Race For The Galaxy

We started off with another filler game of Race For The Galaxy.

The Princes of Machu Picchu

It took us a while but we finally decided on a game to play: The Princes of Machu Picchu. I took a different strategy this game. I tried concentrating on activating my priests as much as I could during the game. And I didn’t place that many workers out in the field. Unfortunately for me, I could not collect the set of cards that I wanted. They were spread out into too many areas. And since I didn’t have a lot of workers out in the field, I didn’t score that much at the end. It was also the first game that I have played where we had an ending due to the arrival of the Spanish conquerors.

Race For The Galaxy

The meetup group used to meet regularly and at a large gaming space (even if it was in a church). But it doesn’t anymore. Only occasionally will it meet elsewhere. This time was at a wine creation place (with a Christian sounding Water To Wine). There are only a couple of tables here. And they are cramped! But I will take what I can get.

We started off with a opening game of Race For The Galaxy.

Through The Ages

We then moved on to a three player game of Through The Ages (even kicking out a potential fourth player). Jose was new to this game. But he started off strong. He was far out in the lead for most of the game. It was only in the third era that I started making progress towards catching up to him. And, when we were performing final scoring, did I finally pass him. Wow, I didn’t see that coming. I was able to score more than him for each of the final categories.

Dominion: Intrigue

We started off with yet another filler of Dominion: Intrigue. And yet another meh playing.

Phoenicia

Luckily, everyone was interested in playing Phoenicia. It has been too long since I have played this game. And I suffered for it. Instead of building up my income immediately, I bid on, and won, a dyer card. I had my sights set on Cloth Making and not on profitability. Unfortunately, it took me the entire game to recover from that setback. The R.O.I. (return on investment) nature of this can also amplify a slow start into a much slower purchasing power. Unfortunately, I probably cannot get game to the table again.

Ra: The Dice Game

We finished up with the Ra dice game. It is pretty thematic to the original game. However, there is no bidding aspect to it. So you can’t always call Ra when it your turn and you have low tiles. Which means that this game has a different feel to it.

Dominion: Intrigue

We started out with a game of the new Dominion expansion. It is an okay game. I could see how some people might love it. For me, there are many other light filler type games that I would rather play.

Tigris and Euphrates

Our real game of the night was the classic E&T. It took a little bit to refresh our memory on the rules. Thankfully, everyone was willing to play it again. In the first game I was able to come in second to Susan. During the second game, Wayne started an External Conflict between myself and Susan. Luckily, I had the right set of tiles to win all the battles (and Susan didn’t). This propelled me into the lead. It also helped that no one picked on me after that and I was able to place tiles to round out my collection of cubes.

Unfortunately, I was quite mean to Jeff during the second game. He had three of his leaders out on the board only being supported by one common red tile. I needed to support my kingdom from external threats. So I kicked out his three leaders with one catastrophe tile and joined up the remnants of his kingdom into mine.