The dawn of the civilization

Recently I have been listening to the 19th episode of the excellent podcast "Game's the Thing" devoted to Reiner Knizia's tile laying games. My attention have been drawn to one game in particular, the "Tigris and Euphrates". I have read about this game before, but the theme wasn't sounding very exciting so I didn't care too much. I was so wrong. Fortunately Ron and his buddies have changed my mind and after a short consultation with my wife, we have decided to invest our money in the game on the account of Easter Bunny present.
The box looked quite solid, so were the insides. I wasn't put off by the manual too much, having been read that the game is on the hard side of things. Now we needed only a chance to play.
Finally we got an opportunity on the Great Saturday. We played with our friend, Tomas. I was the most well read in the ways of T&E having read manual two times, and playing once against the computer in the java version of the game. I have to say that I was expecting to crush my opponents and scatter them to the wind under the wheels of my mighty chariots. I was wrong...

The game started surprisingly quickly, a picture above shows result after, I think, third round. I wanted to illustrate some rule, so I did some stupid move, when my wife, who were claiming she does not understand the game launched a sneak attack and won first war against me.
From here it was downhill and my ambitions were smashed in blood of my minions. Tomas and my evil wife divided the map among themselves and I was like a fifth wheel. I had my moments of glory, thats true. The incredible thing about the game was that, as we played the complexity and strategical possibilities were unraveling in front of us. T&E does not seem like an easy game. Rules are not that complicated, really but after playing I can say that there is plenty of meat to sink your teeth in.
At some point, when everyone was entrenched behaind a wall of temples we found out about catastrophe tiles. I am telling you that was a true nuclear exchange, within two turns there was a lot of gaps in the map.

All in all game was closing to the finish, becoming more and more tense. The devilish rule stating that winner is a person who has the most points in his weakest sphere (farming, settlements, farms and temples) was really getting my blood flowing.
Finally, in the last turn Tomas decided to join two gigantic kingdoms into one, initiating three external wars. He won two against my wife, who in turn took revenge on me, scoring 13 points in one engagement! As a result kingdom was broken into six small fiefdoms! I guess this nicely illustrates the pacifists' point of view.
Then it was a point to reveal who is the winner. I was out having only 13 points in my weakest sphere. We were convinced that Tomas will win, after scoring so many points in the war.
Of course Gosia was the winner. She just has this talent, you know.
All in all, that was a great game and I am really looking forward to repeat this experience.