The Friday night Lumbersmiths group continues to be on hiatus since Brandon, Jay and I were all out of town for the weekend. This Friday will be another non-gaming night as Jay is off to GenCon in Indianapolis. I plan on spending the free Friday relaxing with a couple of movies and several cups of coffee. Despite the lack of gaming with the Lumbersmiths, I’ve managed to continue to introduce some new people to our wonderful world of gaming.
Thursday – Office Gaming
Last Thursday was our sixth “Office Gaming” night. I continue to try to get enough interest for at least 5–6 people for a Thursday night gaming session after work. This past Thursday we had six people, though it was nearly seven. We also had several people ask about our game nights and express interest in attending a future session. I now have roughly 10 people interested, which seems like a sustainable number for once-a-month gaming.
With six people I chose to play two 6–player games rather than try to split into two 3–player games. I have a number of games for larger numbers of players, and we wound up playing Citadels and Medici. Citadels was well received by all, as it usually is with a group of casual gamers. I encouraged everyone to try to play quickly, knowing that the game has a lot of downtime with six players. Unfortunately, it is a hard game to play quickly the first time playing, so our game took nearly two hours. Still, everyone had a blast. The King changed hands fairly often, and Dan got a big kick out of trying to wear the crown on his head and order everyone around. I played well, but having played before and jumping out to an early lead put a large target on my back, making me the receiver of two straight Warlord attacks, sending me back to the middle of the pack. Reagan went out with 8 buildings, 5 in each color, but Dan’s higher-value buildings as well as the 5–color bonus allowed him to tie. The two decided to settle the tie with a “best of three” Roshambo, with Dan’s rock crushing Reagan’s scissors in the rubber match.
I had reservations about a pure auction game, but everyone seemed to enjoy Medici. I’ve traditionally performed poorly at bidding games, and this was no exception. I managed to over-spend in the second round, and wound up with a lot I didn’t even want after trying to get the player to my left to over-pay. I never reached the bonus positions for any of the cargo types, causing me to end with an abysmal 39–point finish. Reagan cruised to an easy win with 96 points, thanks to great value-bidding in the first two rounds, leaving him with plenty of cash for the third day.
Saturday – Family Gaming
Over the weekend I traveled to Oklahoma with my girlfriend Christina. My mom & dad live just outside of Oklahoma City, and my sister in Tulsa drove down with her husband and kids to hang out. The last time we got together I introduced them to Ticket to Ride and they really took to it. This time I decided to go straight for the juggular with Settlers. Christina was wiped out from summer school studying, so I played a 3–player game with Mom and my sister. They grasped the rules very easily (gaming seems to be in our genes) and they took to the strategy immediately. Mom suffered from poor placement (lack of wood) and Jennifer struggled due to some poor rolls, but they played the game as good as any beginners I’ve seen. Mom misunderstood how soldiers were played, and ended the game with two face-down that could have been used to slow my victory. They really enjoyed the game, and I expect they would play it again at Thanksgiving.
Later that night Christina and I took a break from the family and went to grab coffee. I snatched the opportunity to break out my new copy of Lost Cities. The rules were easy enough, but our exhaustion coupled with no idea on strategy meant we both wound up with negative scores after the first round! We both figured out that giving up on one color might be a good solution, but Christina suffered from poor card draws and wound up with another negative score in the second round. I managed to score a few points, but we both decided to shelve the games until we both had more sleep. I appreciated the brisk pace that accompanies Lost Cities, and I can see that becoming a good “coffee game”. Though of the three Kosmos games I’ve purchased, it was my least favorite behind Odin’s Ravens and Balloon Cup.
Tonight is Tuesday night gaming at Borders with the Dallas Gamers. Assuming no major malfunctions at work, I should get some more gaming in tonight.