In which no Race was played

Well, not much, anyway.

Michael and I showed up early, and played a single game of Race before the crowd arrived. Jeff, Amy and Simon joined us for a quick game of Escalation.

I have played Geschenkt. Geschenkt was a close personal friend of mine. You, sir, are no Geschenkt. (Or Fairy Tale, or Flauschenteufel, or Bridge, or ... or ... or...). A "Play as many hands as you want" card game has to bring serious mojo to the table to be played again. Escalation is not that game.

When Sean arrived we split and played Power Grid. John showed up a bit later and joined in the side game of not much. Meanwhile, by busting my ass working a ridiculously stressful 32 hour week, I provided power to France.

After that was the chockingest choke that ever choked in a game of Celebrities. Choking was involved. Grand Moff Tarkin was not choked. Wayne Brady did some choking. As did several players. Winning for the "most amazing 3-time appearance in a single game" honorary MVP -- Master Chief. Why no, I don't have an XBox. Not bitter at all. Thanks for asking.

Then we closed with two games of Kutschfahrt, in which we learned that if several players simultaneously decide to deceive, everyone will get hopelessly confused. But we managed to get unconfused when Al and Sean kept swapping their "one use" professions with the device that reset them. They quickly declared victory, and we let them.

What, you say you want to hear how the games went, and not my surreal summary? Should have attended, I say. You'll have your shot next Monday. We may even play Race.

Malevolent Lifeforms at Jeff and Amy's

I arrived right at nine, and after a few minutes we had a crowd. Expecting Mare Nostrum to get started, I suggested Race while we waited for everyone. Let it be noted that at 9:15am, I finally played on my copy. After that we broke into two groups ... Downstairs Ben, Chad, Dennis and I worked our way through Brass. I liked it well enough (and won), although I've got a few concerns. I'd certainly be willing to try it again. Upstairs, the rest of the crowd played Power Grid, with the new expansion deck. I hear that Chris won because he got an absurdly cheap wind plant (4 cities for 25 Euros?). After the caloric interlude, the much talked about Mare Nostrum game broke out. Since there were six, I happily ducked out.

Amy was teaching Tiffany Magic (and later, Blue Moon), so Dennis and I played Magic, and then Wings of War. Wings of War is quite similar to Blue Max, which I like. Seeing as how the Horse Nose game was still going strong, once Tiffany left Dennis, Amy and I broke out Race for the Galaxy. After each game, Dennis would head upstairs and hear "Just one more turn." Occasionally, one of the upstairs lifeforms would come down and grouse. Overall, we got four games of Race in. Amy, tired of "gaining experience," demanded a change. This led to Hare and Tortoise and Coloretto. Mare Nostrum was still going, so Dennis, Amy, and I declared ourselves winners of Saturday Gaming (along with Tiffany, winner in absentia! )

More Power !

Jeff and I started up with Voltage, a fast two player card game. It's ... ok. But that started us on a "Power/Industrial" theme that kept going. After running our power plants, Sean showed up and we ran some Factories for Fun. I still like this one, as its reasonable quick, but fills that 'puzzle game' niche well. Dennis and Rick showed up, so we briefly paused for Cineplexity (ok, two pauses) then expanded our operation from one single plant to a whole string of them. This was my first time for the print-and-play Power Grid Atolla Modulis expansion, but our group likes Power Grid. Anyway, the game play is identical, just with the (modular) map. Overall, I think it went reasonably well. However, there are way too many cities that have no connection cost -- not only do several of the tiles have clumps, but the rules (as written) only put connection costs between cities that connect through a linking tile (one without cities). I think breaking the costs into "small" and "large" (whatever those may be) and putting the small tiles between cities (which would normally have no cost) and the large on the linking tiles will fit. Perhaps making the small costs the 1-10, and the large 10+ or so would be about right.

Overall, I'm glad I got this (I traded a game for a nice set), but I'd still be happy to play some of the other expansion boards too. Still, this is better than another game on the basic US/Germany map. (And soon the 2nd power plant deck will be out!).

After that we completely left industry behind to build up our huts in Taluva. This beautiful game, vaguely reminiscent of Java (with it's 3D building), seemed interesting, but really should only be played 2-player. Otherwise you get into the "No, you stop him!" issue. On the other hand, I think Attika (also designed by Marcel-Andre Casasola Merkle) is OK with 3 or 4, great with two. I'll need to play this a few more times to see, but this does look promising.


By this point everyone else had bailed, so I taught Starship Catan to Sean. This is a cute little game, really part of the "Settlers" genre by courtesy only. You have resources (and the race for 10VPs) but the heart of the game is the flightplan. There are four sectors, each with 10 cards. During your turn you pick one, shuffle it, and your opponent flips out the cards one at a time. Most of them let you buy or sell, but some are blank, some are 'destinations' (to finish adventures), and even a few pirates. It took me a bit to review how to play, but we got started and ended up with a tight race. Sean got to 9 VP and made his purchases to earn him a tenth on his next flight. I made my flight and claimed my 10th VP, but then a recount showed that we were tied for "Diplomatic Friendship Points." This gives a longest road style VP, but unlike Settlers if there's a tie the VP is taken away. So my "10th" VP was actually my 9th. But my flight let me flip through 7 cards (out of 10) on the stack and the final card earned my actual 10th VP, letting me squeak out the win.