Game day at Chris, Edie, and Annie's:

I woke up this morning with all kinds of grandiose plans about putting things away, painting miniatures, and building AGOT decks for Sunday... In the end, all I really managed to do was get cleaned up and get some games together to carry to F Street. In the end, the box ended up holding: Junta (at Chris's request), Tigris & Euphrates, St. Petersburg, Ingenious, Fjords, and Res Publica.

I arrived shortly after noon, and there was already a game going. Edie, Suke, and Tony were sitting around waiting, though, so we decided to get something quick going to warm up, so to speak. Frank's Zoo came out of the box, and we played a hand, with Tony going out first. I rocketed down to two cards, but then couldn't play on anything. We didn't get to try out the team aspect of the game, though, as the other group had finished and we decided to recombine with them for some heftier offerings.

Shortly, a group of us caravaned into the kitchen for Through the Desert. Myself, Sue, Suke, Edie, and Tony were the camel-masters for this one. This was the first time for several of us. The setup was pretty quick. This was not a group for analysis paralysis. Everyone made pretty smart choices, and I got left with a really nice corner for my blue caravan. Suke cut off my green caravan a little, but that really was what allowed me to take the big corner with my blue rider. That, and Sue focusing on her own attempt to control a sizeable area next to me on the other side. I got another area on the other side of the board with my purple camels, snaking along the back behind the oasis. There was a lot of friendly team-shifting in this game, as people tried to point out to others what they could do to interfere with others. It never was very effective, though, as most of the time players were focused on their own business. The board gets pretty crowded and chaotic to look at, too. Not a game for those bleary-eyed, late-night game session endings. The setup, simple as it is, is clearly very important for limiting other players' opportunities. Sometimes, I think you just have to suppose you won't get much out of a particular rider, and just place it behind someone in a big space. In the end, the longest caravans were pretty spread out, and I ended up winning by, I think, 6 over Suke. I think we finished this game in the time it took Chris to explain Puerto Rico in the other room.

Kurt and his brother Chris had arrived, and were, of course, looking for a game. We talked about playing Tigris & Euphrates, but decided to save it for a little later, hoping for a fourth. Instead, we decided to visit the islands of Japan. RK's Samurai came down off the shelf. Kurt and Chris had played before, and I hadn't, so they taught me the rules real quick. At first, I was looking at my tiles thinking, where's the power? I kept drawing low-number, flexible samurai and sea tiles, but no decent dedicated numbers. I wasn't able to even try to contest for the capital, which Kurt was dominating, so I built up around it to the South. Chris & Kurt were having a little battle in the North, and, as they cut down the area, I saw a use for my little tiles. With the application of the trophy switching tile, a couple sea tiles and a decent size samurai, I was able to take two treasures. I cleaned up in the mid-South, and we moved into the islands. I suppose this is a general trend in the game, since there aren't any multi-trophy spots on the islands. We fought back and fortha little, and Chris ended the game hoping to get a majority before Kurt and I could pick any more up. We had a couple ties, and I ended up winning as the only player who had a clear majority in one trophy type.

We had a lot of fun with this game, and it went pretty quick, so we decided to play again. This game was a lot like the first. Chris and I were able to move in on Edo a little, but Kurt still got most of the treasures. Kurt had a couple really nice moves, one in the North and one in the South on an island, later on, to capture double trophies. I thought he had the game wrapped up. In the penultimate turn, I used the trophy switcher to move the last buddha to a place where the game wouldn't get finished right away by someone else, and then I ended the game on my turn with a big bonus-tile move, capturing four trophies in the middle South area. This put Chris out, Kurt and I each with one majority and a tie on most buddha's, as well as other pieces taken, but his majority of high hats was bigger by 1, and he claimed the victory. A very good game. I really like the way you have to pay attention to how congested an area is getting. I also liked the potential for big moves that the bonus tiles provide. It's neat that the bonus tiles are actually really useful and fun - there are too many games where "special" pieces or cards just aren't really too useful (I felt this way in Colossal Arena, later). This game definitely goes on my want list.

