There were eight of us this week so an even split of two groups of four was called for. My table started with Elysium, which is the newest game from Space Cowboys and, although this one doesn't have the stunning components of Splendor or Black Fleet, the game is more gamer's fayre than those earlier releases. Elysium is played over five rounds and is a game of card drafting from an open display, where you initially try to combo those cards for their powers but then need to move them into sets in your score area to grab victory points. However, there's a nice timing dilemma as you can usually only move a limited number of cards to your score area (the Elysium) based on one of the quest cards that you draft for the round.

This was a nice game although, with it being a first play, it took a while to work out what all the card powers in the display would do, so the first couple of rounds took a bit longer than they should. The game also has good replayability as the cards you draft are made up of five out of eight possible combinations of card sets. Our game was very close - well, at least it was between three of the four of us, as I neglected to spot the in-game VP-generating opportunities. As it was, just one point separated Andrew, Guy and John, with Guy having just three coins more than John to take the win.