Friday at Rick's: Streetsoccer, Taj Mahal, Yspahan

March 16th

I hadn't been doing a lot of boardgaming, with WoW taking over my life. However, I was able to clear some room to head over to Rick's for the monthly game night. I ran out to Raleigh and picked up Rune, who was visiting from Norway.

When we got to Rick's several games were already going. We arranged to play Taj Mahal with David when his San Juan game was over. In the mean time, we settled in for a game of Streetsoccer.

I got Streetsoccer for Christmas, and since then, I 've had a few games with Kristin. Rune and I had a great game, with me jumping out in front, and then him tying it up. We had a lot of laughs, as players, particularly Rune's goalkeeper, ended up way out of position. The dice provided us with some nail-biting moments, as the game was very close. I honestly can't remember much of what happened in the game at this point, but I think Rune won.

We got Taj Mahal going. It was the first time for Rune and I, a four-player, with David and Dave. Again, It's been so long since I've been writing in the blog, I don't remember so much of what happened in the game. Taj is a Reiner Knizia game that involves card drafting and hand management to facilitate bidding with different kinds of currency (cards). The players are trying to establish networks of palaces on the board, as well as scoring through collection of objects. I was forced into overbidding early. It seems that once you've commited to a bid, since your going to lose cards, you want to continue to try to get something out of it. So, I got behind a little when I ran out of cards, then came back a little to finish, I think, in second. I think David won.

After Taj, we stayed in the same group, and David and Dave taught us Yspahan. This game involves chosing actions in order, with the actions available determined by a set of die rolls at the beginning of the turn. You can build, move, or occupy part of the city. I did a lot of building, and tried to get in on the trading caravan. I scored some points, but it was, I think, David who won again. I think I might have been second again. Anyway, I know I finished second in one of these games, and didn't win either.

Rune and I had a pretty good time, but after Yspahan it was time to take off, since I had to drop him back off in Raleigh.

Sorry about the lame report - I'm just trying to get caught up and get back in the habit, as I'm going to try to make a concerted effort to make it to some more game meetups in the near future.

GG, GL
JW