It was a very quiet night, so we decided to leave the feature game for another occasion and started with the gorgeously produced Helios instead. This was a new one for all of us, so we had the inevitable long set-up and rules reading – it sounded both complicated and simple.  Players take the role of spiritual Guardians, tasked with forging and evolving the cultures assigned to them by Ahau, the Sun God. During the game, Players will collect resources, explore lands and build temples and other buildings.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312

The power of the sun drives everything in the game as players try to build temples, expand cities, and generally make their civilization flourish.  Players can also harness other realms and use their power and invention to further develop their culture.  Development can only succeed, however, with sufficient raw materials which are limited and become increasingly expensive as players build their temple.  The game’s currency are Glass mana-stones, which can be used to recruit people.  Victory Points are awarded for buildings, the number of recruits, the collected energy (or mana).  Additionally, as the game progresses, the sun moves round the player’s board and bonuses are awarded depending on the way the civilisation has evolved.  The winner is the Guardian that has the most advanced culture after a given number of rounds (i.e. the player with the most Victory Points) and receives full blessing from Ahau.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312

Every part of the game was simple, but how much we had to do and the best order to do them in seemed complicated.  We eventually found it flowed quite well, however, and we found the game easier to follow than we expected.  This did not stop the confusion over what strategies to employ and which actions were best though.  Throughout the game no-one had any inkling as to who had worked it out best and was in the lead.  Purple built many tiles and buildings, while Black eventually went for a small island with temples and thus a fast moving sun to gain the regular rotation points.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor duchamp

Burgundy went for a mana strategy from the beginning, giving him the choice of characters.  Inevitably, he took the Treasurer which gave him extra points for remaining mana and resources at the end of the game. meanwhile, Green went for a building strategy as he gained the Architect which gave him extra points for every building and temple. This character alone, netted him twenty-seven points.  This gave a total of one hundred and seven points, just three ahead of Burgundy and six clear of Black.  Everyone was amazed at how close the final results were, and as we put the game away, we decided that we liked it, but had yet to really work out how best to approach it.  We’re all looking forward to an interesting second game.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312

Despite the box claiming it should take less than an hour, we had taken the best part of two hours excluding set-up and rules reading!  So, we decided to play a shorter game next that everyone knew, and chose Splendor.  This is an engine building game that we’ve played quite a bit since last year when it received a Spiel des Jahres nomination.  The idea is very simple – on their turn players can either take chips, or use chips to buy cards from the display drawn from three different decks.  The cards in the display can then be used to help buy other cards and sometimes also yield victory points.  The winner is the player with the most points at the end of the round when one player reaches fourteen.

– Image by BGG contributor duchamp

This was an intense game with close scores all the way to the end and amazingly the deck feeding the first row completely exhausted.  In the end, it was a close contest between Black and Burgundy as to who could close out the last few points.  Black just didn’t have enough in his last turn to buy anything, mostly because Green had nabbed the card he wanted.  So Burgundy took the spoils to finish the night.  Just the two games played, but both were close-fought and interesting.

– Image used with permission of BGG contributor punkin312

Learning outcome:  Always allow at least two hours for a new game, whatever the box might say!