Game Night Oct 21, 2006

Friday Oct. 21, 2006 - Gamer's Inn

We had another overlord game of Memoir planned this evening, so when I arrived at the Inn, we spent a little time trying to decide what to get started with. In the end, Noah and Miles Antwiller, Jason Sato, Matt Cullinan, Rich Frangiamore, and I played a game of Liar's Dice to start the night. Unfortunately for Rich, I forced him into a bad call and he got booted the first round. After that, Jason continued to manipulate me into making bad calls. Still, Liar's dice is a load of fun. Next I pulled out Downtown a lesser known German game. Noah, Jason, and Matt joined me. In Downtown, players are trying to make money by "investing" in real estate while planning/zoning areas. Areas make money depending on the areas that have been developed around them and the number of players who have invested. The game is ok and plays up to six players, though is best with 4. About halfway through, Matt remembered that he hates this game (he hates everything), but I can see what annoys him about the game - too much speculation. Its probably a twice a year game - maybe I'll try and trade this one away. Next we split up a bit and Steve Bauer, Mike Gingold and Jason S joined me for a game of Knizia's Samurai. I really enjoy this game a lot, though like every single Knizia game I play, its taken me a few playings to get comfortable with it. Jason and Mike and I have been playing a bit online and I was happy to get this to the table again. Steve looked like he was going to jump out to an early lead and there was plenty of screwage between Mike and me as the game ran on, but in the end Jason was the only player to hold any majority and walked off with the win.
After a short dinner break, we sat down for our game of Memoir Overlord. Jason Sato was the General for the Russian team of Rob Smolka, myself, and Matthew Frederick. The Germans were lead by Jason Maxwell and were played by Bobby Warren, Mike Gingold, and Matt Cullinan. We were able to get a comfortable lead, and Jason S kept a good suppy of cards coming my way. As general of the middle section, I had plenty of tanks as well as the only two artillery batteries in the game. We won easily 12-5. Sadly, the highlight might have been that we forced the Jasons to wear Burger King crowns the whole time.
As we broke up into new games, I pulled out Age of Steam. I was hoping to play my new Disco Inferno maps, but settled for Germany which I hadn't played yet. Jason Maxwell, Noah and Matthew and I settled down to lay some tracks. Of course, within three turns it was apparent that Noah was going to win. He stopped issuing shares at 8 and we played the game out to play for second place. The four of us then finished the night by playing Pirates Cove. This one was new to me and turned out to be a light pirate sail and fight and get treasure type game - arrrrrrrrgh. I managed to jump out to an early lead that allowed me to grab a lot of treasure and stay out of trouble early on. I was able to then carry that through to the end of the game. At least I finished with a win.