Monday 13th - Tower of Babel

Tower-of-Babel-WEB
Originally uploaded by coljen.

Only three players again this week, Richard was away in Austria, skiing again. I think I'm in the wrong job!!!! Anyway, this week the game on the table was Renier Knizia's, Tower of Babel. We had only played this once before so I though it time we give it another outing. This game is about building the eight wonders of the world. Players collect cards, water holes, camels, masons and boats. Each wonder has 3 discs on it, the discs are of the same types as the cards and each disc as a number. This is the number of cards needed to build that part of the wonder. The active player asks the
other players if they want to help build and each player makes an offer of cards. The active player can accept any of the bids as long as the total number of cards do not accede the number on the disc. If the number of cards is not enough he can make up the difference, or he can not accept any bids and supply all the necessary cards himself. Each player that supplied cards put one house on the wonder and the active player takes the disc. Every player that bid cards but had their bid rejected gets one VP for each card they offered. Also each player has a switch card, which he can offer with his bid or not, if his offer is accepted he does not put any houses on the wonder, the active player puts all the houses on, but he takes the disc. When all three discs on a wonder our built the wonder is scored. The player
with most houses takes the points for first, second most takes second, and suprise, third takes third. The player who initiated the scoring also takes a special card which can give special abilities, exchanging cards, more VPs and so on.
Also at game end VPs are gained for the number of discs held. So basically it's a majority occupation game with a few twists. It's a pleasant enough way to spend an hour, but I find it a bit dry. Garry had a bit of trouble with the bidding mechanism, the switch card is a tactic that can be used to good effect. So the result will come as no surprise.

Final Scores
Garry 101, Steve 86, Colin 80