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We got another session of Ancient Civiliztions of the Inner Sea in on December 15th. Patch couldn’t make this one, but Jason did, for another four-player day. I’m satisfied to say that Jason came in with the same misconception on the conflict rules that I’d had, it needs a rewrite and re-layout. You see all the ‘stop’ conditions and stop reading. Mark also brought his deck shuffler, which sounds like a rock grinder, but is needed with all the reshuffles the game wants.

We did random assignment of nations, which ended with me and Mark playing Egypt and Troy respectively… for our third game in a row. Dave shifted from Carthage to Gaul, and Jason had Carthage, with a set Epoch III ending, as after last time it was apparent that would work out about right (which it did).

The three ‘veterans’ got off to strong starts, and Jason trailed behind. I had another Egyptian strong start, and after the first epoch was starting to pull ahead for a bit of a lead.

Which, of course, helped doom me. I didn’t really want that kind of lead, but it naturally happened. And of course, with Jason permanently in last place, all the southern and eastern barbarians hit Egypt. (In two four-player games, we have seen those two far more often than the northern barbarians.) I managed to get two wonders built, but one got buried just after I built it, though it did get restored by The Gods Smile at the end of Epoch II.

Epoch III got interesting. Jason had got Carthage’s act together, and joined the pack at the start of the epoch. Lead VPs went to Dave and Mark for a bit, but there was a lot fluidity in the scoring, and cards were going all over the place.

Epoch III ended as of the third turn, and the final scoring parts of the end were tense. After everything was counted, Dave/Gaul won with 73 VPs. Everyone else tied at 72!

Again, it’s looking like a good game for everyone. A few things are missed from Civilization (I miss trade and advancements), and Patch has commented on the relative lack of civilizations shoving each other; I think a five-player day will fix that last.