El Grande

This month at the work gaming night, I introduced my fellow gamer/co-workers to El Grande. We had exactly five - Robert Bolan, Ana Lopez, Danielle Reader-Jolley, Deborah Allwes and myself. I went over the game and there were a few confused stares. Probably partial due to a number of co-workers being a bit fatigued. Despite that, once we started everyone seemed to really like the game. I myself enjoy this one a lot - though I've only played it three times (once with expansions). I think this one seems hard to get to the table due to it seeming to be really best with five players. I could see it being ok with four, but not as good. At any rate - I started out with an early lead which I managed to hold onto the entire game. Not that everyone didn't make some moves at the end of the game. In the last round, everyone managed to knock me out of first place in every place I was going to score in - with the stupid Castillo. Luckily in the last round, there was a "score first place only" in every region action that accounted me a good sum of points which let me hold out. Ana managed to be within a few points - she was in second most of game. Danielle kind of mis-understood the scoring and didn't score well in the first scoring, but made up ground in the last two to finish in the middle of the pack. Robert and Deborah were fighting to avoid last, but Deborah managed to eck out two more points than Robert.

Through the Ages

And yet another game of Through the Ages in the bag. I apparently learned something from the last beating I took at the hands of Steve Bauer. This online game was played with Robert Bolan, Nathan Winchester, and Matthew Frederick. The game started with my taking Homer - he's nice for some early points which is probably the amount I won this game by. The difference for me this game was two things: one, I NEVER got a mine upgrade. That's right, I played the whole game never having more than three bronze workers. I never even saw a mine upgrade card - the jerks I was playing with snatched them up as fast as they appeared on the board. This forced me to pay more attention to what I was taking and to play more efficiently than normal. It worked. The turning point for me was probably near the end of the first third of the game when I passed taking a swordsman technology. Saving my science points for knights and saving myself the cost of buying (and expending) swordsman helped immensely. As the game neared its end, I looked to have a pretty comfortable lead. Right up until Robert declared war on Nathan. Nathan DESTROYED Robert and garnered a reward of 21 culture points. Suddenly I wasn't sure I could hold him off. I grabbed Gandhi to earn points and built items solely gearing myself to generating as many last round points as I could. After the dust settled, I had managed to finally knock off Nathan from his undefeated streak. Nathan's "super science" strategy has been defeated (and not by uber military). Some interesting things to note:

• Never upgraded my mine, nor had more than 3 bronze workers.
• Never disbanded anything
• Didn't build the Transcontinental RR (built a late Ocean Liner Service)
• Didn't change governments until late in the game - switched to Republic 
• Never had more than 2 military actions

I'm not sure how much more of this game I have in me. It plays awfully tight and seems a little unforgiving when everyone knows the cards and pacing of the game. That kind of non-flexibility is ok in games that are shorter, but this game is pretty long to be that unforgiving. The other thing that is bothersome is that this is a rich get richer game. Fall behind and you are screwed. I still like the game, but its just about to fall out of my top 10 after nearly 10 plays.

Return to Lipki

I have returned to Lipki, Russia. The year is 1941 and I'm in charge of a German recon mission. On the other side? Erik Von Burg and the Russian army - out on a search and destroy mission. And this is why I play Combat Commander. Because it draws you into the story. But unlike some games that are all story and little game, there is plenty of game here. This was the first time Erik had played Combat Commander, so I went back to the beginning. Heck, it had been 5 months since I last played, so I had to go back and review the rules before Erik came over so I could remember everything. The game started slowly for Erik as he made a small mistake and had to regroup his forces in order keep his troops in command range of his leader. He made up for this by quickly taking out a small squad of Germans he ran into in the forest. I was forced to huddle in some buildings and try to hold out against Erik. I killed a couple of his squads, but it became a firefight across the road - with his side having a slight advantage with two medium machine guns. I contemplated moving a unit around to the west and then north to score some points for moving them off the board, but Erik managed to draw the Time! card over and over. He finally went through his deck and suddenly the game was over. When we revealed the objectives I managed to edge him out for the win.

Random thoughts on storing Combat Commander

Now that I have Combat Commander: Mediterranean, I've been considering the options for storage. Each of the Europe (base) game and Med fit in their own boxes using the Plano containers (pictured) I have now. Three of these (20 spaces each) and the card decks fit into the boxes with the lids either flush or just barely lifted. The problem is - CC:Med is not really a separate game - it is an expansion (and in some ways "completes" the base game). I could of course just use GMT counter trays, but six or seven of these will fill a box and require the cards and maps in another box. The other issue I have with the counter trays is that I'm not sure the lids won't just pop off and dump chits everywhere. I'd also really like to have all of the materials in one container. A lot of the published scenarios and tourney scenarios require both Europe and Med. Then of course there are the expansions :

• Combat Commander: Battle Pack #1 - Paratroopers
• Combat Commander: Battle Pack #2 - Stalingrad
• Combat Commander: Battle Pack #3 - Normandy
• Combat Commander: Resistance!

These will add to the bulk of maps as well as add counters. At this point it almost looks like I need a tackle bag solution like I use for Command and Colors: Ancients. The problem with this is that the Plano boxes are too big for the little chits. While there are lots of chits, they aren't so plentiful that I need the kind of space that the C&C:Ancients blocks require.
This morning, I was over at Walmart looking at their tackle selection trying to figure out if I wanted to just use a tackle box and what might work. Then I wandered over to their craft section and there I found bead boxes. These smaller boxes are fairly flat and have 24 containers inside them (thus I'd need 5 to meet the current storage need and maybe a 6th for expansions. These aren't too bad for size (I'd still need some other solution for toting everything around, but the clear plastic should work pretty decently). The small containers have screw tops to keep the chits in. I'm kind of leaning this way if I can figure out a solution for keeping these and the cards and all of the maps and booklets together.

