I played one game of At the Gates of Loyang, and that was a solitaire game (it has solitaire rules). I don't think the solitaire play gave me the full "feel" of the game, but I didn't think it would be the kind of game that would get played on our vacation. So, it stayed home while Egizia and Cyclades made the trip to the beach. Egizia got played twice, Cyclades once.
Egizia (4 plays) is an excellent game IMO. Basically, a worker placement, with a relatively short play-time. (Comes in at no more than an hour 2-player, but closer to 2 hours with 4 newbies.) Egizia is a "worker-placement" game but the choices are very agonizing. You are essentially building the Sphinx, an Obelisk, a pyramid, a temple, or exploring tombs along the Nile River in Egypt. (Egezia means "Ancient Egypt" in Italian.) In a two-player I think the choices are less agonizing as there are plenty of opportunities to get good fields and good stone quarries - the two essentials required to advance in the game (along with workers). With four players there are only 26 "spaces" available for your "workers" (actually, ships) to be placed. Since each player has 8 ships to use, there will not be enough spaces to accommodate all players. The game is more of a race for victory points in the buildings. With 4 players the game requires lots of tough decisions. You can't get everything you need and have to decide which to forego. I really enjoy it as a 4-player. Haven't played it 3-player yet.
Cyclades (one play) was a tense, tense battle that left me almost exhausted!! I think it was the fact that both of us felt we were on the edge of disaster the entire game, until I saw a way to grab victory out of defeat and suddenly ended the game. Cyclades is a true conflict game. From the beginning it is a battle/race to establish two metropolises. To build a metropolis you have to have land, and to get land you need to control land, and land is at a premium. The land consists of small islands, each capable of holding one to three buildings. And you have to have four different types of buildings to build a metropolis. Thus, it is a game of armies and navies moving across the archipelago conquering land, tearing down other people's buildings, etc. until someone has two Metropolises.
The fourth game I obtained after returning from vacation - Settlers of America. This one flew under the radar for me. When it finally caught my attention, it was already released (a novelty for me). I ordered it and have since played it twice - once as a 2-player "learning game" (it is designed for 3-4, but worked fine as a 2-player). The other game was with 4 players - three newbies and myself. Again, I enjoyed it, but perhaps that is because I won. I'm sure I had the advantage as I had realized the importance of grabbing city sites while everyone else worked to deliver goods. As a result I started off behind, but after getting my income engine going I continued to gain momentum through the rest of the game, closing with a rush. I think this is a game of momentum: build cities first, develop rail lines second, eventually rush to deliver goods on your system of rails.
So which of the four games is the best? I currently don't have enough experience with Loyang and Cyclades to rate them fairly - but perhaps that is a sign in itself. Egizia and Settlers of America have intrigued me for now. Which do I prefer? I'll have to wait for more table time to make a call, and who knows, perhaps Loyang or Cyclades will take off!
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