Nige was upset for having missed out on San Marco last week so, as there were four of us, and Mark and I were happy to play again, we decided to let Nige have his way and experience this excellent Alan Moon game.
This game was a lot tighter than last week and the first round was very short. I forced Mark over the 10 point limit on the second turn by skewing the cards one way with a 7-1 card split. He accepted gladly and sat out while the rest of us played on for a further turn. The game could have gone to any of three of us (Mark was just a bit too far behind during the last round to be in contention). However, I managed to get a foothold in more regions for the final scoring and that proved to be the difference.
Having played three times now, I don't feel the downtime is an issue. This game was over in 90 minutes and there is enough going on that the uninvolved player is trying to take stock of board positions and possible actions that you can't get bored. The game is certainly one of the best I've played this year and it's a close call as to whether this or Capitol is my favourite Alan Moon release of 2001.
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