to get another worker placement game but in my opinion this one is very well worth adding to your collection.....

Happy Gaming!!

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

A Trip to Salzburg


Last week I had an email from a pal, Richard, that I used to play games with in the UK, he was in Austria skiing and wondered if we could meet for lunch and chat. Well, that sounded fine to me so last Saturday Tina and I caught the post bus and journeyed to Salzburg. The weather had been snowy on and off all week but Saturday it wasn't too bad.

We had arranged to meet at the game shop near the Mirabell Platz (where else). The shop has two doors, a small one for children, and a larger one for more children (ie adults!!). After meeting we of course went into the shop and had a look at what they had to offer. After my last post I had to be careful as space was getting a bit tight, but what the hell, you can always fit in another game right!! Richard was definitely tight on baggage allowance so he resisted the temptation, but I succumbed and picked up a copy of Stone Age. An excellent worker placement game that Richard had played and warmly recommended.

Then we walked towards the old part of Salzburg, crossing over the River Salz and had lunch in a very old traditional Austrian restaurant, the Sternbrau. After a very leisurely couple of hours, we took Richard to visit the English Shop which is run by Chris Clee. They sell lots of typical things that you can't get in Austria, like Cheddar cheese, suet, English beer and loads of other stuff. When we arrived Chris was watching Spurs v Blackburn on his computer. Oh no, Tina was hard pushed to drag me away, Spurs being my team. They were winning 2-0 when we left so that was OK.

We then strolled back towards the bus and train stations. It had been a very enjoyable day, we hadn't seen Richard for two years or more, so it was great to catch up. And I bought a game as well!!

As we travelled back to St. Wolfgang on the bus the snow started with a vengeance and by the time we got home it was set in.

Now.........let's tear that shrink wrap off....he! he!

Happy Gaming!!!