Friday Dec. 29, 2006

Friday Dec. 9, 2006 - Gamer's Inn
In what looks to be my last game night with the AZ Boardgamers (at least for a while). I wanted to get in a few games that would round out my nickle list for the year (5 games played) as well as a decent game of Age of Steam.

The night started with Jason Maxwell and I sitting down for a game of BattleLore. Though a recent acquisition, this one hit my 5 plays for the year due to the popularity of the game system as well as the newness factor. We tried a map with a bit of everything and I wondered how much the creature (the spider) would impact the game. Turns out, we didn't find out. Jason went to town on me and put a 5-1 hurting on me. Luckily for me, some others showed up so Matthew Frederick and Steve Bauer joined us for a game of Age of Steam. Everyone let me pick the map and I waffled between trying out one of the Disco Inferno maps and going for a known quantity. I ended up sticking with Scandinavia. On the first turn, I had the chance to bankrupt Steve. I chose not to, so that Steve wouldn't be out immediately. However, I did get hosed a number of times later in the game. Jason won by a good margin. Next up was Antike, which Jason didn't care to play, so Erik Von Burg joined us for a little four player action. The thing I enjoy about Antike is that there always seems to be something new as far as winning goes each time I play. Erik found the beginner's luck and won his first playing. Next we sat down for a game of Tichu with Matt Cullinan, Matthew and Erik taking on me, Miles Antwiller, and Jason Maxwell. We started by going 1-2-3 for a nice 300 pt lead. The second hand was also in our favor, but during the third hand, it was discovered that Miles had grabbed Jason Sato's cards and Jason was trying to take off for the night, so we ended the game. Jason M, Erik, Matthew and I then ended the night by playing Ingenious in partners. Matthew and I vs Erik and Jason. I really like this game and got hot in the middle, getting 4 turns in a row and closing out a number of good opportunities for Erik and Jason. It was enough, letting us cruise to an easy win (one of the few that Jason didn't win this night).