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Theme and Primarily Goal
I played this game yesterday at Spiel in Essen.The theme is self-explanatory. There's a really big fire in London, and your primarily goal is to save your houses from burning down.
Brief overview of the Game
At the start of the game everybody will distribute their houses at random around London. For every house of your colour that won't burn down you'll receive 2 victory points. You'll also receive three personal cards (these are hidden from your opponents) that represent special Districts in London like for example 'The Tower'. If you manage to keep the Tower from burning down you'll get 6 vp at the end of the game. Next to the hidden cards and houses you can score points by putting out fires.
The main mechanic of the game is of course the spreading of the fire. Everybody receives 5 cards that they can use to determine the way the fire spreads. By using these cards you try to direct the fire away from your own houses towards your opponent's houses. In the city there are some 'bands' that will help you to contain the fire. Under your lead they're able to put out a fire.
What I like about the game
The spreading fire really provides a lot of excitement. Will you be able to save your houses from the closing inferno? I really liked the mechanic of the spreading of the fire. The rules of the game are easy to learn and the game has a nice amount of strategy involved. I certainly would like to play the game again.
What I didn't like (or less)
The game includes a certain amount of randomness. My green houses were for a big part concentrated near the start of the fire in Pudding Lane in the green and blue area, making it more difficult from saving them from burning down. If your houses are located in the east you're probaly better off since the fire is more likely to spread to the west. There are more cards that direct the fire to the North-West just like the real fire in 1666. This game certainly has a luck factor. I didn't found it too disturbing, but it could be frustrating.
Appearance
The game has a nice colourful detailed map of London. It's a clear map, with the names of all the districts. Houses are made of wood just like the ones from Catan. The fire is represented by long red cones. You are represented by a classic pawn. Personally I would've liked it if the fire was represented by a token that really looked like a flame. I find the red pawns a little bit too abstract. The same for the pawns that represented the bands and yourself. They probably used the cones for the fire because you can put the bands over the fire to show the fire is contained. Nevertheless I would've prefered a flametoken. If a fire is contained you could lay the firetoken down for instance. These tokens will do the job, but don't expect anything fancy.
The board itself, altough colourful and detailed, is a little bit to jolly in my opinion. It should ooze the happening of a big fire more like the box does. Pudding Lane for instance is from the start of the game up in flames, and that's shown by being coloured red. I would've liked to see some drawn flames in Pudding Lane. I think the map could've used some more flavour like having a (drawn obv.) burned edge for instance. I liked the special district cards though. Nice detailed illustrations.
Verdict and rating
Most of all I liked the game. I wanted to play the game again, and that's always a good sign. It was easy to learn, and we all enjoyed the game. It's an exciting game, that provides enough strategic thinking on a level that'll keep casual gamers interested in the game as well. I think it has enough replayability. Personally I would've liked to see some better looking pieces. That was the only thing that kept me from buying this game. Maybe there will be an even more luxurious version of the game in the near future, and I will keep the game in mind.
Rating:
  
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G. Gambill
United States
Shawnee on Delaware
Pennsylvania
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This game sounds very close to the "run" phase of The Downfall of Pompeii. It was on my watch/wish list, but now it sounds a little too familiar. If you've played Downfall, I'd be curious if you agree or not and why. Thanks for the review! The reviews from people at Essen are always very helpful when I make my decisions on how to make myself poor in November and December
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Regarding the initial placement of the houses:
Remember that you put 5 houses of each colour in each of the London districts. So you can't end up having all your houses close to Pudding Lane.
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ggambill wrote: This game sounds very close to the "run" phase of The Downfall of Pompeii. It was on my watch/wish list, but now it sounds a little too familiar. If you've played Downfall, I'd be curious if you agree or not and why. Thanks for the review! The reviews from people at Essen are always very helpful when I make my decisions on how to make myself poor in November and December
Unfortunately I haven't played the Downfall of Pompeii.
ChWendt wrote: Regarding the initial placement of the houses:
Remember that you put 5 houses of each colour in each of the London districts. So you can't end up having all your houses close to Pudding Lane.
You're right. I had one house in Bread Street, one in Cheapside and three in Guild Hall. Furthermore I had some houses in the close blue surroundings like S. Nicolas and S. Austins. Because of that it seemed I had more houses in the green area, but you're right of course, only 5 in the green area. Nevertheless it felt like a bad starting position due the randomness. I didn't mind it too much though, because one of my opponents also had several houses in that area, so we worked together to minimize the damage.
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James Sinden
United Kingdom
Egham
Surrey
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ggambill wrote:
I can see the similarity but the dynamics play quite differently
In Pompeii you randomly draw a tile which lets you place lava in a square spreading from other lava 'related' to that tile type.
In London you have a hand of 5 cards to select from and can move/spread the fire to a neighboring district so long as it is attached to an existing fire. Being able to select from 5 cards limits the random nature of the choice. Plus you can choose to 'put out fires' and dynamite houses to prevent the spread,
There is a vaguely similar dynamic, but Great Fire is a lot more strategic in its choices (and you have a lot more control) whereas I see Pompeii as a fun family game with a large degree of randomness in the 'fleeing to the exits' endgame.
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Posted Sun Oct 24, 2010 3:05 am
