A Last Few Games in Omaha

My last weekend in Omaha I had a few guys over for a last couple of games. Mike Garrett, John Davis and Steve Wicklund came on over to see me off. John only had a couple hours to play, so we pulled out something he's played before - Notre Dame. This was the first time I've played with 4 players and the game was about like I expected. I still think I prefer In the Year of the Dragon, but this game is pretty straight forward and enjoyable. Mike Garrett survived the rats the best, while my park strategy wasn't paying off since I wasn't making points left and right like Steve was. I somehow squeaked out more points than Steve through Notre Dame, but was still a ways back of Mike.
After John left, Steve wanted to play Power Grid. I hadn't played this in a long time and agreed (though its only so-so with three players). We played on the Germany map and things were weird. We had a lot of really high end plants get filtered out early - a sign that things would bog down. In fact, there were enough rounds that we sat and did nothing on that bidding for the good plants was insane. mid-20s plants that powered 25 cities were going for 80+ (which as it turned out, was a bargain when the next plant sucked). The huge amounts of cash on hand let me power through to 17 cities and I powered like 11 for the win (yeah, like 11 - I told you the plants came out teh suq).
After that, we finished up with our normal 3-player favorite - San Marco. Steve was at a disadvantage since Mike and I were experienced, and I used that to place the Doge in a territory I was a majority in (which also had no bridge off of) to start the game. We saw no bridge cards for a long time, which allowed me to score a load of time before he finally got moved out of that territory. Those early points let me finish the game well out in front.