12th June - Tempus

No session last week, due to stuff....work and things, anyway tonight the Martin Wallace game Tempus was on the table. Only 3 of us as Richard was in Birmingham again. I had played once before, Steve 3 times and Garry hadn't played at all.


Tempus board - mid game

Billed as a civilisation game that clocks in at under 2 hours I found it more accessible than the other Wallace game I've played, Byzantium. Steve ran through the rules mainly for Garry but I definitelty needed a refresher. First off you go round the table placing the terrain hexes which make up the playing area. This placement can be crucial as can the position you place your first pieces on the hexes, as it turned out Steve was first to place his men and picked the cornfield rich area in the south, then it was my turn and of course I chose to place my men in the north as far away from Steve as possible. When Garry placed his pieces I immediately saw that I had chosen badly. I am yellow and Garry was red, and you can see from the picture that I was trapped in the northern area and to expand would have to fight Garry. Steve had a relatively easy position with loads of space to expand unchallenged in the south.


Steve comtemplating his next move

Winning the progress position is very advantageous, and Steve won the first era and got 2 ideas cards, I won the next one then Steve won every other one until the end of the game.
Playing catch-up is always a disadvantage and with my position in the north I could never get enough progress points to challenge Steve. Fighting is a straight forward affair, but being caught without any cards in hand is bad as you never have any options available and can't even bluff your way to a victory. My bad initial placing had always doomed me and I knew I would be fighting Garry for second place. In the end Steve had a very comfortable victory and Garry an easy second. Even though I had come last I enjoyed playing Tempus and would readily play again, just give my initial placing a lot more thought.


Steve counting up the points at game end

Final Scores (men+cities+flight)
Steve 27 (11-13-3)
Garry 20 (6-14-0)
Colin 17 (4+13-0)