Tuesday 5th September - Cleopatra (at last)

Cleo3
Originally uploaded by coljen.

OK, so after last week's train problem, we finally made it to give Cleopatra and the Society of Architects another outing. We have only played this once before and I was the one fed to the crocodiles and I was determined not to be croc food again. This Days of Wonder game upholds their tradition of first class production values, the game is a wonder to behold. There was some speculation that this game was all glitter but no gold but I think our group begs to differ, finding a substantial game beneath the gloss. The mosiac garden is a game in itself and an integral part of getting rid of those pesky corruption amulets (CA). A cost I found out in our last game having built nothing in the garden.
Basically you are collecting resources and artisans to complete various sections of Cleopatra's palace, the more you build the more talents you receive, and talents = VPs at the end of the game. I was determined to get something in the mosiac garden and concentrated on building there first. Putting one of my Anubis statues there to claim the sanctuary. Richard as always was pleased that the hand limit was 10 cards and he still managed to exceed that, paying for it by collecting some CAs. I was trying to be very careful and not picking up CAs. The way the deck of cards is shuffled, half face up and half face down, gives you some interesting choices at the market stall. In the end I managed to build an obelisk, pair of sphinxes, and a doorframe connected to 7 sections of wall which gave me a healthy bank balance. Richard had managed to grab 2 sanctuaries which gave him the ability to get rid of 11 CAs at the end of the game. He needed that because he was picking them up like nobodies business. The priest's offering is an event that in our games has not been very frequent, in the first game it happened only twice, and in this game it looked as though it wasn't going to happen at all. Steve had used the Scribe to delay it by taking a die off of the altar. But eventually it did occur, I didn't know what to bid really, I had a healthy store of talents so I bid 12, just beating Richard who bid 10. Another 3 CAs discarded!!! We were quite near the end of the game now and Steve built the last bit to advance Cleopatra to the door of her palace.
After taking CAs for any tainted cards in hand we counted our CAs, Richard was the most corrupt by far and became crocodile food. We all thoroughly enjoyed the game and it will probably come onto the table a bit more frequently now. That said with Essen looming it will probably come behind the haul the Billygamers return with :)

Final Scores
Colin 54, Steve 48, Garry 40, Richard Eaten