This week was a bit different.  I am sick and therefore missed Hypermind Game Night on Tuesday.  But I do have some gaming to report.  Starting with the previous Tuesday night Hypermind Game Night.  I got there early for me, about 6:30p.  Not many people there yet.  I brought Homesteaders for us to try.  Alton was really wanting to see it.  So I sat down with him and thought we would play it.  He really wanted to play Macao and who am I to argue with that.  So we waited for Chris to show up with his copy.  Well, Kenny arrived first and happened to have his Macao so off we went.  It was a good game.  I had decided to go with a ‘keep working the same color’ strategy and it worked ok.  I ended up third again though.  Alton came in second behind Kenny I think.  Britt came after me.  To his credit, he doesn’t like the game and just played because we needed a forth.  But I’m sure I would have done much better if Britt had not thwarted me twice for a good, which would have given me 20 points, and a district, which would have given me 12 points for the row.  But it was a good game.

Next we played Homesteaders.  Chip joined me and Alton for this one.  I went through the rules kind of creakily and we started.  It seemed like things were kind of slow then round 5 kicked in and the strategy of the game really came out.  There are hard decisions to be made each round.  I tried a ‘VP as income’ tact while Alton worked a ‘buildings with bonuses’ strategy.  Chip did a combo ‘building/resources’ thing.  It went well.  Both liked the game and Alton gave it the high praise “I’ll play this one any time.”  That says a lot.  So I’m to bring it with me all the time now.

Saturday at my Mom’s it was me and Z and O.  We brought Forbidden Island, Hurry Cup, Zooloretto, Bohnanza, and Ablaze.  Z and I got in a quick two player of Hurry Cup.  This was the first play on this one.  It has potential.  We need to play with a full complement of 6 though.  He liked creating the track.

Next was a two player Bohnanza game.  It was ok but I think we played too long and both got tired of it.  This is another that needed at least 3 for a proper play.

Then we played Forbidden Island.  We started on Normal.  Z was the Pilot and I was the Navigator.  We got into trouble pretty quickly and were almost there when Water Rise! popped up and the whole island sank.  This was the first time that we had lost like that so that was neat.  The tension was high the entire game.  Z really likes this one and he is learning strategy from it.  Bravo Mat Leacock and Gamewright.

Lastly we played the ‘air tanker’ game in Ablaze.  I won by one point.  It was a good game.

That’s it for this week.  Stay tuned for a new series – Six Quick Questions With…

tomg