9th Mar 2023 - Trickerion: Legends Of Illusion

• Recent games

It was a low-attendance week, and a week of heavy games - not sure if the two are linked? Anyway, we had an impromptu second Vital Night, with 2 of the 4 tables playing Lacerda games. Ed's group played a learning game of Weather Machine, while in the other room Pedro and Elsa brought The Gallerist. Dan was sadly not present to defend his status as the club's biggest Lacerda fan - he clearly has some competition.

This left Skymines as the simplest game at the club, though with a complexity rating of 3.8 on BGG, it would normally be among the heavier ones. David-K has advertised this one as being Mombasa "with only a couple of minor rules tweaks" - I've never played either, but it looks like a nice combination of mechanics with either theme. Graham suggested that the key to success was winding the other players up, but I'm sure he's doing himself a disservice: there's probably a bit more to it.

After my Lacerda outing with Vinhos last week, I found myself transported to the dark alleys of Victorian Vaudeville in Trickerion, as we competed to be the greatest magician in town. Any hope I had for a lighter game turned out to be an illusion, and I found myself trapped in a box of fiendish complexity with no hope of escape, sawn in half between the magician's workshop and the theatre, with Houdini channelled into my mind from beyond the grave.

This is a lovely thematic game and well worth the investment of brain power to learn how it all fits together. It's ultimately a worker-placement game, but with lots of little nuances and all set against a beautifully depicted steampunk backdrop. The complexity rating puts it right up there with the Lacerdas, but I felt that this one flowed much better once we got the gist of it.

Both the Lacerda games finished before ours - though Weather Machine only just. But we had started later, thanks to a thorough rules run-through from Simon. The highlight came halfway through the evening, though, when Simon pulled a set of home-baked cookies from his hat! (Well, strictly speaking, from a tupperware tub, which I guess is the 21st century / non-steampunk equivalent of a top hat.) Does the club have a policy on bringing in home-baked items? I think we approve 🙂

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  Ian

  I really like Trickerion and if you play with Magicians' powers I think it is even better. It does have a steep learning curve but once you understand how all the actions work then actually the hard part is essentially getting the right next-level tricks which require less to setup. I also have the academy expansion which changes the game play significantly.

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