Saturday Back at Dragon's Lair

SABG was back at the old, familiar haunt of Dragon's Lair today. I arrived shortly after 1000 hours and watched the original Mothra on DVD for a while with the clerk while browsing. I successfully talked myself out of a few impulse buys: new Wings of War minis, Star Wars mini starter kit, more Heroclix I could kitbash into Heroscape... aka, stuff I really don't need.

Luckily Scott arrived before I became further bored. We sat down and play an old favorite, Lord of the Rings: Confrontation. I just had the mini version with me, so we played the classic vanilla version. A close game, but I prevailed with a nice Frodo ring dunk.

Next, Travis and Jon arrived, and Travis busted out Iliad. I used to own the game, but I traded it away a while ago. I now own the new FFG version of Condottiere, which apparently is very similar, but I haven't played it yet. We decided to play the game team style with Jon and I versus Scott and Travis. I took the masterful strategy of totally sucking most of the game, withstanding insults and ridicule from both opponents and partner at how bad I was sucking, then having crazy lucky card draws to gear up for the last, most important battle. Score!

Though hunger was now setting in, we decided to press on with a game of GMT's new Pacific Typhoon. Jon had played Atlantic Storm before, so he was able to quickly guide us through most of the rules. We decided to play the shorter version since this was our learning game. I moved out quickly to a dominant lead, which, as most SABG members know is usually a terrible strategy because then you get dog-piled. Scott and Jon quickly caught up, and Jon was a few points ahead of me going into the final battle. Luckily Travis decided to join my side in the final fight. We won, but it came down to a die roll how the spoils of battle would be distributed. Luck prevailed, and I squeaked out a 1 point victory over Jon. I have to say I enjoyed this game even more than I thought I would. There is just enough historical theme smeared all over the cards to make things quite interesting, and I found the card play pretty engaging.

Lastly, Scott, Travis, and I played Age of Gods after Jon bolted. This is a quick, light, very chaotic fantasy wargame, which involves a lot of bluffing and misdirection, both of which I'm terrible at. Consequently I came in far last place, while Scott finished 1 victory point ahead of Travis, who was playing the God of Love.

All in all, a solid day of gaming. I think my favorite of the day was Pacific Typhoon, but Iliad with teams was a close second.