Gaming With Nathan

Nathan Winchester and I haven't played anything face to face in a while - its been busy for us lately. He just got back to town after being in Washington for training for his new job and he wanted to game. He stopped by after work and we had a little dinner and then played some games. We started the night with a couple quick games of Hive - including the new ladybug. Ladybug was interesting though not really a factor. I lost the first game stupidly and then we pushed in the second.
Next up, we pulled out Caylus Magna Carta. This one is short and sweet and still interesting. This game, our setup had no food card and we didn't pay attention to build one right away. Nor did either of us build a gold and thus our game went by pretty quickly. I amassed a good amount of cash and then managed to get the card down that lets you buy the castle stones and purchased my way to a victory as quickly as I could. Of course, the last time we played we forgot an important rule - the player who collects the most building stones each round is rewarded with a gold resource marker. Well, we forgot AGAIN. That might have made a bit of a difference.

We ended the night playing Louis XIV. I haven't played this in years, but obtained a copy in a trade a while back. This isn't a bad little area control game. It is interesting game (though the two-player version is slightly odd). I'm still not too keen on the end game scoring thing with the coat of arms, but it doesn't make the game bad. Nathan did manage to score a single point more than I did for a win despite my winning a number of CoA bonuses. I'd like to play this with three people (four was rough IIRC).

Through the Ages: A Story of Civilization

Last Friday night was game night at Rob and Michelle's place. Matthew Frederick had indicated wanting to play Through the Ages face-to-face, the two of us sat down with Steve Bauer and Robert Bolan for a marathon game of TtA. We knew this would be a long game with four players and we were not wrong. Unfortunately, Steve has played often enough to know how to kick all our asses. And kick he did. Robert and I probably should have conceded about two hours before the end of the game (at least two hours). We learned a lot about the game (that had previously been essentially hidden from us by the online system we use for PBEM games. Of course, having more knowledge of the game hasn't made me any better of a player. Today we finished another online game and Nathan is now a stupid 6-0 in this game. I'm really on the fence with this one ATM. I like the game, but I just don't seem to grok it. I'm torn between wanting to figure it out and not wanting to play it anymore. I'll likely keep playing online and for sure I will not play it again F2F with four players (in fact, I won't play this with 2 online or F2F). Not sure how many more beatings I have left in me though.

That Didn't Take Long

Well, I found a copy of Battles of Westeros on an auction - unpunched for $40 (plus shipping). I'm not all that glad I get to glue the set, but at least I have nobody to complain at if it isn't done correctly.

So now the real question is - what / how do I get rid of some things in my collection to make room for the incoming stuff? As I look around my collection I realize it might be time to sell off a few things. Indonesia, Bus, Keythedral pop out immediately as games I should sell. I'm on the fence about keeping C&C:Ancients. I like the game, but I'm not sure I need it. Worse case, I need to get rid of my copy of Exp #1. I should probably trade or sell off Battlelore as well.
On another note - anyone have a suggestion for how to store the Combat Commander series? I'd just keep them each in their own big box, except that Europe and Med are really one giant game. I'd rather not have to lug both boxes around if I can figure something better out.

New Games

Despite the fact that fell in love with Battles of Westeros, it was not among those that I chose to recently order when my friend Dion Garner asked if I wanted to get in on his order. First on the list of things to get was Thunderstone: Doomgate Legion. For whatever reason, I had dragged my feet on getting this one. I finally pulled the trigger. I also finally got around to updating the online Thunderstone Randomizer I've been writing. I got Doomgate Legion encorporated (before I got the box). I also had to order a ton of new sleeves for the game. Well, it turns out that Thunderstone: Dragonspire came out this past week - I missed getting it into the order with Dion, so I just bought a copy (along with 400 more card sleeves) from the Game Depot. I have the game (and all expansions) sleeved now and I'm working on incorporating this latest expansion into the generator. I have to do the village and Thunderstone cards and maybe work in a couple of tweaks and I'll finally be caught up. Sadly, the fully sleeved game doesn't fit in any one box. The expansion boxes are fantastic for holding sleeved cards and AEG did a great job in printing dividers for all the cards - but even with leaving out all of the random game generating cards and a stack of disease cards, the game still took up the entirety of the Dragonspire box and half of one expansion box. I'm guessing the next expansion will easily fit in, but it'd be REALLY nice if they could figure out a jumbo box or something.

The second game I had in Dion's order was Combat Commander: Mediterranean. I now have the three big boxes in the series and will start gathering the smaller expansions as well. I mentioned to Robert Bolan that I heard that someone was thinking about running a CC tourney at the Geekway and he said we need to resume our weekly games. We really do. This is such a good series and we both enjoy it a lot. I forgot all about buying more sleeves for this one. I'll have to get on that. I'll also have to run my butt over to Walmart for a few more small Plano containers for the new chits. I'm starting to think I need to just swap out everything in my CC:Ancients/Battlelore bag and keep all the Combat Commander stuff in it. I'm not real sure I want to do that, but it might be an option.
The last little bit I got in Dion's order was the Ladybug expansion for Hive. I had no clue what this truly added to the game (and I didn't care in the least). Hive is a no-brainer for me and so was this. Turns out the Ladybug moves exactly two times ON other tiles, then once off. Sounds interesting.

Finally - the last of my splurges was because of Dion, but not in the same order. When I picked up my games, he told me about Labyrinth: The War on Terror. I had heard NOTHING about this. No excitement, no reviews, nada. So what is it? On the surface, it looks a lot like a "modern" Twilight Struggle with the US versus the Terrorists. It is a CDG and Dion indicated that it was like Twilight Struggle in that the more he plays it, the better it has become. Twilight Struggle is really an excellent game that has held up really well for me. Nathan Winchester and I have always managed a couple of games of it while traveling to and from the Geekway. I looked at the box at Dion's and decided to get this by the time I got back to my place. I don't know if this will replace Twilight Struggle on our trip this year. I have a travel version of Twilight Struggle we play that is easy to do in places like an airplane. I'll likely bring Labyrinth along (unless the Geekway guys get a copy out there) to play regardless.

Thunderstone Randomizer Updated

I finally got around to updating my online Thunderstone Randomizer. I added the Doomgate Legion expansion cards as well as the promos from the Promo Pack (I had already included the Clan Promo and the Death Sentinel Promo in the previous release). I like the way it has turned out so far, though I'm less happy with the code backing the web page. Too many moving parts and validation pieces make it a pain to update and each new set that gets added makes the testing for combinations / correctness a huge pain in the butt (permutations are a pain to test).

