| Lordz of Waterdeep

Got to play a few 2-player sessions of the new Wizard's boardgame, Lords of Waterdeep this past week. It was a lot of fun! It's another one of these "light euros" that I've been into lately, so it was painless to learn and it was mellow enough for Silvia to enjoy it with me. First game was a tie, second game I got my ass kicked by a good 25 points.

LoW is a worker placement game in which each player represents on of the secret rules of the city of Waterdeep. You send agents (meeples) out to various parts of the city to recruit adventurers (colored wooden cubes). You can then complete Quests for victory points. Quests are usually just combinations of your cubes and money, so "Beholder infestation from Underdark - 3 fighters, 2 clerics, 1 rouge, and 3 monies" - stuff like that. So the board has a few basic spots where you can put your agents, but you can also build NEW buildings that offer different things to buy - they also give the owner of the building some kind of cut each time it's used. I guess this is basically where the Caylus comparisons come in. There's also "intrigue" cards that let you do stuff againsts the other players, like take resources, or put "mandatory quests" on them that they MUST finish before finishing any other quest. It's all pretty light and the game only lasts about an hour. The components are great and even if the theme is basically pasted on, it totally works for me. Fun game! :)