That's Enough Ages For A While

Robert Bolan, Matthew Frederick, Nathan Winchester and I finished up another game of Through the Ages (online). After so many games, I wanted to see if the expansion set of wonders and leaders they offer changed the game. They do, but not enough. I've dropped my rating quite a bit on this one. As fun and interesting as this one is, it is just too brutal. There is already so much rich-get-richer that it is nearly impossible to slow down or stop someone when they get ahead. Couple that with the fact that if you get slapped once, everyone is likely to join in on stomping you into submission. With no chance to catch up and a strong likelihood of being beaten if you fall off the pack and you have a really long game that starts becoming less and less interesting. I really liked this game, but the more I understand it the less I want to play it. This last game, I felt I had made a mistake in the first couple of turns that was going to cost me (I took a stupid wonder). I ended up trying to focus a bit on military, which helped me to get to second place, but I wasn't even close to Nathan who killed us all again. In order to even be competitive in this game, I had to bash on Matthew at least twice and then on Robert at the end of the game.