Pushing it to the wall....8/24 quick report

The plan was to get there by 5pm, but I finally arrived at 5:45pm. As usual, it was a long boring and tiring 4hr-drive from League City,TX. I played:



Nexus Ops: Jon, Ben, Steve,me...

After giving away a few mines to my enemies, I actually became a threat by being the first to score a few decent vp's. Then it was downhill from there on. Steve and Ben pounded on my guys. Soon after Steve's empire, who couldn't be contained by my whimpy army (after many botched battles), or Jon's who was distracted by the luring power of the Nexus, ran away with it.



Leonardo Da Vinci: Ben, Steve, me

I'm going to start doing this more.... bringing games that I know I have enjoyed a lot in the past, but have been left there...in the past. Last time I played this was about a year ago. This game punishes you if you miss controlling some of the early inventions, because you lose the precious discounts you get from them (I was reminded of this the hard way). The end game score was very interesting: eventhough Ben had the most inventions completed, Steve ran away with it (again!!), and I was a very close third (for controlling a SINGLE invention).

Arkadia: Jon, Me, Michael, Chris

Clean mechanics, fun tetris tile placement game. Jon first, me second, andMichael frustrated.

I teach you TICHU: Jon, Michael, Chris

Me? I wasn't really there....at least my mind wasn't. I need theme, and interesting mechanics. Trick-taking and CLIMBING games like this are ALL mechanic. ...so they just simply don't work for me. Keeping track of who plays what, who draws what, who passed etc is just not fun for me. Now having said that, TICHU does have its charm. It was growing on me as we played. I may come to like it, as its intricacies become second nature to me (what to pass to whom, when to play a hand, etc). For now, it feels too much like work....

Plus I do have to admit, this is probably the hardest thing to translate in my head. I'm not used to the 'lingo': "I have ace king high, to your double full house trump peacock dragon".... que?.

All in all, it was great to see you all again. Fun times.