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Geoffs Diary

10 Oct 2006

Tara - Seat of Kings

Tuesday we played a board game, but no ordinary board game, this was one set in ireland and to do with becoming King. The rulebook proved a little difficult for people to wrap their heads round at first (keep in mind none of the people around the table were stupid - despite how they might have felt while reading the rules).
It started well, with Barry setting out the pieces we each required, so far so good. We then kept ourselves occupied establishing if it was a pig on the cumnals or in fact something else entirely - the verdict was pig. Meanwhile Will was giving the rules a go, after a few minutes they changed hands, and then changed back once more.

We finished looking alittle perplexed, but eventually had an idea of what we were doing. It started off reasomably well, I wrestled with Graeme for control of a territory, he won out, but I captured an obscene number of his pieces for it. Meanwhile Will and Barry struggled to beat each other for another territory - eventually ending in Will's favour. I took hold of one area for myself, but then had to face off against Will for the final territory - one we each needed to win the game. Thanks to the turn order he was able to keep one step ahead of me and prevent me from winning, then a lucky traitor gave him a distinct advantage and slowed me down impressively. Meanwhile Graeme was fighting to retain his own territory from the interloper Barry while making a play for mine.

Will kept me just that step away from victory just long enough for Graeme to sieze my territory, meaning my winning another area still left me in the same position. Graeme had spent all his efforts on this and had therefore lost his own lands to Barry.
Barry was clearly pulling of some master-stroke, as he then finished his skirmish with Will over Will's land and was able to sieze victory from what had previously seemed like a nothing position. Obviously all part of his cunning plan, since none of us could even slow him down once he'd taken the first kingdom.