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Anthony Boydell
United Kingdom
Unspecified
Unspecified
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...we were gathered there yesterday, in the presence of dog, for the playing of games, the supping of ale and the exchange of banter (both merry and witty).
Thus, it came to pass that Dominionican Brothers William, Benjamin and Anthony conjoined (in solemn prayer, naturally - and certainly no dirty habits) with Sister Rebecca of the Silent (Shhhhhh!) Librarian Order for a short evening of Keythedral followed by a punt (yes, you heard me: 'punt') at the Giant Paperclip Railways.
In Domino Tetris Et Filou Et Agricola Sancti...I'm-in.
Vespers
Brother Anthony was the last to arrive, having returned from an extended meditation ("I've opened a window but I'd give it a couple more minutes if I were you"), to find the others concluding a round of My Sheep / Your Sheep. Brother Benjamin was overly-proud as the victor (for which he will be flagellating himself later) while Sister Rebecca was cursing her misfortune and berating Brother William - whose had a fistful of her 'woolly friends'.
'And Keywood begat Keydom, who begat Keytown, who begat Keythedral, who begat Key Harvest, who begat Key Market. And Richard did gaze upon this catalogue and was most pleased.'
Pausing briefly to restock the Communion Wine, the Ga-Mass proceeded to a reading of the Keythedral rules (Breese, Chapter & Verse). Although Brother Benjamin and Sister Rebecca claim to have prior scholarly-knowledge of this text (from previous 'Councils'), it seems one too many Monastic home-brews had clouded their memory - hence, the need for a 'refresher'.
An initial set-up populates the 'Cathedral' with a set (for the game) of randomly-selected VP chips that need a variety of resources to be 'claimed'. Building the main playing area involves placing your villages (there are 5 numbered from 1 to, er, 5) one-at-a-time and a resource-producing octagon adjacent to existing tiles (4 are seeded at the very beginning). The aim is to be next to lots, and various, tiles and also to be AWAY from other players villages of the same number. This is because the first phase of each round is worker placement decided by a sequence of village numbers eg. the start player chooses 'all villages numbered 3' - players then, in order, place a worker in a resource octagon adjacent to their 3 village; once a 'field' is occupied, no-one else can go there. Villages allow single workers to be placed, but upgrading them allows TWO workers to be placed in that action. Thus, resource spaces are occupied (and players often cruelly 'shut out'). Players claim cubes of the appropriate resource type and there follows a second phase of rotating actions/passing where players buy bonus ('law') cards with one-off effects, swap basic resources for complex resources, upgrade their villages (for double placement) and, most importantly, buy VP chips from the Cathedral. Rounds continue until the last VP chip is claimed, then remaining resources and VP chips are totaled to discover the victor.
Keythedral is a delightful, quick (60-75 mins) area control/resource management game with some excellent opportunities to confund other players. What surprised me, apart from having taken this long to get round to playing it (it came out in 2002), is how fresh it seems in the current climate of Euro games; it would fit right in AND be up there at the 'top of the crop'. Thus, I would suggest that Mr Breese might consider a re-issue as there is a whole new generation of gamers who would pick this up and enjoy it immensely[1].
Brothers William and Anthony, despite this being their first encounter, took first and second places respectively, with Sister Rebecca in third followed by Brother Benjamin - who, in last position, seemed to have developed an annoying complaint.
Despite a (not-mentioned-before-but-now-suddenly-revealed) lumbar injury, Brother Benjamin agreed to a stand-up game of Paperclip Railways[2] using Brother Anthony's giant set. Sister Rebecca was the only one unfamiliar with this fasten-ating diversion and, after the briefest of rules explanations, we began. Within a couple of minutes, a stray canine from the adjacent refectory, decided to trot onto the play area and stand (stock still) staring at Brother Anthony's 'religious artifacts'. Once we had dispensed of this Hound of Hell, and closed the door for good measure, there followed a sweaty 40 minutes of bending, grunting and measuring. By the end, Sister Rebecca had scored admirably and beat the rest of us off.
Compline
Brother Benjamin and Sister Rebecca needed to retire early because of an ecumenical visit to Cardiff the next day. Brother William approved, whole-heartedly, of this evangelistic stance saying that he would rather take up a Missionary position than handle things alone in his Cell.
The Ga-Mass is ended. Go in peace to love, and serve, the Board
Les Notes En Bas De Page
[1] 2002, the launch year of this gem, was the first year that Surprised Stare Games exhibited at Essen Spiel! We brought Coppertwaddle with us along with an exciting array of props, drapes, paintings, pictures and other decorative ephemera. Our stand looked wonderful, Hall 9 roughly where Fragor now reside annually, but was next to an empty, unkempt plot. Well, it was empty right up until about 5PM on the set-up Wednesday when Richard Breese (of whom we knew nothing at that time) rolled up with trolleys of computer monitor boxes and blank wallpaper. He decanted the boxes (containing the Keythedrals), slapped the wallpaper roughly around the Stand and hand-wrote out pricing information with a big marker pen. A starker contrast of points-of-sale you would not find anywhere else in the Messe! Of course, Mr B is the pre-order King and the next morning - our first every day of trading at the Spiel - we watched in awe as a huge queue of eager Geeks snaked from his stand, blocking the front of ours, down Hall 9 - it's occupants desperate to pick up their limited edition gem before they ran out / were abducted by aliens etc. How we marveled at the astonishing ease with which Richard was off-loading his stock! How opportunistically we engaged several queue-rs in a quick 'Twaddle or two! The first seeds of the long, fruitful and rewarding friendship with Richard were sewn on that day...
[2] I would post a picture of the final 'board', but the carpet was so deeply patterned that you could barely see anything apart from the Station cards themselves *sad face* Note to self: take a large white sheet with you to Uk Games Expo...
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