Had an exciting game of Empires of the Ancient World last Saturday with Steve and Dave. Explaining the rules to Dave (“tell me about the combat rules again?”) as we went along – I started in the Fertile Crescent, Steve in Spain and Dave in North Africa. I built up my navy and quickly took the whole Mediterranean. Dave did well in land battles and Steve recruited lots of merchants. After the turn 2 scoring my lead looked unassailable and I felt smug. That was a mistake! Dave knocked me out of the Med in a stunning series of defeats, and the casualties robbed me of my naval lead for the rest of the game. In the final turn Steve finished me off on land, relentlessly evicting me from one African province after another. Dave came in with a very creditable victory, Steve was second, and I lost. The whole thing took about 3 hours – very enjoyable see-saw action.