With Dragonspire hitting the shelves, I'll probably update this again soon while the little nuances are still fresh in my head. Then I'll go check and see what the other apps are offering and what suggestions / features people have asked for. I need to figure out the Google API for databases so I can add a feature to save card sets after you generate them (that way if you find a really good combination, you can replay it). I suppose I'll have to figure out some logic for making a "smart" deck builder (for the wimpy people out there that have to have items and heroes that directly match up to the monster cards).

Friday Night Gaming

This weeks gaming started off with my introducing In the Year of the Dragon to Nathan Winchester and Robert Bolan. Though it is ok, this game wore itself out on me really quickly - possibly because of the double dragon strategy. At any rate, I wanted to teach Robert and Nathan so we could add yet another game to our online repertoire. I started and took the double dragon (and ended up losing). Nathan took a double dragon in the second round. I tried to hold him off with a load of dragon ladies mid game, but his houses were beating me and in the end, he had too many people in his service.
Erik Von Burg came over as we finished up our game and mentioned that he hadn't played Thunderstone, so I pulled it out for the four of us.  We randomized everything in the base set and Wrath of the Elements. We ended up with three fighter types and a thief type in the hero pile. In the monster pile? Pain Elementals, Undead Doom and Spirit, and Death Traps. The village wasn't terribly interesting except for the trainer - everyone but me was grabbing them and burning through their militias for XP. The hero piles all disappeared pretty quickly. I had managed a couple of early kills, but got stuck a little in the middle. Nathan had come on strong, but a rash of traps killed of a number of his hard earned heroes. I started grabbing ambrosia each turn just for the pure VPs and when we added it up, I had indeed bested Nathan. Of course, Erik managed to best me - by one point. And of course, having played sparked my need to dig back into the code we started working on for randomizing the decks. I just need to update the village list and I'll have incorporated the Doomgate Legion and promos. We'll see if I ever get around to Dragonspire...

We finished the night by having Erik teach us Powerboats (which I picked up on Erik's recommendation). This is a fun little race game with some odd three sided dice. I pushed my luck a few too many times - however I managed to finish all the races, unlike Erik who blow up in the third race. Since dice were involved, Nathan didn't win this one - Robert did.

Catching Up

Theme good! Game - so so

Well, crap. My last post was Smell the Glove? Well, ok then - away we go. Robert Bolan came by at the end of January for a bit of gaming. We started out playing a couple of games of Hive. I really enjoy Hive because  it is short and yet tense and interesting. Robert and I managed to split games before Erik Von Burg stopped by and we setup Arkham Horror. We played and managed to win, but in trying to convince Robert that there is a decent game here I think I just managed to convince myself that there is too much stuff around an ok game. I like the theme, but it seems to be a lot of work for what is roughly the same payoff as Pandemic. We all kind of wished the end had come about 30-45 minutes sooner. Oh well.

Try and guess what this game is about

A week later was gaming at Rob and Michelle's place. I finally got to play Before the Wind. This is a little card game where you are trying to collect sets of cards (goods) in order to meet the requirements/wants of the ships (which earns you points). You are trying to balance collecting the goods and earning money to buy goods and space in your warehouse with what your fellow players are doing. We only had three players (Rob, Amelia and I) and I think this one would be better with four players. Having said that, even with four, I think this one isn't anything special. After Before the Wind, Erik arrived and so Amelia and I played a game of Empire Builder. I had managed to acquire a copy of the new edition for something like $22, so I had brought it along to get it played. This was my first playing of any crayon rail game. I'll have to say that it was also just ok. Though it has been a while, I'd have to say I think I like Dampfros better (which isn't a true part of the crayon rail games). The components of the newest edition are way better than the older ones, but the game was a bit longer than it needed to be.

2006 Spiel?

In the world of online/PBEM gaming, Nathan Winchester, Robert and I have managed a few games. We started with a game of St. Petersburg which I pretty well ran away with. We then moved on to Thurn and Taxis. I had only played Thurn once before, so had to refresh myself on the rules. The interface to the game at Yucata.de is really really well done and made it much easier. Unfortunately, I suck at this game. Nathan has managed to win both games we've played online and I have managed to be last both times. I'm getting a better feel for the game, but I can't figure out why it won the Spiel. It doesn't seem to be anywhere near the class of game like Ticket to Ride. Maybe it was just the other craptacular choice in 2006, but I'm not sure I'd have even suggested this one. Vegas Showdown and Ingenious are both FAR better games than this. Thurn is good, but not Spiel-good.

Is AoS on its last legs with me?

Anyway. Last week was my monthly manager meeting at my office. We have one manager that flies in and likes to play games and another from Tucson we've coerced into joining us. This month, I introduced them to Steam. The manager from Tucson (Deborah) may have been in a bit over her head, but she picked it up as the game went along. The other players were Robert and the out of town manager - Danielle. Danielle is pretty sharp and also picked a starting spot away from the rest of us. Having played quite a bit of AoS and Steam, I had a distinct advantage over three newbies and easily won this one. I hope the next time it will be closer as this is a game that is very satisfying to win against good opponents. I've also decided that I prefer this to AoS. the goods market and urbanization are much cleaner in Steam. I don't even mind that there isn't an auction. I'd be willing to play the auction version, but it doesn't hold the same tension since you can take money whenever you need it.  After Steam, Deborah had to drive home, so Robert and I taught Danielle Thurn and Taxis so we could try and suck her into our PBEM habit. Danielle won and I (continuing my reverse dominance of Thurn) was last.

