The Downfall of Pompeii Review and a bit of rambling

by Susan Rozmiarek

I have finally written a new review. I probably shouldn't like The Downfall of Pompeii as much as I do, but what can I say? I've played it four times now with different people and it's always a hoot. It went on my "buy" list the very first time I played it at Gulf Games a few years ago.

My pile of review copies is still large enough to make me feel quite guilty. I'm working on it and some of them are never going to be reviewed simply because I don't like them enough to play them multiple times, but those will probably show up in game day report. Right now I'm working on a review of Leonardo da Vinci which is turning out to be a booger to write. I've played it three times and I need about a half dozen more to even hope to have a decent grasp of the strategy. Worse yet, my final verdict is that it is a good game that I don't really like which is a stance that I find difficult to explain. Add in a pile of rules when I still have trouble condensing that part of my reviews and I'll be lucky if I'm able to produce anything intelligent at all. But, I'm going to try anyway. I do have plenty of little nitpicks that will probably just make me sound like a crank. Who knows when I'll be finished though, because I'm looking at two full days of gaming, tomorrow and Saturday. Our Christmas orders have been rolling in. One of the perks of being an adult is the fact that you don't have to wait until Christmas to open your presents and ours are now punched and bagged as well. So, there are a lot of new games to be played and those, of course, will demand commentary as soon as possible!

Posted by Susan Rozmiarek at December 14, 2006 8:14 PM