Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Very disturbing....



...the dwindling attendance to our weekly soiree. Is it an imbalance in the Force? Global warming? A bad meatball sandwich from Thundercloud subs? Still lots of fun was had by the attendees.

I got to try Taj Mahal with Jon and Amy. Good, weird (ie very different from others), lots of luck in the cards drawn but it's actual modifiable luck (you get more cards if you opt out of an auction early). It has some cool and refreshing mechanics. It feels like many small auction game rounds in a big area control game. Would like to try again.

Pacific Victory is a Pacific Monster. Mark and I played a LOONG scenario (but not the longest), and had to cut it short by 10pm. We were only about 4 rds away from completion, but it looked like history was going to prevail: the US (Mark) was slowly gaining ground on the Japanese (yours truly). It was a great game VERY different from other Columbia Games blockgames. I just need to remember to have dinner before I sit for 5 hrs to play one of these monters.

I saw Vegas Showdown, some party games, etc going on outside...

18 Comments:

At 1:12 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Jeff said...

Nine gamers this week. Nine gamers last week. The week before that - ??? Eight gamers on Labor Day (unless I'm forgetting some grogs who were tucked away someplace with block and a paper hex-map). Looks consistent to me.

Got to play Scepter of Zavandor last night. Scores were very tight until the last two or three turns when Michael's ruby-making machine gave him an edge. Looks like there's a lot of depth to the game even before you consider the uneven starting positions provided by the various characters. Good times.

 
At 1:31 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Rob said...

Well, I guess I was getting used to seeing 12+ with about 3 games at the same time (that was about >4 weeks ago).

 
At 3:48 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Ben said...

(((Channeling Homer Simpson)))
MMMmmmm, meatballs...
(((Back to normal)))

I need caloric replenishment no less than every 3 hours of gaming. There's something about a witches brew of sugar, caffeine, salt, and fat (preferrably mozzarella) that results in optimal gaming fuel.

Never fear, I shall return to Monday nights in 2007. In the mean time, I'll work to continue to begin making Friday afternoons a second Monday (does that seem backwards or what??!). Expect e-mail invites forthcoming for gaming during 4-13 Oct 06 while I'm off work.

 
At 4:42 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Brian said...

Let's see, we had Scepter, Celebrities and Goa. A fine showing.

 
At 5:19 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Michael said...

Just throwing this out there:

Would doing the game night on Tuesday enable the people who have been missing to show up? Simon, Ben, Dennis, Rick, Carlos? On the flip side would going on Tuesday hurt others chances of making it?

The small(er) turnouts have resulted in some early finishes. I don't think we've gone later than 10 in over a month.

My big issue with scepter is that you have to spend way too much time crunching numbers to try to optimize your spending. I'm not an arithmetician so it gets annoying to me.

Celebrities is great. "Do NOT guess until I give you a clue." Oh boy, I guess my list of blunders grows.

 
At 5:50 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Ted said...

I had a date to play FitS w/ Jon. I almost cancelled because I needed to make some presentation materials, but I was anxious to get some F2F time w/ this game. It's got quite a lot of depth, and it'll take some plays before I wrap my brain around it.

Well, Jon was also feeling kind of daunted by it, and when I arrived he told me he was pulling the plug. Oh well, another night.

I finished my dinner while waiting for the group to finish Scepter, and my guilt kept growing. Eventually I realized I wasn't going to have fun even I stayed to play, so I left. Kinda sad, but I did get a good bit of work done.

Maybe next week.

 
At 5:56 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Simon said...

I'm the same with Tuesdays as I am with Mondays.

 
At 6:24 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Ben said...

Weeknights are out for me pretty much the rest of the year until school is over. Its not so much that I'm busy every night, but I'm so busy doing school right now that I really don't want to take yet another night away from hanging out with my wife and taking care of miscellaneous responsibilities.

Plug pulling is bad.

 
At 6:28 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Jeff said...

Tuesdays are slightly better for me.

 
At 7:15 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Mark said...

Tuesdays are a no go for me.

 
At 7:41 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Rob said...

Already set my calendar for October to have time on Mondays

 
At 11:22 PM, September 26, 2006, Blogger Dennis Ugolini said...

Things that have been keeping me from coming: (a) busy with new school term, (b) novelty of return of Monday Night Football, and (c) prevalence of Friday gaming lately. Those won't last, so I'll be back soon.

 
At 2:20 AM, September 27, 2006, Blogger Michael said...

I strongly considered skipping last night because of the first monday night football game in forever that I've had any interest in watching. In the end I couldn't bring myself to pass up the gaming although I did throw Michael Vick into the mix for celebrities. He was promptly voted down.

So I guess this brilliant non-monday plan isn't gonna help the issue.

I miss Louie.

 
At 6:40 AM, September 27, 2006, Blogger Ben said...

Monday nights during football season are probably a bad idea...

BTW, my fantasy team, at least for the moment, is dominating. Kendahl lost a close one to me this past weekend. Michael and Scott are coming up on the schedule, and everyone seems to be adjusting since their losses...

 
At 12:47 PM, September 27, 2006, Blogger Mark said...

Re: Pacific Victory

It was a great game and I enjoyed switching sides and seeing what it is like to play the Allies. I now understand Ted's hesitation to launch general offensives with the Allies. The fog of war element is huge. I started what I expected to be a minor skirmish and ended up tangling with the IJN's main fleet. My fleet made an orderly redeployment after just one round of battle.

Pacific Victory has a bit of a learning curve and it's not until you actually play a full game that you understand the nuances. Unfortunately the game is very intricate and doesn't allow for many mistakes. This was Rob's first real game and this was my 3rd or 4th game. Rob did quite well and we both shored up our understanding of the rules.

 
At 7:37 PM, September 27, 2006, Blogger Brian said...

I can do mondays or tuesdays.

 
At 2:53 PM, September 28, 2006, Blogger Rob said...

Thanks Mark (sniff sniff). Thanks. (sniff)

I don't know why I like wargames. I never seem to win.

 
At 4:41 PM, October 02, 2006, Blogger Rick N said...

Mondays are normally fine for me. The beginning of the school year is always overwhelming; I hope to be on top of things soon. My attendance should become more regular in the next month.

 

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