New favorite in the C&C series

And the last game of this round up is the Battles of Westeros. Erik and I both had this past Monday off for President's Day and so he came over so we could try out BoW. BoW is the latest in the line of Command and Colors based games and I have to say is now easily my favorite. I didn't read the rules - Erik did and based on that I'll go with - not good. I printed out the Universal Head summary and I think having that (and having played every other game in the system) helped. Erik was the Stark side and I took the Lannister as we played the first scenario. It came down to the last round and I was not able to capture both of the hexes that the scenario required. Basically this game is more of the same from the C&C series - hexes, order a unit, move and roll some dice to combat. The trick is - the ordering mechanism is different. You roll the dice to start each round and that determines some of the unit types you can move. You also get a certain number of cards for each round you can use them as well in conjunction with any leaders you have on the board. The end result felt LESS luck driven than the previous C&C games (where you can have a hand of LEFT cards when you need RIGHT or MIDDLE cards). Not only that, but you may have the ability to rally (reset any army to accept orders again that round) your troops, which can make your play much more tactical and less "well, these are the cards I have". The box says it is a Battlelore game, but it is WAY better (and without the stupid magic cards). Heck, they might have just as well said it is a Battle Cry or Memoir 44 game. The dice are different. The ordering is different. It really is as different as it is similar to the other C&C offerings. One of the things I really liked was the theme. It did a good job of integrating the Westeros mythos without having just paid lip service to the theme, nor having shoehorned it. It is just a good fit. This is now a must have for me and I'd happily trade off my BL stuff when I get this.

Gaming with the Work Crew (AKA Smell the Glove)

This past week was our company Kick-off meeting. My employer flies everyone into town for a couple days of meetings and activities. A group of us pulled together a bit of time on Thursday night for some gaming and we started off with Telestrations - which is easily my favorite party game. We had our usual laughs (like the drawing of Italy that was backwards and thus looked like a sock yet was still "recognized" as Italy).
After a good number of belly laughs, a few people left and I pulled out Medici. I was the only person to have played before and joining me were - Steve Wicklund, Danielle Reader-Jolley, Robert Bolan, Deborah Allwes, and Bruno Bernard. I slow-played the first round to simply conserve cash. I was not quite prepared for Deborah's willingness to throw goods away left and right though. In the third round of the game, I had only four goods on my ship and with only three tiles in the bag. Robert was drawing and needed two tiles. He choose to be greedy and take two tiles out - hoping for the golden 10. He didn't draw it though, and I got the 10 which made my ship the top ship in the last round and scored me enough points for the win. Whew!
After our Medici adventure, we found a couple of other company folks and played another quick game of Telestrations to get in a few more laughs.

Through the Ages (for 2)

Nathan Winchester, Robert Bolan and I finished another couple of games of Through the Ages. Except, it was more accurately, I finished two player games with each of them. Nathan basically raped me the whole game being a bully with his military forces. I tried going the "more advanced" route with Robert, but that didn't help in the end. This is such a good game, but it really becomes mediocre with only two players. I think I'll stick to three player (possibly four).

Finishing a Few Descent Figs

With a three day weekend and some free time, I broke out the paints and Descent figs for some finishing. These skeletons were done, but needed to be "dipped". They look much better than my pictures convey. I tried a mahogany brown and I really like the effect.


For these manticores, I used the black (ie - Tudor). The one thing I did see with the brown was that it really shaded the guys "brown". the Tudor tends to darken but not really muddy the colors. For the giants and skeletons, the brown worked well, but I will not use it for the dragon or demons.



 The giants are sooooo much cooler than these pictures show. They are really amazing looking. One thing I did was spend too much time on them. I dry brushed their hair a bit, but you can't tell in the least (the blue pants guy had MUCH lighter hair). The other thing I realized is that I need to use much much more bright colors. The orange pants for the one giant looked retarded before the dip and they look great now.

Of course, I just got done dipping all of these figures, so they are still shiny. After they've had a few days to dry, I'll cover the bases in black and give them all a spray with the flat clear cote spray.

Still left: regular skeletons, dragons, demons, ogres, and of course, all the heroes.

Through the Ages (again)

Nathan Winchester, Robert Bolan and I finished another game of Through the Ages. I am getting a little better at the pacing, though I still didn't win. I had a lead through the game, but knew it wouldn't be enough at the end - it wasn't. Nathan killed me in points at the end of the game I was back of him by 36 points. Robert stagnated in the last third of the game, which didn't help slow Nathan down. I imagine we'll be playing this one quite a bit more.

Battleball

With some recent nice weather, some of the boys in the neighborhood have broken out the footballs. along with the upsurge in football interest, my son dragged out Battleball for us to play. He chose the Iron Wolves and I had the Black Harts. We played four games and with the same end result each time - a victory for the Black Harts. The first game I showed Ashton a few tricks with throwing the ball around. After that, nothing was working for the poor guy. I was able to roll under his rolls and crush his guys again and again. I haven't seen rolls that bad since Robert and I played Combat Commander! Still a great little quick game.

Friday Game Night

This week, Nathan Winchester and I planned to head over to Rob Smolka and Michelle Zentis' house for a bit of Friday night gaming. The two of us arrived about the same time as Jeff Claussen and the group decided to start with a shorter game while we waited for Matthew Frederick and Ameli Boli. Our choice was Through the Desert - a game I enjoy a lot, but don't tend to play very well. This night was different as I managed to weave in-between folks while Michelle and Nathan used all the purple camels. I ended up able to take a pretty good amount of 3-pt tokens and hit a lot of the oasis which, at the end of the game saw me ahead by 9-10 points! The game was over incredibly quickly which was probably to my advantage. If we had gone on much longer, I'm guessing that Michelle would have block anything I could have done to score points.

Matthew and Amelia arrived and had brought 7 Wonders along. This is a hot new game for me - I enjoy the pace and length of this little card drafting / civ game. Rob suggested we all play since it supports 7 players and Nathan was the only new player, so we quickly went over the rules for him. I didn't really start with great choices of materials, but I was able to start getting science (green) cards, so I grabbed those and spent the next few rounds collecting the cards that built off those for free. I somehow managed to get three triplets of science buildings and one other to score 25 points in science. That and a little more military than the players next to me at the end of the game pushed me into the second win of the night!

My streak would come to the end though as I pulled out Cyclades for the first time. This is a little war-euro-game I've had for a while that I've really wanted to play. Erik Von Burg had arrived at Rob and Michelle and joined Matthew and Nathan and I. Don't let the descriptions fool you, this is a well themed EURO-game. There are dice for combat, but the amount of randomness is pretty low, really the game is about the auction for turn order and the ability to do something on that turn. The auction is ala Amun-Re, where you bid on an item and if outbid, you must bid on something else. It took us a few turns (and lots of mistakes in tactics) to get into the flow of the game and then it went pretty well. At the end, Nathan and Matthew both needed to win the Neptune auction to win while I needed to have Ares and go before either of them to win. At the cost of all my money, I was able to hold of Nathan for one turn, but the next turn Nathan was loaded with cash and could win with either of two powers and he won. Unfortunately, we all kind of felt that the end game was a bit flawed - the random ordering of the powers and the fact that the one you needed might not be there didn't feel quite right. The game wasn't bad, but wasn't great (like Chaos in the Old World) either.

