05-Feb-2008 All month   Big City It seems somehow appropriate that the first session report for ages should be on a game we haven't played for ages. In fact, this was the first time we'd played this game in over three years. Not surprisingly then, we needed a refresher. One thing we did recall is that the game can end in seconds if everyone passes in the first round. That's certainly one way to raise the number of plays per year. Being sensible gamers - yeah, right - we managed to avoid this happening. Previously we'd played with five players, and found the game okay but nothing special. We'd suspected that it would be better with three, but hadn't put the theory to the test. One thing we noted immediately is that it's much easier to get a set of three consecutive building permits, making it much easier to place the larger buildings. Of course that makes it easy to completely stitch somebody up by placing a park or factory across a particularly juicy spot. Steve was drawing all of the latter, much to Oggie's dismay. Eventually though he managed to place the first shopping centre for a nice 30 points, then nestled the other one up to it a couple of turns afterwards. Despite missing out on the opportunity to place either of the churches, this was enough to give him a nice lead. Scoring was fairly even after that, as the special buildings were running out, sohe managed to carry this lead out to the end. Well then, was it better with three players? I think so. It plays a lot more quickly, which is important as there's not much you can do during downtime. The numbers give more freedom of play, but also make it more important to watch out for big plays by your opponents. Though obviously we weren't watching out enough when we let Oggie take both shopping centres...   Scores : Oggie 139, Paul 114, Steve 101 Ratings: Oggie 8, Paul 8, Steve 8 Winner(s): Oggie