6 Player Gloria Mundi

OK, I got to play my 2nd playing of Gloria Mundi tonight. The first game was played with 3 players. Tonights game however is with 6. Tonights game is with Doug, Jon, Adam, John, Mark, and Me. The first game these guys played had a rule discrepancy which totally ruined the game for them. I believe it was that they didn't have the 3 initial cards(farm, peace, city) played before the first round began.

The second game we played was with three, and everything went pretty smooth. After that game I believed that green maybe have been weighted to heavy. Also Mark mentioned in that 3 player game that it was wiser to pay the goth than not. I told him I didn't believe a game could be played to where everyone paid the goth all the way until the last city when the goth was activated. So we thought we'd try his theory.

I was the first player in the game. Of course the game goes through a round without any building purchases, and the goth was paid each time. The next round I got a lucky break with the "Venitvm" which gives you 1VP if you have a peace card, and 1VP is you have at least one city card. This proved quite powerful in early in the game. I was generating 2 VP's each time a farm was played. You have to rememeber in an 6 player game there is only 8 rounds. 4 green, 2 gold and 2 white. So I knew this was going to be a good building to have. It was, by the third round I had a demanding lead. However, I was a target of Adam at this point who was my third to the right player. By the third round he made his move by not paying the Goth. This "would" have worked, if the other two players played the cards right. However when payment got to me, I was able to destruct an unneeded card, and my generator continued.

By the third round John got a lucky break and took the "Bovarium" card, which allowed him on a farm round to swap a gold for 2 VP's. So he was quickly catching my lead with this card.

Every other player was still lingering behind quite a bit, and staying par with each other. On the 5th round Adam again made his move, and this time it was successful, and I lost my green generator. I did however by that time picked up the "Navis Onararia" card, which when peace was activated, if the goth was on a farm spot, I received 2 VP. Also very powerful. But at the same time Jon built the "Circus" which when green was activated he could trade one white resource for 2VP's. Another on of the green powercards. SO he quickly caught my lead.

My target at this point was John and his gold for vp's card. So I didn't pay the goth, and took out his only city card. This was a success for a while as the next round or two, he ran out of gold. This was short lived after he built a "Templam Mircus" which for every green card he had, he got one purple. One round of that, and he was set for the gold to VP's engine.

Adam never really got the resources he needed to build anything. He had at one time tons of white. Mark was on a similar boat with almost all the green resources, and nothing to build. So the game came down to mostly John, Jon, and Me with the powerhouse VP generators.

Since Adam took my big powerhouse card, I started slipping behind Jon, and John. By the games end, John took the win having the VP generator working almost the entire game, and gave him a demanding lead. John, over took me, and I was unable to really use my white VP generator, as all the white cards had already been played. So I ended up in third.

A six player game is tricky. There are only in my mind 3-4 really nice power cards that in an 8 round game will get you a demanding lead. Of course almost all those power cards are green. In a 6 player game however, only 2-3 players are going to get a chance at those cards, leaving the other players to flounder behind. This may make Gloria Mundi not play well with the maximum compliment of 6.

Also I still believe that green maybe a tad too powerful or unbalanced. Most of the really nice power cards are green, and are easy to purchase. If you can't get one because of card availability, you are really taken back in the game.

Overall I like Gloria Mundi, but it is a tad fragile in my mind.

Placement:

1st: John
2nd: Jon
3rd: Mike
4th: Mark
5th: Doug(first playing)
6th: Adam