I did quite a bit of gaming over the holidays with several different groups, and I just haven't had the time to blog about any of it other than what I've written over on my geeklist-blogs.  So here it is, my catch-up report from the last three weeks or so:

Games played (December 25-January 1):

• 10 Days in Asia - 9
• Tier auf Tier - 9
• Khet: The Laser Game - 2
• Qwirkle - 2
• Race for the Galaxy - 2
• 1960: The Making of the President - 1
• Balderdash - 1
• Citadels - 1
• Cranium Tune Twister - 1
• Gulo Gulo - 1
• Imperial - 1
• Kingdoms - 1
• Memoir '44 - 1
• Taluva - 1
• Thebes - 1
• Ticket to Ride: Europe - 1
• Time's Up! - 1
• Zooloretto - 1

The first two are the games that I gave my wife for our Anniversary (on December 16) and Christmas, which we have obviously played quite a bit so far.  I've been a big fan of Tier auf Tier for a long time, but this was the first chance I'd had to play it two-person.  It works just as well, but you really need to each take double the usual number of figures to make it do right.  10 Days in the USA has been one of our favorite "couple's" games for a long time, and 10 Days in Asia is just as good or better.  We've also learned a lot more geography from it than we did from USA. 

Speaking of games played with the wife, the one play of 1960: The Making of the President was also against Gwen here at home.  And best of all, she really liked it!  That alone makes it way better than Twilight Struggle to me, and will certainly help it get played more often.

Over Christmas, my brother Tony (the one responsible for my gaming obsession) came to town.  Gwen and I played the game of Ticket to Ride: Europe with him, my nephew Alex, and my Dad.  Everybody had a good time with it, even though it was only the second or third time that my Dad had ever played a TtR game.  It's hard to say exactly, but Europe may be my overall favorite of the TtR series, even though it is one that I do not own. 

Gwen and I also played Qwirkle for the first time ever with Tony.  I've heard so many good things about the game, but never had the chance to see it in person.  As far as I can tell from my two initial plays, all of the good stuff was true.  It's like a cross between Scrabble and Dominoes, but is more fun than either one.  The basic idea is terribly simple, but the game requires a lot of thought, and there are lots of chances for real, tactical play. 

Another event included in these numbers is the annual New Year's Eve party that my extended family and friends all get together for.  We usually go out to eat, then wander back to my "aunt" Louise's house to play until midnight.  The group is made up of people that are mostly nongamers, so it's a good chance to pull out some of the party games that I rarely get a chance to play these days.  We played my favorite party game, Balderdash, and also tried out the highly-acclaimed Time's Up!.  Both went over really well and led to lots of fun and laughter.  We also played the rather horrid Cranium Tune Twister, which has at least proved to be kinda humorous in retrospect (the dude to the right can't carry a tune in a bucket, and his little friend wasn't much help either).

The game of Gulo Gulo was played on Christmas day, right after we gave it to her cousin's children.  When it comes to playing a game with children of all ages, there is just nothing like Gulo Gulo, and I plan on adding it to my collection as soon as I have any possible idea that my as-yet-unborn daughter might be able to play it.

The rest of the games were played either at an impromptu game night at Hypermind on December 27 or at our first one of the year on New Year's day.  Nothing much special went on there, other than I played my first couple of games of Race for the Galaxy, which I can already tell is going to be red hot among the Hypermind BoardGamers. 

We did also play Imperial for the first time, but I'm not sure exactly what to think about that.  Lots of people named it the best game of 2006, but it didn't do a heck of a lot for me.  I actually ended up winning by using the "don't control any country but invest in all of them" strategy, so I mainly just sat around and looked at my big stack of investment cards while everyone else actually played the game.  We also got a few rules wrong, including both when you could invest and how exactly to give the country status points (or whatever they're called) out.  I definitely want to play it another time or two, just to figure out if I like it or not.   

Like I said, I wanted to make this quick and painless, just to get something posted here and clear out the backlog of gaming activities I haven't blogged much about.  I'll be back soon!