For the first time in some while, there were four of us this evening, and this presented the opportunity at last to try Industrial Waste. This has been on the "to play" pile since the beginning of the year but we've always had too many until now. This is a light business game by newcomer Jurgen Strohm, and involves developing your efficiency as an industrial producer in terms of raw material input, labour and industrial waste. Profit from the production of goods plays a secondary role, as cash generated only counts for half the victory points that innovations do. The play is pretty simple and relatively fast. and there are a number of different strategies you can employ to move you towards victory.

In our game, it took around two hours to complete ( which I gather from other reviews is longer than normal). However, this was due to us drawing a very high number of accidents. At one stage, an accident occurred on each of three or four consecutive rounds. One rule we managed to overlook was that, in order to progress one of your innovation tracks, you need to pay 5 million euros. This meant that money wasn't quite as tight as it would otherwise have been, but it was still fairly tough and Nige was forced to take out a loan, which he found himself unable to pay off. Ben eventually managed to reach the maximum space on the growth track, triggering the end of the game and, although it was pretty tight between Ben and me, Ben just edged ahead for victory.

I thought the game was pretty good and if it had been half an hour shorter, I would have rated it higher. However, I think everyone enjoyed it and I am keen to try it again using the correct rules and hopefully with fewer accidents.