Earlier this evening, I was sitting quietly in a corner of the kitchen, reading my Kindle (finished rereading The Hobbit and now moved on to The Etymologicon), when news reached my highly tuned ears that there was an AdHoc Wallycon kicking off in town.
It's been a while since I have feasted in the halls of the Hidden Gamers, so I thought I'd pop down and see what they were playing.
The games gathering was, indeed, a last minute endeavour. It seems that no one had thought to advertise the event and, as a result, there were only the usual suspects in attendance. About nine people, spread across three tables, and each of them setting up the same game - Ora Et Labora.
I've heard very little about this latest hotness but was informed that it had been released at Essen and has only just came out in English - hence the reason that everyone, here, seems to have received it for Christmas.
You have to be brave to name a game with Latin words that sound like Bore and Laboured (yes, I know that the motto means 'pray and work') especially when you are Uwe Rosenberg and you have a track record of rather dull, over worked, games.
Still, I'll try anything once - even if the person teaching me is enthusiastically telling me it's a lot like Le Havre.
And, it is a lot like Le Havre. Get stuff, turn it into other stuff, get buildings to help get stuff and turn stuff into other stuff. Keep doing this until the game ends and then count your VPs.
In fact, over all, the only real difference from Le Havre is a neater way of keeping track of the stuff (a sort of rondel thing) and the fact that the players are monks rather than merchants.
As a game it sits proudly on the Meh shelf with Agricola, le Havre, Gates of Ennui and Merkator.
Uwe Rosenberg is like a latter day gaming Status Quo. All of his songs sound the same.
That's fine as long as you like a limited number of chord changes; I think playing the odd Agricohavror now and then is ok, but I can't see myself doing it that often.
Personally I'd rather be barrelling down the Anduin tow path, on a Segway wearing shades, fighting off in-coming Orcs.
Perhaps that's Uwe's next project.
Perhaps he's saving that for the difficult second album.
5 comments:
I like the Status Quo analogy - it never dawned on me before how prophetic their name was - incidentally did they have a difficult 2nd Album?
My uncle used to absolutely love Status Quo, I think he could even tell the difference between some of their tracks, his enthusiasm for it was infectious and at parties we'd all be head banging and laughing with him. I suspect this is where you are at with the "Agricohavror" genre - thankfully there aren't too many that wander around in the regions near to Gormenghast that are partial to it.
Crivens - there were three copies of it?
Next you will be telling me you know several people in your area with the deluxe War of the Ring...
:o)
James - no, I am not sure there was a "difficult 2nd album" for Status Quo. They just kept churning out the same one a la Uwe.
Chris - I kid you not. Three copies in play and (I did not mention this) one more on the available games shelf.
Sadly there are only two copies of Deluxe Edition War of the Ring within a 5 mile radius of Gormenghast. Some people are getting their priorities wrong.
As soon as I saw what the post was about I knew your reaction.
I expect this was the same for those hidden gamers ;-) Maybe they need to improve there hiding skills.
it never occurred to me that the hidden gamers were actively hiding. you may have a point :-/
that would explain the last minute invite....
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