Monday was slow.

I was soooo tired Monday morning. I guess it was backlash from the busy, busy weekend. Massive coffee kicked in around ten, though, and I rocked through the day until falling asleep in front of the incredibly boring "Last Days" by Gus Van Zandt. Unforunately, now I feel like I have to pick it up where I fell asleep to see if there was anything to it. I doubt it will be rewarding, though, as Kristin was baffled by the film's existence...

I stopped by Critical Hit on the way home last night, and managed to get in a couple of games of San Juan with Jerod. I like the quick, easy gameplay with two players, but it's not a great 2 player game. There's not really enough back and forth interaction for me. In both games, oddly, Jerod seemed he had the better hand early on, and then I caught up and passed him. In game 1, I had silver early, and got to buy lots of stuff even though he was the one pushing production. In the end, my three big buildings racked up massive points (54). Second game was a little slower for him, but he went silver fast, pushed production, and was ahead of me on cards quite a bit. Oddly, he drew way too many production facilities, and not the right violet buildings to back him up. I drew lots of cards with the library, and, again, built three six costs, for not quite as many victory points, but more than enough to win, especially as he only managed to build eight buildings.

One of the good things about my recent plays of this game is that it has become clear that there are multiple "paths" to victory, and that it's important to determine (and continually evaluate) what path you are on. You can build a building that doesn't help you too much, but you can't build more than one... or even one that doesn't help you at all (like a triumphal arch with no monuments).

I've got quite a bit of gaming coming up this month, including AGOT tournaments in Chicago, a game day in Iowa City, and, hopefully, Magic: the Gathering in Madison. It should be an interesting few weeks.