Game Night

We had a good turnout yesterday. Most of the regulars showed up as well as a few newcomers and some of our less regular guys showed up as well. Lots of games were played and lots of fun was had by all.

I arrived a little late again and Kai, Christopher, Jose, and I can't remember who else were busy playing Railroad Tycoon. It's unfortunate that Eagle Games is now defunct because they had a few decent games and this was one of the best. This game is essentially a streamlined and more forgiving version of Age of Steam and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Age of Steam is a masterpiece gamer's game and Railroad Tycoon makes the system a bit more accessible to the casual gamer. The board has a tendency to warp (mostly because it's so darn huge) but Kai came up with a clever way of dealing with that. He used a few black binder clips from the mail room to clamp the corners of each board section together and that did a wonderful job of forcing the thing to lay flat and also prevented the boards from shifting apart during play. Brilliant.

My first game of the evening was Oltre Mare. I played with Adam, Curt, Mike K. and Mike S. This was only my second time playing (the first being well over a year ago) and I didn't do so well. Nevertheless I did enjoy it. It's a good game about trading on the Mediterranean (gee, what a unique theme). It has some elements in common with Bohnanza but there's more going on and it doesn't have the strict rule against hand sorting. We played with the original small box version. The bits in the newer large box version (pictured) are much nicer.

Next up for me was Blue Moon City. This is Knizia's board game based on the world introduced in his card game Blue Moon. I was pretty impressed. I like the board game much better than the card game. It didn't hurt that I won.

I also managed to get in a game of Shear Panic. The game itself is pretty good filler but it does tend to lead to a bit of analysis paralysis if you play with a group who takes it too seriously (like ours). But oh the sheep! It comes with the most awesome little ceramic sheep that you've ever seen. Definitely in the running for cutest bits ever. Loved it. We'll be getting it in stock soon so be patient.

Finally, Curt and I played Tichu against Mike M. and Greg in what was one of the more lopsided games I've ever played. Curt and I couldn't catch a break and we were soundly spanked. It's a great game but it's a card game after all and sometimes you just don't get the cards you need. It didn't hurt that we lost a few Tichus that we had every reason to expect we would make. Oh well. Sometimes you win; sometimes you get completely humiliated.