10th Nov 2022 - Vital Night
by Robin. Wed, 25 Jan (Updated at Wed, 25 Jan)Newport’s place as the second-most prestigious board games club in the world – after Lisbon – was affirmed by Vital Lacerda’s visit to the club to play-test two of his new games: Inventions and House Of Fado. Hopefully someone who was at one of those two tables can provide a write-up? I looked in a few times but spent most of the evening upstairs: it was a busy night and so those of us not playing Lacerda games (and not afflicted by ligament damage) were banished out of the way in the old room, which is now the overflow room.
The 3rd Lacerda game of the night was provided by Michel, who brought in Railways Of Portugal. This is the usual RotW format, but with a very compact map which creates a different challenge from the other RotW games that I’ve played. I would have joined this one but all places were taken very quickly; I’d be interested to know if it was won by the person with the “hotels” goal card this time. The only game downstairs that was not a Lacerda game was Sabika, whose combination of a “really huge game board” and an injured player (Ian) made it unsuitable for the attic.
Upstairs, we had two great games going, whose complexity and playing time at least are worthy of the great Vital. Having said that, Anachrony was all done by 9:30; but we made up for it with Lignum, which ran on till 11, outlasting any of the Lacerda games downstairs. I’ve tried both of Alexander Huemer’s games now (David-E is a big advocate) and I definitely prefer this one to Imperial Steam: it is less complex, flows better and provides more of a tactical challenge – particularly in the “choose a cutting area” phase, which can be absolute agony…