5 players this week, which was a good number for Amun-Re. Looking back at my records I see that my previous play of this game was in December 2006, so I was well past due for another game, based on my usual thought that once every 6 months is a good rate.
After the old kingdom, Dave C had already moved into a good lead with 19 points, I think the usual 3 pyramids in a set, with most on one side of the Nile, 2 power cards and a temple. I think Mike was next up on 13 with the other majority, followed by Andy on 8, and Ben & I tied on 6, I had been unable to secure any useful power cards at that point, but I was holding 3, which I hoped to use in the new kingdom.
The new kingdom was a very fertile time, Andy had 17 farmers, while I had 12 and between us we were able to ensure that the income was at least 3 throughout, whereas it had not got above 2 in the old kingdom. I came unstuck on turn 5, when I placed a 0 point bid on Thebes (a good province, coming with 2 power cards) in the expectation that I would be able to move and grab a more useful province later. I was somewhat surprised that I was left with it, as players decided that they would not spend that round, I think the highest spend for any of the 5 provinces was 1. In normal circumstances I would have been happy to get such a province for nothing, but as things were it rendered 2 of my saved power cards useless. In the final round I made what turned out to be a mistake when buying stuff, I bought 4 building stones, which with a builder card allowed me to build a 4th pyramid in one province and leave 2 stone in another. I expected the 4 pyramids would frighten off any challenge for majority on my side of the Nile and I would be able to complete the pyramid in the other province (and a set) after the sacrifice. I should have bought another stone however because Ben did it across me by spending all his money to build to 5 pyramids in another province on the same side, so I was forced to use all my 3 picks from winning the sacrifice to build a 5th pyramid to match Ben, leaving the second pyramid (and a set) in the other province incomplete, so losing 2nd place (it was already fairly obvious at this stage that Dave was going to win). I may also have been better off spending a couple more in the sacrifice forcing the harvest up to 4, which would have earned me a couple more temple points.
In the final scoring Andy had most money (about 80) from Dave, them me (both of us in the 40's), leaving a dominant victory for Dave C.
Amun-Re 120 mins
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Player
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Posn.
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Points
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Dave C
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1
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42
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Andy
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2
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36
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Dave D
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3
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33
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Mike
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4
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32
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Ben
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5
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26
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I love all things themed Egyptian, so this was a good win ( and my first at Amun-Re AFAIR.) I only played one Power Card to score bonus points the entire game, and that was 'all areas away from the Nile'. It helped that three players including me, were looking for Camel income during the Old Kingdom, and I also had at least 1 '8' harvest card in hand
ReplyDeleteFollowing on from what Dave said however, on some rounds there was no competition for areas at all.