Charles and I figured it probably took longer to play the 2 player game, because we had to deal with the other 2 colors as sort of NPCs, each of us having to pick a role card for one NPC minion.
Charles controlled the red NPC we referred to as Dragon, and I controlled the Unnamable NPC. Basically, during the order giving phase, 2 of the 3 NPC cards are random, and the 3rd is picked by their controlling player to either help their own position on the order board, or to block the other player.
It ended up being pretty tough because the randomly chosen orders cause the NPC minions to be put into the middle spot of each task, which is usually the best spot. For example, the middle spot for building traps is the one free trap, and it was taken by the NPCs almost every turn.
Really, though, Charles should have won that game, but we put the random event card into play for the second year, and drew a particularly nasty card called "Extra Taxes" which makes you have to pay one gold for each room or lose the room. Unfurtunately, Charles had been getting a lot of rooms and had no gold, because he had it all taken away by regular taxes the previous round. I won the game by 4 points, if we hadn't played with the special event card, Charles would have won by 12 points. To be fair though, Charles drew the card.
I felt really bad for him too... up until the final battle, when I got totally trounced by wizards. Every round I worked out a strategy to kill the paladin, and every round the magic card totally effed up my plans. Got just enough damage to kill the paladin? 'This turn gives the leader one more hit point...', Poison food, huh? 'This round, there is a "phantom, 1-hit-point adventurer" in the front of the group.' In the end, I only managed to kill 2 of the four adventurers, and like I said, the only reason I won was because Charles got dicked by the game far worse than I did.
Anyway, I'm glad Charles liked the game, and I'm sorry you guys couldn't make it. Hopefully, we can do a weekend day soon, since Tuesdays are out for Mac. The only problem is I know Saturdays are bad for Nathaniel, and Sundays are bad for Charles... or at least they were... I'm really not good at keeping track.
