Image by Matt BIt began with two quick plays of Bluff which is one of the better dice game available. Bluffing is usually a great fun when used as a mechanic in a game and bluffing fits well together with dice. The luck element which goes hand in hand with dice is definitely there but when you can (and you have to) keep the poker face and push your luck by bluffing luck does not feel so bad. Bluff is also fast and easy to understand and teach thus making it a pretty good game to introduce to non-gamers.

Image by John WThe meat of the night was Amyitis, a game designed by Cyril Demaegd and published by Ystari Games which is a game where players recreate one of the seven wonders of the ancient world: the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. Well, this is the official theme of the game written in the rule book but as we quickly found out the theme feels somewhat superficial and pasted-on. Amyitis is a typical Euro-game where design is well thought and mechanics are carefully designed and numerous but there are also negative aspects in the game like low interaction amid the players and maybe a tad too long pauses between the turns for my taste.  There’s obviously lots of cubes and tokens and you try to maximize the amount of points from the scarce actions you can make and as we are talking about Ystari game there’s also camels involved.

I have to admit that Amyitis is not a game I enjoy the most but I can see why some gamers really like the game. For me playing a game is a social event where the game supports the social interaction in a delicate way or at least I felt so strongly when waiting others players to finish their turns in your game.