Economy games are my favourite type of games. I can't even imagine, why. I fully admit that for some people these look like chores... or accounting... or solving math exercises. On the other hand - I find most of the set collection games quite repetitive and boring, so go figure.

Anyhow. I played Poseidon second time yesterday and decided to write down some thoughts about it. Basically it's an 18xx system, stripped down to the basics and then given an euro-style look. You know, fixed length, no stocks per se, merchants, temples etc - but at the heart the 18xx basic mechanics are still recognizable. But for going bankrupt you have to try it very hard.

About the game then. I started the purple company (umm... sorry, country. With some ancient name I can't remember, so let's call it Purple. Company.) with 5 merchants and bought all of these. As from the initial purchase round I got the double-value private (yeah-yeah) I used it already at ER1 next to my base, so I got to run 8-income tile already with 2-ships. During ER2 I ran for 55 income so this was pretty neat (compared to 18-20 incomes) and as neither green or black company were started, purple had good opportunity to own all the gulf left from the peninsula (area excluded from 2-player games).

First half of game was quite slowplay, in shiprusting terms - we had Phase 1 until the MR3. I was quite happy with it, as my two cheap 2-ships were generating nice profit. When MR3 started it was quite clear that during next ER there will be new phase triggered, so everybody tried to secure another country for himself. I had the last opportunity to do so - but there was only Black left and it was kinda blocked out already by Purple - but I decided that having friendly Black nearby is better than hostile, so I started it as cheap as possible for maximizing the overall revenue.

What happened during next ER was that not one new phase was triggered but it happened even twice - so both 2- and 3-ships were rusted/sunk during that round. Yellow had some serious issues with one 4-ship and facing the arrival of E-ships with not enough money. Another interesting moment was that when MR3 ended there were no merchants available in merchant pool... but at the end of next ER there was plenty of there, in all the colours.

Last rounds went quite fast, due to forced purchases both yellow and the union of green-blue were out of competition to the first place. All the rest had quite healthy income (30+ per merchant) with their countries so it looked like there'll be fierce struggle for first place. And it was - when everybody had added together their wealth, it appeared that difference between first and second place was 9 money, between second and third place 32 money. As the total wealth was near to 3000 you can imagine how close results those were. Especially as I had the second place :)

Good game, afterall. In other news: looks like in my 5 Nation 1830 tournament I've secured the third place. 1830 is a cut-throating game :)