Board Game Night Recap: A Pharaoh Rises!

This past Friday we played Age of Mythology. We were looking forward to this, especially after much Willie-bragging about future victories via e-mail. It would be our first gaming night after losing Nick (see A Time Too Short below) but I felt the return to some normalcy would be welcome; when the pizza came I dealt out an extra paper plate for Nick so he knows he’s with us in spirit in this and future contests.

Initial set-up: Dom and Mark pulled the Norse culture, whereas Willie and I drew the Egyptian. We considered swapping someone out for Greek, but decided to let fate rule, after shifting table positions so duplicate cultures were not back-to-back.

The game started fast, with early recruitment. Mark quickly played to type and beefed up his army, with the clear strategy of taking the Largest Army victory cubes at the end of each turn. He also built the first Tower to guard against attack on his fields. Willie meanwhile spent his money on buildings, favoring that route. Dom and I concentrated on acquiring land and made small additions to our armies.

Mark lead with an early attack on yours truly, but my chariots and war elephants held off the Norse hordes. The Egyptian spearmen easily held off larger units and after several units dropped with no losses on my side, Mark’s forces retreated. This gave me the opening I needed, and I quickly recruited mortal forces to my ranks, bolstered by a phoenix or two, to assume role as owner of the largest army. Dom meantime leaped ahead into the Classical Age, catching everyone by surprise.

Following turns saw Mark recruit and attempt to rebuild his weakened forces, Willie continuing to build, and everyone else jumping ahead into the Classical or Heroic Ages. I attacked Dom in an attempt to net a few victory cubes (Willie had grabbed an early lead in cubes and had no intention of losing his edge) and butchered his mortals with my chariots and scorpion men, taking a field. Willie soon attacked Dom, destroying his storehouse. Dom had never really gotten a foothold army-wise and this reduced his forces further, eliminating any real threat from my Norse neighbor to the left (a good thing, since Mark loves combat in AoM and similar games).

Latter turns saw Willie jump into the Mythical Age first, still leading in victory cubes. I managed to tie his amount of buildings and deny his latest Most Buildings victory grab. Willie attacked Mark and ended up in a war of tit-for-tat attrition, taking the worst of it. Mark later responded by inexplicably attacking me (I was doing well, but Willie was clearly leading and approaching the point of buying the Wonder). I eliminated a few of Mark’s large units, including a Troll, and my only loss, a single phoenix, was restored by my priest during the combat; Mark soon retreated.

The endgame saw me buying more spearmen to bulk up my army to 15 units, and then using a special card to change 3 of them into mummies (here’s to mummification!). I tried to keep pace with Willie’s Trump style building progress. By this point folks were quite savvy about using the Gather action at the right time to deny others resources. Dom in particular came out on the losing end so many times that throwing Dom a single cube almost became a running joke. Dom responded with a last, well-placed Gather action that gained him most every cube available. Willie played a special card that gained him his Mythical Hero—yikes!! I pleaded with the others to mount an attack on Willie and reduce his number of buildings, as I could not battle him directly (AoM limits attacks to those sitting next to you).

Alas, it was for naught. Willie reduced his building costs and succeeded in building the Wonder. The final victory cubes were assigned and Willie won at 11 cubes, just ahead of my 10.

It was an awesome game, enjoyed by all. We’ll have to give Willie his bragging rights this time, but I want a rematch (perhaps with Schizohedron joining us)! After all, losing by a mere cube is a lot to take…

Side Note:
An AoM fan named Michael Doyle has designed some beautiful alternate pieces and cards for the game. His ultra-cool site can be found here!