By now some of the other games had finished, and there was a decent sized group of us waiting for a new game. The hosts served up some delicious veggie chilli, so we all took a break to scarf some beany goodness. Surprisingly, I didn't hear a single Bohnanza joke. After quickly replenishing the fuel supplies, it was back to gaming. Kurt had brought an Amigo game called Santiago with him, and was lobbying for a five player game. We settled on a group (Kurt, Eric, Sue, Lisa, and myself) to do this, while the rest moved into the living room for Shadows Over Camelot. Puerto Rico raged on in the dining area. Kurt explained the game quickly, and we were started planting our fields. I couldn't resist red peppers, and it was a move that paid off, being one of the biggest fields at the end. Money was pretty tight, as the bidding rules for turn order are tight and harsh. I kept spending just about as much as I was making, but I got meaningful moves out of each turn, and never had a field dry up. I was only the canal overseer once, I think, a little bit later in the game when money was running pretty short and I needed to ensure getting something watered. Turn order is important to get the fields you want to keep your field going, although one thing I didn't see that I thought would come up was people trying to block other peoples' fields from expanding. Generally, players just wanted to add to existing fields (Lisa had a really good sugar field going, but a lot of people ended up getting in on it, and I think Kurt ended up with the most points there). I think the value of the Canal Overseer role goes way up in the mid-late game, when everyone has run out o their bonus canal. The bonus canal itself is a benefit and a handicap, as people will ignore your bid at times if it is still in front of you, predicting how you will use it. There were some small mistakes made in this game, and one of them involved this situation, as someone took a bid assuming they would get someone's bonus canal on their field, only to be thwarted by an earlier player using their own water someplace else. An interesting game, simple and fairly quick, with nice flow (pun intended). On the final turn, I bid big to go first and was surprised that noone fought me. That bid allowed me to claim a good two production bean field that put me in a very good scoring postion with no worries about watering. Since I already had fields in this region, it was a bigger move for me than people thought, I think. In the end, it appears I big just the right amount, as my score of $101 was just good enough for first over Kurt's $100! Really, basically a tie at that scale. I was happy, though, to do fairly well in my first game.

Puerto Rico and Shadows were winding down, so we went for some quickie filler. Eric got Zendo out of the sack, and I played my first (can you believe it?) Looney Labs game. I like this, it has a light gaming group/almost party game feel to it. Most of us hadn't played before, and Kurt and I probably messed up by calling "mondo" on both or our, the first two, turns. This pretty much set Sue up, in the third seat, to figure out the Master's rule. Just as we were getting a handle on it, the other games finished and we decided to move on. Mystery of the Abbey was setting up in the kitchen, so the remainder of us (Sue, Dan (?), Kurt, Eric, and myself) moved to the living room for Colossal Arena. Another first play for me, I've been wanting to check this out for a long time. This was, though, probably the low point of the day for me. I ended up backing the Seraphim and Cyclops, due to cards in my hand. I didn't make a secret bet (I just didn't think I had the cards), but all of my bets were gone by the second round. Unfortunately, backing the Titan in round two didn't pay off, as he ended up getting eliminated. Only one card had been placed on him first, so I figured lots of cards, and it was Dan's only first round bet, so he'd want to keep it alive... Backing the Seraphim started to pay off, though, as I was able to use the Unicorn's (eliminated first) ability several times to good effect. we were running out of cards pretty quickly, and it came down to a turn in which I set Sue up to end the game, taking out the Magus, which neither of us had a bet on, if she could play a card over 2 on the Amazon. Unfortunately, she didn't have it, and the Amazon got taken out, huring us both and giving the win to Kurt. For Sue, it really would have just been kingmaking, as she couldn't have won. However, she would have finished much higher, as she had two bets on the Amazon. I ended up in fourth by a point, with first place four points ahead of me, missing out on my three point bet on the Amazon. All three ahead of me would have lost points if the Magus had gone, though, so it was very tight. I wasn't really into the way this game played. I think at this point in the afternoon, it took just a little too long to get your turn. I also didn't like the aspect, although this didn't come up in our game, that someone could be functionally eliminated. The referee cards all seemed like pretty much wasted moves to me. This won't be getting on my list, but it did seem a fun, quick game to me. I probably just played it at the wrong time.

