Continuing what I started in Part 1, we're catching up with my gaming activities of the last two weeks, picking up with this week's regular Tuesday-night boardgame gathering at Hypermind.  But before I get there, let me get some RPG chocolate in my boardgame peanut butter.  When I played games with my brother Tony on Saturday, I also passed along the playtest version of A Penny for My Thoughts that I printed out and read through.  Tony is a fantastic roleplayer and an amazing GM, and I hope that he will find a little bit of the fascination that I've developed for story-games.  It'd be great if we could find a way to carve out some time every so often to bring back some roleplaying into the rare gaming opportunities we have with each other.  But let's get back to the topic at hand...  

As I mentioned last time, they had already played the Game of the Month!, Thebes, and most everyone was tied up in a 5-player game of Race for the Galaxy when I walked in.  So that left me to wander around the store browsing at games that my wife doesn't want me to buy right now. 

Eventually, the game ended and we broke into a couple of groups for the rest of the evening.  Chip, Alton, and I wanted to play Tribune: Priums Inter Pares, and James joined us to give it a shot.  James and Alton were new, so I did my best to give them the rather complicated rules explanation.  The rules themselves aren't that bad, but understanding the many victory conditions and the multiple ways to accomplish them all takes a bit of understanding.  For the first game, I chose the Quo Vadis victory condition card, which is supposed to be a short game.  It has been a little while since Chip and I had last played, so we all fumbled around a bit in the first round or two.  Eventually, Chip and I managed to get some level of strategy going.  Had he thought about it a little more clearly and  chosen to get denarii with one more of his workers (or if the card on the Latrine had been worth just one more), he could have won the game outright at the end of the 3rd turn.  Instead, he had to take his 39 denarii (of the required 40) into round 4, where I managed to pick up my 5th Legion and achieve the victory conditions as well.  Because he technically completed his third on his first action (getting denarii from the bowl) and I didn't do it until the faction control phase, he got the 2-point bonus and beat me in the tiebreakers by just one freaking point (27 to 26).

The game took us just under an hour, and we all had a great time.  Since Alton and James were just starting to figure out how the game worked, they suggested trying it again.  Chip and I were more than happy to play again, and this time we chose the Cogito Ergo Sum victory card, which is supposed to be a long game.  Somehow or another, the other three players must have gotten tied up going for the same strategies or something, and I was able to claim up to five factions at once.  In 4 turns played over 40 minutes, I put together 4 victory conditions (including 5 factions markers, 10+ laurels, the eternal favor of the gods, and the required Tribune - totalling up to 34 points) and claimed the win pretty easily.  Both Alton and James were able to identify a few early misplays, and were already thinking about how they could do better next time.

After playing two more games of it, my overall impression is that Tribune is a really fantastic game.  All four of us had a great time, and both Chip and Alton were talking about picking up a copy in the near future.  I've talked about Tribune some before, so I won't repeat myself too much now, but I am just amazed by how many options there are in the game.  With all the variability and modular options, I doubt that it would ever get old, and considering how relatively quick and fun it is, I see this getting a lot of play in the near future.  Heck, I hope that we make it Game of the Month! for May or June! 

To fill in some time after Tribune, Alton pulled out his copy of Archaeology: TheCard Game.  I haven't played it before, but I'd heard some good stuff about it on a podcast or two.  The card draw provided a healthy dose of random to the game, but the rummy-esque hand management and set-building, along with the market/trading mechanic, provided some nice choices that had a real impact on how you could play out your hand.  I need to give it another play or two before I really make up my mind about it (especially since I did so poorly in this play of it), but overall it seems to be a solid little card game filler that only took us 15 minutes. 

The only other game I played this week was my "favorite game that I still really suck at", which would be Chicago Express.  Chris Wickline joined us for a 5-player game, so I had yet another rules teach to do.  Alton tried to ride the PRR railroad as far as it would go, keeping only one share for most of the game and saving up all the money could.  Chip, James, and I fought as craftily as we could to maneuver our fortunes into a position to pick up key shares while not wasting money whenever we could.  Chris and I split the B&O at 2 shares a piece, and we managed to get it to Chicago one dividend phase ahead of the PRR, which I hoped would give me the little edge I needed to win.  But unfortunately, after only 4 dividends, the game came to an end and I found myself freaking $3 short of Chip's total. 

I continue to enjoy Chicago Express a lot, but I'm finding myself quite obtuse when it comes to developing a successful strategy, which is starting to become a bit frustrating.  As I've mentioned before, I have no experience with stock games (especially not more complex railroad stock games), and I don't know if I'll start to grok it all after a few more plays, or if my head just doesn't think in the right way to understand the game.  I hope to get the chance to go deeper with this game as well, and I'd also love to see it as GotM! sometime in the future as well.   

So that pretty much catches me up on my recent gaming.  I'm looking forward to April and learning more about Age of Empires III, as well as getting Tribune to the table little more and discovering a few new games to me as well.  Hope to see you at the table!


James, Chip, Alton (and me) enjoying Tribune!