Through the Ages

One of my favorite new games from last year was Through the Ages (of course the game wasn't new last year, just new to me). I had only played two player games of it though, and I wanted to try this one with three players. After teaching it to Robert Bolan, we agreed that we needed to try it with three (Nathan Winchester being the intended third of course). As luck would have it, I remembered finding an online implementation of the game at Boardgaming-online.com. Though there were a few things we discovered we had missed or played slightly off, it really isn't a bad PBEM implementation. There are a couple of times when you have no action but to pass (for example - in bidding) and you still have to "take your turn", but that's a small complaint I think. I started with Homer as my leader and was scoring a good number of points and thus started with the early lead. Also due to my more militant take on things, I received a number of colonies through the game. However, I stagnated in the mid-game and haven't played enough to grasp the pacing of the game well enough to recover. Nathan came on strong in the mid-game and crushed Robert and I at the end.

Torres

Nathan Winchester had suggested that we try Torres online. Since my friend Robert Bolan hadn't learned this one yet, I offered to teach him while we were watching a football game. I don't know that I had ever played this two player but the goal was to try and teach Robert all the nasty tricks that Nathan would try to use. I showed him how I was going to put the game out of reach after the first turn by building a sprawling castle that prevented his biggest one from growing. Then I started climbing. Robert figured out placing two levels next to my climbing stack to prevent my advancing, but a card allowing me to place under my knight remedied that situation and made the score that much worse for Robert. We played quickly and while the game wasn't that close, I was again reminded how good a game this one is.

Oregon

Robert Bolan and I fired up a couple of games of two-player Oregon on yucata.de recently. This of course after introducing the game to Robert in a 3-player game with Nathan Winchester. In our three player game, Nathan kicked our butt by getting a good number of the same areas for the first 7 turns or so and managed to place nearly all his people in groups! After easily beating us, Robert and I tried a couple games as two-player. I wanted to see if the luck was mitigated head-to-head and we each ended up winning a game. As a two-player game though, it was about as luck filled as Ballon Cup - which is to say: VERY. As a three or four player game, this one is ok, but not great. It seems a little too complex for a family game, and too luck filled to appeal to the euro-game crowd.

Power Grid

I have a confession. I almost lost a game of Power Grid against newbs. Some people I work with got together for a little bit of gaming the other night. Danielle Reader-Jolley, Tim Baker, Robert Bolan and I all sat down to play some PG. Robert has played once before and the game was new to Tim and Danielle. We played the US map with the standard deck of power plants. The game started out normally and Robert decided to slow play his hand by staying back of everyone a couple cities - that didn't work out so well for him. Luckily for him, EVERYTIME he chose to get out of an auction he got a really good plant at cost. Danielle ended up with some "green" plants and cheap fuel plants and spent the game hoarding money while Tim and I plodded along. As we hit the third step of the game and I realized I had no chance to beat Danielle, I did the only thing I could - I guessed that we'd have another turn, and I didn't buy into every city I could afford. My hope was to get cheaper fuel in the last turn and have enough cash to power as many cities as Danielle (though I was sure if it was a tie, I'd lose to cash). In the last round, Danielle made the mistake that cost her the game - she didn't buy a new plant and could only power 17 cities. I had to get a new plant and had the ability to power 18. Only Robert was before me in claiming cities, and he couldn't keep me from grabbing cities until I had 18 of them. As the only player who could power 18, I won.

New Look

That was surprisingly easy and annoying at the same time. I applied a new template and played with the colors a little bit until I found something I liked. I played with the CSS a little to try and get the corners rounded on the posts and side items. Looks good in Firefox, but not IE - too bad. I'll probably spend a little time and see if I can't do something with the page banner, which I think is a bit too tall and looks fuzzy. Banner updated. Welcome to Things of No Interest 2011

Thunderstone

Ashton and I busted out Thunderstone: Wrath of the Elements and did a little gaming. Our mix included Golems, Pain Elementals and the Horde. We had a mix of heroes: Seleurian Wizards, Outland Warriors, Chalice Questers and Amazons. We also had a good mix of weapons and spells making the Amazons the least effective and desired hero. We had Goodberries, the Feast, and Ambrosia as well, so the Outlanders were the obvious choice - even though I forgot and didn't notice the VPs on those cards. My son was going for the big bangs and had a good number of wizards and magic missiles and fireballs. Though he ended up with an Outland Khan in his deck, my deck was far faster at bashing baddies and in the end I was killing anything I wanted at will. Even though I beat Ashton, the best part was how quickly he picked the game up even though it had been over 6 months since learning to play it.

New Year, Same Story

My son and I played in the last city championship of the season for Pokemon down in Tucson over the weekend.We did - poorly. Poor Ashton went 1-3, with his only win from a bye in the action. He was pretty even-keeled about it, so I was glad to see him handle it without dampening his enthusiasm for the game. As for me, I also went 1-3. My single win was almost pure luck, as my opponent had 4 chances to knock me out, but ended up on the wrong side of a coin flip each time while I held out. Next up? The next set of pre-release events are the end of January.

Excuses, A-Holes, and End-of-the-Year Lists

That's right, its about that time - my end of the year lists! I don't know - this year was a little weird. Started out ok, then got busy at work and gaming just wasn't catching my eye. I've hit the saturation point of games (both from a "played that" kind of feel and purely out of space. I did discover a few new gems this year and my son and I have been playing a lot of Pokemon too. And not only did my plays drop off, but my writing did as well. Just too much work. Blech.

