Holiday Gaming: Lost Cities, Hey! That's My Fish, San Juan, Gulo Gulo, Citadels

So, WoW has really eaten up a lot of my ambition to leave the house and game, as of late. We'll see if that changes tonight, as it's third Friday of the month, and timt to head for Rick's.

The first couple weeks of the holidays I was sick/recovering, and Kristin and I were in full on stay-at-home mode, induced by the cancellation of our planned trip to Norway. We played a few games of Lost Cities, and she stomped me. Mainly, I remember that I was just a little too willing to start expeditions that I didn't have enough cards to make profitable - and then I never drew them. A fun game, as ever, theme and ease of play ensure that it hits the table over it's strategically deeper cousin, Battle Line, at least in our house.

We made it back to my parents' place in Illinois in early January. I received a couple games as Christmas presents: Lost Valley and Streetsoccer. Unfortunately, neither, as yet, have been played. I managed a quick trip out to the Leupold's shop in Coralville, which was great. It's nice to see that they've been successful, and it was a real pleasure to see old friends like Jerod, Jeff, Cam, etc.. I also traded in some Game of Thrones CCG cards (useless to me now as nobody plays here), and picked up a couple things, including a Power Grid expansion map and Hey! That's My Fish.

Saturday we sat around during the day with my family, and ended up playing four games of H!TMF. Interestingly, my mother won them all. Not normally a strategy game player, she excelled in keeping her penguins going, and picking up higher value ice floes. It says a lot to me, about a game, when my dad will play it three times, back to back. I'm very happy to have acquired this. H!TMF is a light abstract strategy game for 2-4 players, in which you lay down ice floe tiles, each of which has a value (in fish) of 1-3. You take turns moving a penguin, capturing the tile that you leave. You can move as far as you want, in any direction, in a straight line, but can't move over/onto missing tiles or other players' penguins. Once nobody can move anymore, the player with the most fish wins. It plays very quickly, and has a good level of thinking for people in the mood for something light, but not empty. There's a lot to plan for, to try to keep your penguins active, while trying to get small areas cordoned off that only you can move into and score.

Sunday, some old friends from Riverdale stopped by for chatting and gaming. Grahm showed up first, toting a Christmas present his daughter had received, Gulo Gulo, which I had never played. We ran through a round, with me snatching victory (pun intended). Gulo Gulo is a great little kids game, that involves movement down a path which is performed by picking the right colored egg out of a bowl. It has some light strategic decision making elements, a fun dexterity component, and good colors. It's apparently a big hit with Anna, and I'd love to pick up a copy for my sister's kids.

Dave showed up, and we ran through Gulo Gulo again, with Grahm winning. Dave has large hands, which proved to be a bit of a disadvantage, although his aggressive "flick" technique did work out well.

We played a couple games of H!TMF, both of which I won. I managed a big solo area in one of these games, basically because Dave was nice and didn't strand my penguin someplace else, first.

We played, I think, two games of San Juan. I can't remember who won. I think Dave won one, and then maybe I won one.

The finale of the night was Citadels. We all played with two characters. The game ran fine, but bogged down a little bit with people trying to remember the abilities and taking some time drafting. Dave also got the shaft pretty hard over the first three turns, souring him to the game a bit.

Overall, not too much to report here. Looking forward to game night tonight, when I'll take along, I think, Torres and Union Pacific.

GG, GL
JW