I played a game of Phoenicia at JKLM Interactive. It’s a neat idea: they’re offering a online game until the game is published. I’m not sure they’re going to have lots of players when the game is published and playing is £5 a year, but for now it’s a nice way to test the game.

The client isn’t the most fluid piece of software but works well enough. I did have some graphics issues with it, but that didn’t stop me from playing. When my opponent told me I could see extra info about everything with a right-button click (I’m not sure that’s mentioned in the instructions), it really started to make sense.

So, I played a two-player game. It was a surprisingly close match, I lost 33-32. Not bad for a first game, especially as I was pretty clueless in the beginning (I’d read the short rules and browsed through the actual rulebook). It started to make sense in the end, and I was actually able to enjoy it.

The card development system seems sound, the money works well (not a trace of the utter awkwardness of Zavandor) and the game was a breeze to play (it took us something like 15 minutes). Fun, and something I need to play more, definitely.