At any rate, this wasn't a terrible year for gaming. There was the Geekway 2010, the online Olympics and I introduced another co-worker to gaming. So lets start with all the "Cult of the New" games:

• Die Macher - finally got to play this and I wasn't disappointed, but it was exhausting.
• Undercut - Really unique bidding game using Treehous pieces. I like it.
• Hermagor - This is a favorite of the AZ Gamers I play with, but it just doesn't do it for me.
• Thunderstone - I like this at least twice as much as Dominion. It isn't the best game ever, but it is fun to me. I wrote a randomizer and web page to generate the cards to use...
• Union vs Central - Another SUPER long game. This one is a two player logistics game that was fun, but there is so much effort to do anything, and about 1/3 of the actions you can take are "take that!!!" on your opponent. Seriously like a 10 hour two player game of back and forth.
• Through the Ages - This is another I finally got to play and love. It is Civ in boardgame form. So good.
• Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation - This is how Stratego should be. Fast, lots of bluffing and fun.
• Bus - Cool at first, I apparently just didn't grok it and ended up lukewarm. The online interface doesn't allow you to make a mis-click. That doesn't help.
• Fits - This is the slow boring version of Tetris. I love Tetris - this is meh.
• UR - I should have loved this, but in our online Olympics, I was too frustrated with the randomness. That and Justin not reading the rules and giving Nathan wins every game.
• Infinite City - This is a tile laying "take that" game. it was ok, but felt pretty random.
• Neue Heimat - The best auction game EVER. This is a nasty game and I loved it.
• Campaign Manager 2008 - This should have been a cool little card drafting game but it fell flat for me. The theme was cool at first, until you realize both sides cards are the same, just different flavor text.
• Samarkand: Road to Riches - Surprising me this year was this beauty. It is quick and feels a little like Chicago Express. There is a bit of randomness that can take away control, but it plays so quickly you won't care.
• Castle Panic - I hated this game. I played with people I like, but this just sucked.
• Ra: The Dice Game - Boring. What can you say about a generic dice game that has a tacked on theme from a game with a tacked on theme?
• Kingsburg - I do like this game, but only with the expansion. Dice games aren't my favorite, but they can be fun. Besides, other than Twilight Struggle, it was the only game I could beat Nathan at during the Geekway.
• Dread Pirate - dumb dumb dumb. I didn't hate this like Castle Panic, but there wasn't much point in playing it either.
• Oregon - I liked this one. Its a clever little tile game with interesting tactical choices.
• Bisikle - This is similar to Pitchcar, except that you "flick" a little yellow ball with ball bearings. It allows you some control (much like a cue ball in pool) to do some interesting things. The track is plastic and interlocking, which makes for a naturally smooth surface.
• Diamond's Club - This one didn't excite me - its a gather A to make B to score points kind of thing.
• Orient Express - Noah brought this old game out. It is a who dunit mystery which was spoiled by luck - if you get lucky, you get more clues, which of course means you can solve the mystery first.
• Take It Higher! - I enjoyed this one a lot. It is a puzzle game where everyone is placing the same piece to score multiple ways. This particular version has a bunch of extra things to think about, so it might be "too much of a good thing".
• Thebes - I was surprised to like this one as much as I did. Very random, but fun little planning game and of course, it works well as a family game.
• Claustrophobia - Another surprise. I had never heard of it, but saw it at the Geekway and got it for my son. This is a cool game - not quite a dungeon crawl, but close. Mechanics are pretty easy and cool with the dice. Well done two-player game.
• Reef Encounter - I should like this game, but this is one where it really feels like randomness spoils a good abstract game.
• Telestrations - Might be as good or better party game than Say Anything!
• Gonzaga - This one was a bit different. You place different sized plastic pieces on the board - sort of "claiming territory". It is a bit of set collection via the claimed areas. Interesting and not bad.
• Finito! - I don't remember much except this is short and I thought it was easy.
• IGOR! The Monster Making Game - Total random filler. Cute, but not much here.
• Top Race - I really like race games. Especially when you can screw other players. This was fun.
• Fresco - Another gather A to make B to score points game. Meh.
• D&D: Castle Ravenloft Boardgame - I'm a sucker for dungeon crawls. This is D&D for dummies and that's ok with me. I'm not into the whole role playing thing, I just want to bash stuff. It is a co-op, which is cool too.
• Axis & Allies: D-Day - speaking of "for dummies", this is the A&A version for dummies. Its a quick intro style game for Axis and Allies, but there isn't a ton of replayability here. At least I finally played one of my Axis and Allies games.
• Lost Cities: The Boardgame - a lot like the card game, but for four players and with a few twists to keep it from being the same each round.
• 7 Wonders - I hadn't heard of this before, but it is a quick civ game based on card drafting. It was good enough to play twice in a row (a rarity for our group).

So, I'm not picking just one favorite from that group this year. I really really liked Neue Hiemat, Through the Ages, and Samarkand. They are all good games. For the bottom three: Castle Panic, Ra: The Dice Game, and Campaign Manager 2008 - BARF.

Next: Nickles and Dimes. These are the games played at least 5 or 10 times this year:
DIMES

	Balloon Cup
	Samurai
	Pokémon Trading Card Game
	Combat Commander: Europe UNO (yeah, played this a bazzillion times this summer).

NICKLES

	Reef Encounter
	Hive
	Thunderstone
	Through the Desert
	Samarkand: Routes to Riches
	Amun-Re
	UR
	Tikal

I think that Ballon Cup ended up as my most played game - it was easy to teach and play with Robert throughout the year. We hate it now. Sadly, Samurai and a lot of other Knizia games left the PBEM world this year. It's too bad as Samurai remains one of my all time favorite games. A lot of the nickles were due to the PBEM Olympics, but as I also discovered, I wasn't a big fan of a lot of them. Ok, that's it for 2010 - hopefully I'll be around more next year!

Gaming With My Son

The last couple of weekends I was able to get a bit of gaming in with my son. First off we pulled out Runebound last weekend. This is one of his favorites and honestly one that we can get through pretty quickly for the two of us. I was ahead for a bit, then he got a potion that was worth essentially three levels of experience! I had to race to get ahead and managed to find and kill three red bad guys a turn before Ashton had a shot at his third red bad guy. A very close win. I still have a whole expansion we haven't even touched yet. He still seems to enjoy this one a lot so it'll probably come out some more too.

