In August I made a trip back to my hometown Kota Kinabalu. My previous trip was more than two and a half years earlier, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the pandemic, I didn't visit my parents for two and a half years. The whole family returned to KK - my wife and my daughters too. Younger daughter Chen Rui said she wanted to play Category 5, so I brought it along. She had played it before, but it had been some time ago so she had forgotten the rules. She just remembered it was fun. When we played, I asked my mum to play with us. So we had three generations playing together.
Another game I brought on this trip to KK was Attika. This was the first time elder daughter Shee Yun played. I rarely play this with four (the highest player count). The mahjong table we used was barely large enough for it. There was enough space for the land tiles to be set up, but the play area would grow during play.
I have played a fair bit of Attika last year and earlier this year. When I taught younger daughter Chen Rui how to play, she liked it, so we played a lot of it. We became quite familiar with it.
The amphoras in Attika let you take extra actions.
During game setup the temples are placed at the corners of the play area.
When the game started, Chen Rui (blue) and I (green) were lucky because the black buildings we drew were our respective capitals. Capitals allow many buildings to be constructed for free next to them.
As the land expanded, it encroached upon our player boards. If it continued to grow, we would need to shift our player boards out of the way. The player boards are not an optional reference sheet. They are an essential part of play.
Shee Yun was new to the game and needed more time to think and plan. Chen Rui was a little impatient and suggested that Shee Yun placed her buildings here and here. That didn't look right to me at all. If Shee Yun placed at those locations, she wouldn't have much to gain, but Chen Rui would benefit from less competition. So I said to Shee Yun not to trust her sister. Chen Rui was just being cheeky, suggesting something that wouldn't make sense if you played properly. Shee Yun was swamped by suggestions from both camps, Chen Rui and devil and I the angel (ahem). My wife Michelle told us to back off and just let Shee Yun play whatever way she liked.
Later in the game, when Chen Rui placed a new land tile, she positioned it to create a golden opening for Michelle. Michelle's turn was next, and she placed three buildings to create a highway between two temples, thus winning the game.
The two temples at the top left and bottom left were now connected with Michelle's (red) buildings. Chen Rui saw that her positioning wasn't great, while mine was generally better. She felt it was hard for her to catch up, and thus decided to throw the game to Michelle, just for the fun of it. Shee Yun frowned at me distrustfully and asked, I thought you said connecting temples is hard to do? I defended saying, well if Chen Rui plays crazy like this then anything goes!
This was one silly game ending in sudden death. We didn't get to see it go all the way to anyone completing all buildings. However it was great to have the whole family sit down for a game together. My daughters are in their late teens now, one doing pre-university and one finishing secondary school soon. They have their own hobbies and interests and their own friends. We are not playing boardgames together as much as when they were little. I am glad that from when they were young boardgames has always been part of our family life. It gave us many happy memories.
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