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This week several of our regulars are out of town so we had a much smaller crowd at Game Night but it was still enough for a few good games.

While we waited for others to arrive we played a quick round of Liar's Dice and from there we moved on to Mall of Horror, a game about zombies invading a shopping mall (of all things). Mall is definitely not my favorite game but it was fun enough. Players have three character tokens, worth varying points and each with slightly different game advantages. On each turn, players simultaneously choose which of six rooms they want to move a character to. Then a number of zombies randomly appear. If the characters are strong enough to hold the zombies at bay at each room then they're fine but eventually the zombies will overrun a room and some body's going to be eaten. The players in that room all vote on which character will be shoved out the door to become zombie-chow. That's basically the game. It's all about deal making really. Darryl and I had a good pact going for the first half of the game where we alternately voted for each other each turn to decide which character got the life-saving items found in the parking lot. About half way through the game I made a poor decision about which character to move and found myself down a man. Shortly thereafter my pact with Darryl fell apart but by then it was enough to ensure Darryl clinched the victory. It's a decent game and I'd be willing to play it again but I don't think I'd go out of my way to do so.

After last week's Fury of Dracula game, Adam was itching to play Scotland Yard so I brought that in and we played it. Reversing last week's description: Scotland Yard is a lot like Fury of Dracula but without the random events and fighting. It distills the hunters and hunted theme into its bare essence. The game is played on a map of London that is overlaid with a huge network of bus lines, underground lines, and taxi lines. On each turn "Mr. X" secretly moves from one stop to another. The detectives (everybody else) are told which form of transportation he used but not where he is. Every few turns Mr. X must reveal his location. The detectives then scramble to get to the area and form a dragnet. If a detective can ever manage to get to the same location as Mr. X, they win the game. If Mr. X can manage to evade the detectives for a certain number of turns, then he wins. We played twice. Mike K. was Mr. X both times and both times we caught him although the second game he did much better and nearly slipped away.

While we were playing our first game of Scotland Yard, Chris and Darryl played Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation. This is a great little two player game that plays a lot like Stratego on steroids. If you're looking for a good two-player strategy game that plays quickly and has a lot of Tolkien flavor this would be a good choice.

After the second game of Scotland Yard I went home to watch the Brazil and Croatia match that I'd recorded earlier in the day. It was a good match. Croatia put up a great fight and could have won but Brazil scored the only goal despite looking a little bit off their form. Hopefully they'll shake off whatever malaise is gripping them before their next match. I expect better ball from the Seleção.