Age of Renaissance

Next up was a long and meaty game at Great Hall Games. Marty, Adam, Jon, Harry, Brendan, and myself played this game. It was a first for Jon, Brendan, and myself. Although, I have played Manifest Destiny before. I was France and stayed mostly within Central Europe. I didn’t get ships for far too long in this game. I was bummed at the start since one of my cards was a metal card and there were two metal spots next to me. But both Marty and Adam claimed those spots before I could and I could not win them back for quite a while. And this game penalizes you for holding cards and not paying them. You pay triangle points in money for the number of cards that you hold to the next round. So that move cost me more than I made. And later on in the game, when I had conquered all of the region of France, Jon whispers into my ear that he is holding the Black Plague card. Argh! I had forgotten this card and the experience of being almost wiped out by it in Manifest Destiny. … by Jon, in fact! Anyways, I was not in the lead, so he played it against Harry, who was.

I also made another mistake once by not keeping enough money to pay to hold my cards. This cost me a misery spot. Misery spots are essentially negative victory points. And, if you get too many of them, you can automatically loose.

This was an interesting game. And one that I will play again in the future.

Call My Bluff

We started out the night with this filler game. And boy were the dice against me! Apparently the rule of the night was not to call. Instead, you were supposed to move the dice up by one. Because there were far more dice under the cups showing whatever number was declared to exist than you thought. Or were probable to exist.

Ra

Next up was one of the great Knizia auction games. I started out with low numbers. So my strategy was apparent: call Ra as often as possible. Jon was amused that his numbers were pipping mine. So if I put out my 2, Jon would put out his 3. Or if I put out my 6, Jon would put out his 7. But that only works once. My goal was to get some great tiles cheaply.

Adam did have one lucky streak at the end of the second era. He was the last person active and was able to turn up a number of good tiles to fill up the board. Which he bought. And then turn up a couple of tiles before a Ra tile finally appeared. He then bought those because he was one Ra away from ending the second era.

Tichu

Ugh, while I was certainly happy to play Tichu, I was not happy to be slaughtered at it. First Marty started off well. Then, I caught us up. Next, Jon took us down a peg. And then Adam obliterated me. I called Grand Tichu. Unfortunately, Adam had two length 5 bombs, the Dragon, two aces, and some other card. Pretty unstoppable….

Fearsome Floors

We ended out with another light-weight but fun game. This game is very thematic. You are trying to escape a monster before it eats you. The monster follows some very simple rules. Turn towards the closest person that it can see unless people on both sides are equally close. Move one step closer. Eat someone if it lands on top of them. You have three people that cycle through a maximum number of moves (1/6, 3/4, 4/3).

We played this game with the double monster variant. Which turns this game into a shorter and bloodier game. Unfortunately, it was clear that I was going to win. So the group turned to discussing how to stop me. Which I hate. I mean, I am all for each person knowing what to do and making moves to stop the leader. But when one player says “you should move this way to stop this person from winning”, I feel that this ruins the game. It is not fun to play against the group-think. Of course, they stopped me from winning. And Francesca, who was in second place, won the game instead.

Three of us in the game group are Tichu fanatics. So we usually have to force one other person to play with us. John has been that victim often enough. And apparently it has converted him enough to want to hold a Tichu meetup! He planned on spreading the word to new people.

Apparently, mocking does not constitute spreading the word. I wonder who he is talking about here…

Tichu

My first game was with Ed, Susan, and Curt. Susan constantly shies away from Tichu games. So today was an excuse to get back on the horse for her. And boy did she start off strong. Four Tichu calls in a row! Ed had the perfect hand to both stop her once and over-Tichu. I was a little worried at the end. The opposing team caught up thanks to Ed’s Tichu calls. But the Tichu and one/two was enough for a knockout punch.

Tichu

Ed and Susan, being the non-Tichu players that they were, went off to play Yspahan. This left us with two tables. I joined Adam, Betty, and Lauren. Betty and Lauren were both really new to the game. So this game was a basic, learn how the game works, kinda game. Lauren was my partner and unfortunately, she did not realize that this is a partnership game. If you cannot, or are unlikely to, call Tichu, then you should pass your best card to your partner in order to help that person call Tichu. So, for the most of the game, I received the third worst card from Lauren’s hand in the pass.

Tichu

The second game was much like the first. I never got a Tichu hand and we got trounced.