There was still plenty of time left in the night, but nobody seemed gung-ho about putting forward games to play. I was a little burnt for Tigris & Euphrates, so I asked about Lowenherz and Traders of Genoa, two games I really wanted to try. We ended up getting four for Lownherz, and the rest moved off to the living room for something else. This was my first game of the day with Chris (other players were Steve and Eric), and my first game in the dining room/game shelf area. Chris went over the rules for us (none of the rest of us had played before) and we set about dominating the land. I should have been paying more attention when Chris explained the political cards, as it became clear that the renegades cards are extremely powerful. Eric built up in the corner, pushing into Chris, who treatied him. I built up on the other side of Eric and across the board, with a little interaction with Chris and Steve there over the coarse of the game. Steve settled in between Chris and myself on the other side of the board, and expanded into what would become Eric's territory. Chris made the definitive move of the game when he used renegades to eliminate Steve's knight in the middle of the table. Steve wasn't able to get another knight in there and this, combined with Chris being a little slow out of one corner, allowed Eric to create two massive areas in the middle of the board for big points. The shifting nature of scoring meant that Steve wasn't out of it, and he pulled a lot of points from Eric as he built his big region. Chris ended up lamenting his treaty, unable to cut into Eric's region in the endgame. I led early, got overtaken bigtime by Eric, fought with the others for second for a while, and then fell behind Steve as his big region expanded. I ran into real problems later on with a shortage of ducats, as I couldn't afford to put down some of the knights that I won, and didn't have space to expand into. This would have been different, I suppose, if I hadn't gone so gung ho for walls early, as I ended up getting contested on almost every one of my first several turns. I remember one time specifically when I should have gone political rather than contest for walls. I liked the game but, again, not one that moved up on my wish list. I'll have to give it another play first, if the opportunity arises. I especially liked the shifting territory and scoring. I'd like to try Domain, but I think I like the bidding for roles. I do think the bidding rules should be more sharply defined, though, as the game has a bit of a tendency to go into negotiations that take up a little too much time. It also seemed like the action deck could have been designed a little better, with the ducat rewards a little higher, and fewer walls in the later game cards. This perception could easily have been an artifact of our particular session, though.

After that was over, most of the people had taken off. Eric, Mike S. (who I didn't get to play a game with today, unfortunately), and myself were the only guests remaining. It was really too late to start anything else, so we discussed some general gaming stuff for ten minutes or so, and hit the road. Overall, it was a great day, playing good games with excellent company. I really like the mix of people at Chris and Edie's. I didn't play a game that I had played before all day (unless you count the second play of Samurai), and that really gave me good information for my next round of game purchasing. I look forward to April.

My night wasn't over, though. Kristin had gotten back from making music and going to the gym, and wanted to see a movie. We motored over to Sycamore Mall and scooped a couple tickets for the latest Alan Moore mangling. Even after what has been done to some of his other works (League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, From Hell), I was still looking forward to this, though. Somehow, I thought, this is the one that would work. The film was entertaining, and, at times, pretty fun. Performances were mostly nice, although I didn't think that Portman showed much range. Weaving could have done much more physically, also, since he couldn't express with his eyes or face. I thought the script was a little clunky, and that the narrative could have been smoothed out with better linking of V's past, present actions, and desires. They did a moderately good job of melding V's facelessness to a sort of universal humanity, although this will get lost for people post-viewing, I think. Hopefully, they remember the gist... I give a big thumbs up to the writers not dumbing down the vocabulary, but, that said, they needed to do more to make the words clearly understandable to the audience. The theatre I was in has pretty good sound, and I was really straining to make out some of V's speeches, especially when there was a lot of ambient noise in the scene. Overall, I'd say it's a film worth seeing, but leave your expectations at home.

GG, GL