|
News from the North: Roll through the Ages by Matt Leacock
It is Friday, 8.15pm, and the first night of the Ragnar annual bash in Derbyshire (really north Staffordshire but for a mere quirk of geography). Phil and Roger appear almost seconds after Kendall and Gary; Richard has been in situ a full half hour. A pulsating discussion ensues on the relative merits of fish and chips (Richard), takeaway pizza (Phil and Roger) and homemade sandwiches (Steve and Gary). And so to the first game of the weekend.
Phil has brought a new game along. His wife has continued her dalliance with show business and has just ‘played her game’ on Deal or no Deal (to be screened on May 19th – put in it your diaries now). “How much has she won?” Phil cannot say - apparently Channel 4 employ shady characters whose job it is to listen in on the conversations of ex-contestants. Any mention of the filthy lucre will result in them leaping out of their hiding places and making off with the ‘winnings’. The Ragnars are sceptical about how much Phil’s wife actually has won; this is based on a series of snidey remarks about the current state of Phil’s wardrobe, footwear, car etc On the other hand, he has been allowed to splash out on a new game – Roll through the Ages – so she must have won something.
Kendall in one of his forays North has already played this. He found it interesting without being completely blown away. According to Counter it is considered “addictive”. This might be a bit strong, but it has the honour of being the first game of the weekend. It is a smart-looking game – some nice cribbage-style boards, pegs, seven wooden dice and a chunky scorepad that promises many a game yet to come. Players in turn roll the dice Yahtzee-style – you can roll the dice up to three times – and use their results Civilization-style to develop your kingdom. ‘Workers’ allow you to build more cities (roll extra dice) or to construct monuments (extra Victory Points), ‘food’ allows you to feed your people, ‘coins’ provide you with spending money to buy developments (offering dice bonuses and Victory Points) whilst ‘goods’ give you the capacity to generate even more income. Muddying the waters are ‘disasters’ which provide lots of goods, but also, depending on how many you roll, penalty points.
The Ragnars – being Ragnars and being five – decide that, even though it specifically states that it is a game for two to four players, all five will play it. Phil does have to draw himself a little chart to take the place of a cribbage board, but that should be fine. At this point the designers would probably have leapt out of their hiding places and shouted ‘No! Four players yes, five players never!!” And how right they would have been - the game doesn’t so much ‘roll’ as creak along. Dicken at a very early stage demonstrates a knack for rolling three disasters (this exports three penalty points to each of the other players). Cue massed outrage. Roger is underwhelmed, Richard so-so whilst Kendall is particularly bitter. Phil enjoys it, whilst Dicken loves it. But then he has won at a canter.
To be fair Dicken, Phil and Jason return to it on the Sunday morning and play two further very enjoyable games. Certainly it works much the better for having fewer people. There is a suspicion that consistently rolling the three-disasters could be a game winner, whilst an early house rule increases the number of developments needed to trigger the game end from five to six. Nevertheless, a good buy and one that will no doubt appear regularly at future Ragnar bashes.
Return to top
|
