No school today, for the break between quarters, so I had most of the day off. After reading about a 75% off games sale at participating Barnes & Noble Booksellers, I decided to make a drive up to Cedar Rapids.

Unfortunately, the B & N was a little disappointing. Posters had mentioned seeing some FFG games there, and I had nurtured a tiny hope that I would find a forgotten copy of Twilight Imperium, Doom, Game of Thrones, or Citadels here. Alas, it was not to be. Since I'd made the drive, though, I decided to blow some money on some cheap crap. I bought a magnetic travel chess set for $2.50, a copy of Cranium for $7.50 (even though I don't like this sort of game, my collection doesn't contain any party games, and it might come in handy...), Risk: Star Wars Clone Wars edition (I don't like Risk, either, but this version gets props on boardgamegeek.com, and, again, it might come in handy) for $6, and a silly looking little game called Pumpkin King for $3.50. The rest of my trip consisted of a visit to Halfprice Books, and a stop at TRU, although neither of these was too exciting.

After completing my minimal occupational responsibilities for the day by supervising wrestling practice at the high school, I returned home to spend some quality time with Kristin. Since it was so cold outside tonight, we opted to stay in, and she chose St. Petersburg as the evening's entertainment. Things were nice and calm at the beginning, with no big aristocrats showing up to party. Kristin splashed some cash for a really big building a little early in the game, which crippled her in a couple upcoming phases, and allowed me to get ahead on workers/ruble production. The aristocrats and trading cards fell pretty well, and I managed a 10-7 advantage in endgame aristocrats, for a handy win. Kristin beat me last time out, and I was expecting a fierce battle here. I think she overlooked a very important facet of the game this time, though, when she failed to manipulate the cards on the table with an eye on maximizing the benefit of upcoming rounds. For example, she once failed to clear an extra card off during the building phase, when there was only going to be one open space in the aristocrats phase, and I was going first.

It turns out she wasn't quite done yet, and we busted out Fjords. Reviewers on boardgamegeek have made very good posts about this game. I agree that the board construction phase is sub-optimal, as quite often there is only one option of where to place a tile. Nevertheless, We've found Fjords a pleasant diversion. It's quick play and low cognitive demand, coupled with the pleasing aesthetics and sense of building, make for a game that just about fits Kristin's game interest level pretty much on the money. It's nice light filler. Tonight's game was close, as they usually are. I led by 1 after round 1, 3 after round 2, and 7 at the end of the game. However, the entire game really came down to who got to go first in the final field placement round, as that was roughly a +6 point swing for me in that round, as I was just able to seal off a sizeable area that we both had access to. Kristin could have done a little more to try to be the first player, but it turns out she misunderstood the rules/didn't think of it.

After we got done, while Kristin was poking through the Target page looking for wedding registration potentials, I cracked open Pumpkin King and gave it a whirl. This game is terrible, and it pains me to look at it. It has high production costs, packaged in a metal tin, with molded, painted plastic pieces. The rules, unfortunately, are totally underwritten, leaving out a number of important and obvious details that necessitate personal clarification. The gameplay is juvenile to the point that I have to assume that the game went straight from someone's idea to production, with little to no playtesting in between. It's a pathetic roll-and-move game, which has a universal "return to go" disruption mechanic, and necessitates that you roll the exact number needed to land on the end space to win, without telling you what to do if you don't... there are an extraordinary number of other problems with the rules considering the size of the game, but they aren't worth going into. Don't buy it. Not even for $3.50. It might be worth $.50, if you wanted to use the tin for something...

I'd like to end on a positive note, so I'll throw in that I'm looking forward to A Game of Thrones on Sunday, as well as the notorious "Ham Fest." (Don't you wish you knew what I was talking about...)