An extra session this week, as Nige particularly wanted to try Die Macher, which wouldn't fit timewise into our normal Friday slot. So we were invited round to Nige's for a Sunday of gaming and Nige and Mary's hospitality - which was excellent. None of us had played Die Macher before but I knew of its reputation as an excellent but complex 4-6 hour game. The game attempts to simulate the German electoral system and takes place over 7 regional elections followed by the federal election in Bonn. In these elections, players are trying to accumulate votes by holding campaign meetings, influencing the media, holding party conferences and swaying public opinion over the big issues, so that it ties in with your policies. Whoever does this best wins the federal election, and the votes won are credited towards the final federal election, as well as the winner being able to influence the national issues. Once the 7th regional election has been held, the federal election is resolved depending on the number of votes won during the 7 rounds, how closely your policies match up with the national opinion and how much media influence you have accumulated.

Ben got off to a good start winning the first region by a big margin. Although this was Bremen and not worth much towards the national picture it did allow him to get an early media marker in place and the initial choice of the big national issues. The second region was very close between the other 3 of us and allowed us to catch up with Ben in the national vote. I took the 3rd region, having decided early on to concentrate my efforts on a couple of the middle value regions. This, however, set me up as a target and, after an excellent Sunday lunch (thanks again Mary), Ben again made a charge in Hamburg. My other area was Schleswig-Holsten, which pushed me further into the lead after round 5. However, I was well and truly ganged up on in round 6 with Nige taking the election victory and getting very close to me in the national poll. The 7th region was another valuable one (as had been the 6th) and Ben was forced into a coalition with Nige, sewing that region up for the two of them. By this time the national poll had swung back in Ben's favour and with a strong match between his policies and the electorate's national view, plus a good portion of the media on his side, he cruised to victory.

At about 4.5 hours playing time, the game is quite long, but everyone is fully involved throughout and the time goes pretty quickly. I liked it and, having got the learning game under my belt, I feel I could play better next time.But, I guess, the same is true of the others as well.