This last week finally settled down long enough for me to teach Ashton Star Wars - The Queen's Gambit. This old AH/Hasbro game is simple enough that Ashton quickly grasped the game, and yet interesting enough to actually want to play it once in a while. I played the good guys, while Ashton took on the role of the Trade Federation. I started out with Anakin ripping though the star fighters, but Ashton stymied him at the end with a stack of 10 cards which I never whittled down. On the Gungan battle field, I was able to more than hold my own. Unfortuantely, Ashton went ballistic with Darth Maul and it wasn't long before I had no Jedi and lost my real queen. The Captain and fake queen made a break for the throne room, but the droid army put a quick end to the uprising.

Merry Christmas

Secret Santa left me a few gifts. There were a number of "coal" items (Lord of the Rings Top Trumps card game anyone? - it is basically War) and of course a game. Before that, I'll point out that I also received a book - Wayne Cordeiro's The Divine Mentor - a book about growing one's faith. I nice gesture that brings a little more to the whole Secret Santa than just buying a game for another random person.

As far as the game goes, I received Sisimizi - this is one of those random games I stumbled across on the geek (I honestly don't remember what geeklist I found this one on). It is essentially an abstract and fairly rare (at least in the US). When I opened the box, it took a minute to recognize the game - it isn't one I would have expected.

So to my SS - thank you and I hope you and yours have a Merry Christmas.


As to whom my SS is - I still have no clue :)

58 Monopoly Versions

Ah the things you can do during a build cycle...

At the behest of TWERP-5 I now present to you : 58 versions of Monopoly (brought to you by the members of the Online Olympics team:
From ME!:

1. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5758/monopoly-pokemon - My son and I play a lot of Pokemon the card game
2. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24000/monopoly-nintendo - Love nintendo and the wii
3. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6958/monopoly-justice-league-of-america - I wish DC had kept the animated series going. It was so good.
4. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/36663/monopoly-chronicles-of-narnia-collectors - The Chronic-what-cles of Narnia..
5. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24142/monopoly-rudolph-the-red-nosed-reindeer - Tis the season after all
6. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/5339/monopoly-junior - Wrote this as a java program in college. Guess what? Whomever goes first has a distinct advantage.
7. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3020/monopoly-looney-tunes - Hillbilly Hare is probably my all time favorite
8. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11950/monopoly-marvel-comics - The new Avengers series on Disney is pretty good.
9. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1298/monopoly-star-wars - The original is one of my three favorite movies.
10. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/684/monopoly-the-card-game - Really?
11. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/13608/monopoly-the-card-game-deluxe-edition - Really really?
12. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/54803/my-first-monopoly - Hopefully your last one too
13. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3759/make-your-own-opoly - No thank you.
14. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/32759/mormon-opoly - For Robert
15. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29997/union-pacific-opoly - I used to work for UP and yes, I own this.
16. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28830/monopoly-berkshire-hathaway-diamond - I own this too (still in the shrink!)
17. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/24764/monopoly-the-mega-edition - Monopoly really doesn't need a supersize me option
18. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1931/anti-monopoly - This is more like it
19. http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/1420/monopoly-express - best option?

From Chester Ogborn:
1 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28357/monopoly-scotland
2 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25620/monopoly-glasgow
3 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30630/monopoly-harley-davidson-legendary-bikes
4 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42542/monopoly-seinfeld-collectors-edition
5 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/30652/monopoly-utah
6 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/46781/monopoly-g-i-joe-collectors-edition
7 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/47315/monopoly-transformers-ii
8 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34882/monopoly-shrek-collectors
9 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/33549/monopoly-horse-lovers
10 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/62803/monopoly-cleveland-edition
11 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/35929/monopoly-st-louis-cardinals-world-series
12 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28352/monopoly-university-of-newcastle-upon-tyne
13 - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/21361/monopoly-u-s-space-program

From Justin Easley:

1. Monopoly: Star Wars
2. Monopoly: Pokemon
3. Monopoly: The Simpsons
4. Monopoly: Star Trek The Next Generation
5. Monopoly: London
6. Monopoly: Nintendo
7. Monopoly: Canadian Edition
8. Monopoly: Puerto Rico
9. Monopoly: NHL
10. Monopoly: Family Guy
11. Monopoly: NASCAR
12. Monopoly: Japan
13. Monopoly: Wales-Cymru
14. Monopoly: Bournemouth & Poole Edition
15. Monopoly: Indiana Jones
16. Monopoly: Dale Earnhardt

Nathan Winchester contributes:
Starting with the worst version I can imagine:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/7594/net-opoly

And then the best:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20306/brew-opoly

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/70653/monopoly-nintendo-collectors-edition

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of properties.  Indeed.

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/10673/monopoly-america-special-edition

And, since I'm a hippie:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/9725/monopoly-national-parks-edition

Wait, what?  Why does this exist?

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/28374/inflatable-monopoly

Make fun of my shirt all you want, there are monopolies for it:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/11862/gay-monopoly

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/20917/monopoly-boy-scouts-of-america

Hometown pride?:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/19195/monopoly-green-bay-packers

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/34676/wisconsinopoly

Who doesn't love dinosaurs!

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/15325/dino-opoly

And of course, I fully expect everyone to use these:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/29997/union-pacific-opoly

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/71999/omaha-opoly

ATTN: TWERP-5

I apologize for lack of updates, I've been working a ton of overtime at work and then on top of that, my home computer has died, so I've been working on fixing that as well...

Tis the Season

Its the annual Secret Santa on the BGG. Oddly enough for me, about every other year I get someone who is willing to put some effort into taunting me with clues and such to try and figure them out. This is such a year. This year has started with this (after berating me for adding a Dora game picture in 2005):

"However, in spite of my initial misgivings, I am willing to allow you to argue your case for this blight from your past being an errant keystroke, childhood relapse or spasmodic convulsion rather than an intentional image posting. You may prove your deserved "Nice List" status by starting a new Geeklist thread at boardgamegeek.com entitled “247 People Who Deserve LCR In Their Stocking”. This Geeklist should involve a discussion/listing of amusing, non-offensive, fictional/semi-fictional individuals who deserve a lump of LCR-shaped coal in their stocking for Christmas. I will help you start your list by offering the first submission: Larry Fine’s (The Three Stooges) barber. You may both submit your own suggestions (as many as you like) and receive comments from others listing their selections (as many as care to post). However, you must amass of list of at least 247 names. That’s TWO FORTY-SEVEN, Charles – that’s important…247."

