We'd not played this since I had joined the club, even though I believe it to be a very good game, fully deserving of the Spiel Des Jahres award this year. Others at the club were less keen and it became obvious why as the game progressed.

This is a game where spatial awareness is very important and Nige just could not get to grips with it. There is an element of luck in drawing useful tiles at the right time, but over the course of the game, the luck element usually evens itself out. One of the key battles in the game was for one very large city and four of us were in contention to gain the VPs. Depending on who drew the right tile, it was possible for Nige or I to take the city alone. However, Nige's pieces were separated out and Ben drew the vital piece to ensure the points were shared between Ben, Mark K and myself. At game end, Ben had managed to get better farmer positions than me and eased through for the victory.