"we shall have to teach perfidious albion a lesson! - the scarlet pimpernel

albion is a game that i picked up during a tanga special back when tanga still ran daily game specials, and i'm pretty glad that i did.

created by klaus-jurgen wrede (the same game designer that created carcassonne) and distributed by rio grande games, albion is a game of territory building, area control and influence, and worker placement. the basic idea is that each player represents an emissary from the roman empire looking to conquer and settle the fair isle of albion (britain for those of you who may not be familiar with one of its proto-celtic names).

the trick to albion is to balance expansion of your settlements and fortresses with the build up and collection of existing and new resources. meanwhile each territory has native picts that may be friendly or hostile. expand too fast and you may find yourself surrounded on all sides by angry naked aboriginal brits painted blue.

starting in southeast britain, each player automatically starts with two resources (fish and lumber). as you progress north, there's opportunity to begin quarrying stone and mining gold. both of which will be needed to improve your existing settlements and fortresses. settlements allow you to recruit legionnaires (to protect your territories from hostile picts) or settlers which allow you to build multiple times a turn. fortresses increase the speed at which your legionnaires and settlers can advance.

each turn, a player can either move and build, or collect resources. so once the rules are learned the game moves pretty quickly. 

i felt pretty confident about my expansion and conquest, but in the end, alan was the winner of the game with some savvy movement, a clever fortress placement (for some speed at the end of the game), and the fact that he managed his resources better than i did.

i like albion a lot, though i feel that the hostile native/angry pict mechanic doesn't pose enough of a threat.  though to be completely honest, they are more of a spoiler for the players rather than an objective all their own. what really surprises me is that albion is rated pretty low on boardgamegeek. the rules are pretty tight, simple, yet elegant. the components are all of good quality, and everyone i've ever played it with like it and would consider owning it. it's just one of those games that fell through the cracks.

if you get the opportunity, give it a try. i bet you like it too.

o.m.*

the really interesting thing about trying to do something like 30 games in 30 days is the amount of excitement it's generated among my friends who i had no idea liked board games. so for everyone that's helped out this month:  thank you from the depths of my geek-driven heart!

now onto the next game!

this one is a classic from way back in 2000! carcassonne!

playing this one with me are jacob and addam!

for those who are unfamiliar with carcassonne, it is a tile-laying and area control game inspired by the roman and medieval influenced city/fortresses of carcassonne in the french region of languedoc-roussillon. each player takes a turn selecting a random face down tile and putting it into play. the only limitations are that it must be placed so that features remain contiguous (i.e. a road can't just run into a wall, field or city section, nor can an internal city section be played next to a field). my copy of carcassonne has "the river" expansion which is used to begin the game.

above you can see the first tile played off the river is a road tile that matches up with the bridge crossing the river. as the game progresses, the cities and fields begin to take shape, and players vie for points by placing their meeples.

here i've claimed 2 road sections and a monastery (i'm playing yellow). jacob (green) has a farmer in a field and a knight in a city, and addam (black) has a robber claiming a road and a farmer as well.

each player scores points during the game for completing a city, a road section on which they have a robber, or place 8 legal tiles around a monastery. here is the scoring track about mid-game:

addam is in the lead, with jacob and i hot on his heels!

eventually, we completed the game and here's what the end board looked like:

thanks to several farmers and completing a monastery, I was able to leapfrong past jacob and addam (who were tied for second place) and claim victory.

with its simple tile laying mechanic and scoring, carcassonne is another great eurogame that can be used to introduce folks to truly intelligent and skill based boardgames. thanks to jacob and addam for playing!

*original meeple

box photo property of rio grande games.  all other photos property of little mens!