So I started the geeklist - http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/61039/247-people-who-deserve-lcr-in-their-stocking - at least its something to do.

A Ranger in Ravenloft

I managed another QUICK game of Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game. I again played a solo game, this time trying out the Ranger character. I'm not sure this particular one is a great one solo. The basic setup gives the ranger a basic "do 1 damage to an adjacent monster" ability and lots of the monsters have only 1 hit, so this is a good thing, but the lack of AC and HP means I got killed really really quickly - like 5 tiles quickly. I was up to like 11 XP, but the wraiths and flaming skeletons were too much. Each HP surge was only 4 HP and I didn't have enough space to maneuver away from the dangers. Ah well.

Castle Ravenloft

Castle Ravenloft was once a Dungeons and Dragons adventure game. Ravenloft eventually proved popular enough to spawn its own campaign setting - inspired by gothic horror classics such as the Mummy, Dracula, The Wolfman, Frankenstein, etc. Wizards of the Coast has returned to this setting in a new line of board games with the appropriately (if not obvious titled) - Dungeons and Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game. Wizards is obviously looking to tap into a new market and perhaps pull in some new players to the Dungeons and Dragons gaming scene. I don't know anything about that. I do know that this is a light fun romp with rules that are in line with Heroscape or Claustrophobia. So what is Castle Ravenloft? It is a cooperative dungeon crawl for 1-5 players. Each player takes a different class and the group picks and adventure to from the book to play. Each has their own goal for winning. Typically, losing means getting killed a couple time. On a player's turn, they can move and fight, fight then move, or move twice. If you end at the edge of the board you draw a new tile from the stack of tiles that will make up the game area. When you place the tile, monsters may or may not appear. After a player moves, that player then also executes the monster's turn. monster cards explain clearly what needs to be done and whom to attack. There are other cards for treasure and for encounters and traps that can hinder or help the players. All in all, the game is pretty well scripted so that players aren't flipping through books or looking things up on 12 different tables of numbers to figure things out.
I've played the game twice now - one solo to get an understanding of the mechanics. The solo game had me trying to find my way out before Strahd (the master vampire of Castle Ravenloft) awoke and killed me. I ran around as quickly as I could looking for the exit. Strahd awoke and chased me around quite a bit. I managed to finally find the exit and escape with 1 hit left before I would have lost. The second game was with my son and we were trying to find a chapel with a special artifact. Unfortunately, we found a lot of wraiths who kicked our butt. We finally found the chapel, but had died twice already and were easy targets for the two monsters we found inside the chapel.
So, what do I think? Its fun. It doesn't outstay its welcome. Games are about an hour, which makes this one instantly appealing over something like Descent. Does this mean I should throw Descent away? No. This is different. In fact, it almost feels like Claustrophobia for 1-5 players. Combat is super straightforward and in fact, the exploration piece doesn't really give you an option for which way to lay a tile - you always point the printed arrow towards the area that you are exploring from. There isn't the same feel of gaining treasure like in other dungeon crawls and experience and leveling is a limited deal, but you don't have the overhead of other dungeon games either. The tile mechanism is neat, but the tiles are pretty generic and the maps tend to look just like the last one. The minis that come with the game are ok - they are basically unpainted versions of the D&D:Minis that have been out for a while. One of the hero models is new, but the rest have been seen (that doesn't make them bad). The tiles are nice and there are lots of cards (though the cards aren't the thickest, so I'm not sure how they'll hold up to lots of playing). Wizards of the Coast already has another boxed set coming out which is supposed to be compatible (ie, new monsters and heroes that can be used with either set). I'm not sure how many scenarios you can put together - there can only be so many variations on run through catacombs for some reason or another, but this isn't a bad game so I can see getting both if one gets played enough.

Game Night

Friday Sept 3, 2010 - Rob and Michelle's place.
I got to Rob and Michelle's place a bit on the early side this week (as did Nathan Winchester, Matt and Liz Longieliere). We started the night out playing a game of Ra with Rob. Ra is one of the classics that I'll play just about anytime. There is a good mix of push your luck and knowing when to bid that makes this one great. For this game, Matt pulled down a couple early stacks of monuments and later in the game pulled down more it kept him safely in the lead for an easy win. Nathan managed to beat me, but only because Liz pulled me down to lowest Pharaohs, costing me two points.
Steve Bauer had arrived and we've been trying to get in a game of Samurai, so I pulled it down for us. Matt Cullinan and Matthew Frederick rounded out the game. Unlike my last game (4-player tie) this one wasn't close. Matt took advantage of Matthew nearly every round, and Steve abused me at every turn. I played ok, but didn't see any of my 4-tiles until my last three draws. Matt won easily with two majorities.

Everyone split up again, and this time, Liz joined Matt, Matthew and I for a game of Thebes.  This is a game that has grown on me. Despite the randomness of the digging, it is an entertaining game for what is clearly a family game. The mechanics are well done and mesh well with the theme. I was able to get a few books of general knowledge early on,  and then grabbed a lot of purple. Matt had a load of orange, and so I sucked it up and headed south to dig. I grabbed a couple of oranges before Matt decimated the pile, but pulled in a ton of purple stuff. Then I raced for some yellow and managed a dig before the end of the year, allowing me to essentially double up digging at yellow. Matthew was having a hell of a time - everywhere he planned to go, we managed to get there right before him and dig the hell out of the place. His saving grace was that he was collecting a ton of congress cards. Unfortunately, he was always in position to get them and we weren't. Matthews bonus points from the congresses  saved his hide and he won the game.
I finished the night playing a game of Samarkand with Dion Garner, Rob, and Steve. This is a fun little game whose major shortcoming is that the setup is almost as long as the game. This game felt amazingly fast - Dion, Rob and Steve all played on the East side of the map and left me to my demise. With no help, I think I only landed a couple of card. This game does have a similar feel to Chicago Express in that you have to "play the players" - Rob ended the game very quickly as he had a number of points coming in matching cards.