Florence and a four-way battle

Didn't do so well in yesternight's gaming...

Carlton Draughts in hand and gourmet pizzas ordered, SC, TC, LPO and I sunk the slipper into proceedings with the boardgame "The Princes Of Florence". In story terms, you design a medieval Italian city, then attract various professions to festoon it with great works.

In game terms, this involves holding auctions, creating synergies between resources, finding a balance between scoring points and refilling your coffers, and even a bit of "Tetris"-ing as you place your natural features and oddly shaped buildings onto individual grids.

Despite botching my final turn with a risk that didn't pay off and finishing dead last (SC narrowly pipped LPO for the win), I had a blast. I'd never played "T/P/O/F" before, but wouldn't mind giving it another crack - especially now I have some idea of the strategies required.

Our city-making had taken a good few hours, so the second game had to be quick and easy.

LPO came up with the idea of opening three boosters of the "Magic: The Gathering" expansion Guildpact each, shuffling them without looking, then placing them face down as our "decks". SC rounded up a pile of each land type and these were put in the middle of the table. We then had a four-player duel where you attacked left and defended right (but could target all three opponents with other spells). On your go, you either drew from your deck or from a land pile.

It worked exceedingly well - eventually reaching a point where SC was on 2 life, TC on 2, LPO on 3 and me on 3. As LPO sent an unblockable beast across my border, guaranteeing my demise, I used an instant effect to kill TC and steal third place. LPO then gained a modicum of revenge for his "T/P/O/F" loss by eliminating SC with direct damage on the same turn.

From the post-game discussion, it was obvious everyone's jonesing for some role-playing, so expect to read about that next time...