Tuesday 27th June - Cartagena/King Arthur Cardgame

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Originally uploaded by coljen.

So we were to be three this evening, but after a long day of meetings in Birmingham Richard finally made it. On the table tonight is Leo Colovini's 2000 game Cartagena, and Reiner Knizia's 2005 cardgame, King Arthur.
I think everyone had played Cartagena except me, but not with the full advanced rules. This involves each player trying to move their six ‘pirates’ through the tunnel to the waiting ship to escape. To do this you play cards matching symbols on the board and move a pirate to that space. Or move a pirate back to the next occupied space and pick up cards. That is it basically, but we played open handed so we could each see everyone’s cards in hand. Also there is a row of 12 cards from which you pick up cards to replenish your hand. This makes the game a lot more challenging with more information you can plan your moves a lot better. I think the general consensus was that this made the game a lot better. The game plays fairly quickly, our game lasted just over the hour and flows along quite nicely. You could get bogged down trying to over analyse the board but I think you have to play it quick and dirty. More fun!!!

Final Scores (to get all his pirates on the ship)
Colin , Richard, Steve, Garry