Workers of the World Unite!

I don't know if any of the gamers with MLK off made it to Dragon's Lair - the "workers of the world" made it to the table at around 5ish. Brian and I played a few more games of Race For The Galaxy - the 2-player 2-actions-per-turn version. I have to say - if you like the game and haven't tried this version, you really need to give it a whirl. It amps up what is possible to do, and makes for a very fast-paced two player game. I continue to improve, and finally am at a place where I'm not self-destructing on a regular basis. In fact, I even took away a victory or two last night. Thanks, Galactic Federation! I can never keep count (and it's always "just one more"), but I think we landed something like 6 games before Al showed up around 7ish.

We played one more game of Race, this time with three players, and it was a pretty tight contest. I think Al scored close to 35 points, I had 41, and Brian a few more than that. I think I had played twice the games Al has before I came close to the 30 point mark, so kudos for that. As much as the game is a competition amongst each other, I've found that I am also trying to beat my previous "bests" in the game. That's not always points, depending on how quickly the game ends, but also avoiding past mistakes, combining good cards, planning ahead for the end-game, and other various game activities. I don't know that there's a game I've played this many times that I still am this interested in...

Finishing up the night was Vegas Showdown - I was suprised to learn that my game was unpunched... apparently we've always played someone else's copy at game night. After a few turns I caught/passed up everyone on the income track, but some lack of foresight on my part and plenty on Brian's let him grab a Nightclub for 8 vp. A handfull of turns later he also was the only one holding enough cash to pick up the theater, which is worth 12 vp. The rest of the game was a battle for the small stuff. I think I suffered from a little too much "analysis paralysis" as I tried to conceive of some way to make up a 20 point deficit, but it was a losing battle. This is a great game, but with three seemed to suffer a little from the runaway leader syndrome. I'm going to blame the game instead of my poor play. :)

On a side note - I miss everyone! Mondays have gotten a little slim lately. Is this temporary? I know that semesters/holidays/etc go in phases...