As we normally do, Gwen and I went out to supper this Tuesday while doing the "baby switch" (since I bring Samantha with me to my work's daycare).  But we chose a restaurant very close to Hypermind this week, so my girls got to come a visit for a few minutes before heading home.  It was nice for all of us to see Britt and Carol at game night for a change (especially since Gwen hadn't seen them since before Samantha was born), even if I didn't actually get to play any games with them throughout the evening.  Once Gwen left, though, I had to just hang out for a little bit while the active games of Witch's Brew and/or Galaxy Trucker finished up.  Thankfully, Kenny came in soon and he and I fiddled around lending each other some cool indie RPG books that we're interested in playing sometime soon.  Eventually, though, we did get to play some actual boardgames...

Witch's Brew

As we always do for October, we select a thematically appropriate game as Game of the Month!, and Witch's Brew was our selection this time.  As its musical theme, I selected the Eagles' Witchy Woman, which I played at least 3 or 4 times during both games of the evening.  But anyway, after the first game wound up, Kenny, Chip, and I jumped in with Alton and Chris to play it again.

The game went pretty quickly, with lots of role-stealing and a healthy dose of "So be it!" as well.  It all came down to the last round and some skillful positioning by Chip, where he stole my chance to brew the last potion I needed right out from under me and proceeded to win.

Time: 31 minutes
Score: Chip 21, Alton 20, Chris 19, Me 15, Ken 14
Ratings: Chip 8, Alton 8, Chris 9, Me 8, Ken 9

I'm really excited about this being the GotM! for October.  Especially since everyone's already familiar with the game, it runs quickly, and games tend to be very close.  Plus, we can focus more on the real fun of the game, the social interaction that it generates.  I just love how such a chaotic-seeming game has so many cool tactical elements to it (such as baiting with certain roles to get a better play order).  And in the end, it all works together to be one of the best psychological bluffing/second-guessing games that I've ever played.  Out whole group obviously loves it, and its length still doesn't intrude too much into our time that we can't get pretty much anything else to the table in an evening.

Endeavor

My excitement for Endeavor has been building exponentially as its release approached, and I was very glad to get it to the table this week.  I had read the rules 2 or 3 times, so I did my best to teach everybody else, and then we got started.  Unfortunately, we didn't notice that during setup, the Bank building tiles had been stacked on top of the Guild Halls (thus masking their existence), which probably made a significant difference in how the game played out later on.  But still, we were all on even ground for the most part, and I think that we all have a good understanding of how the game is supposed to work.

I started off pretty well, focusing on shipping and getting my Industry up early.  Through the random setup of the tokens, there was only one Industry token in Europe and the Mediterranean, and Alton grabbed it up.  Chris focused early on claiming cities there and drawing cards from the non-slavery deck.  Others did a mix of all of these, with Kenny fighting me hardest for control of the shipping routes.

The first 4 or 5 turns went really fast, but then things slowed down considerably as our growth engines all started to kick in to high gear over the last few turns.  I didn't anticipate exactly how fast the shipping routes and cities in all of the colonies would fill up, and I realized too late that I didn't have any real way to draw cards late in the game (which appear to be rather vital to one's ability to win).  Of course, having Guild Halls available instead of just Shipyards may have changed this for me, but I still made other bad choices in the midgame that didn't work out for me. 

Meanwhile, Chris continued to power his way through the game, using Attack actions to claim both ends of connections, establishing presence in areas, and drawing more of the better Asset cards from the colonies.  Kenny did a great job of making the transition from early presence in regions to actual benefit from them (which I didn't do), and he continued to hang in right there with Chris.  Chip also managed to put together a tight strategy, coming from nowhere to be a front runner as well. 

After the 7th turn, we started to tally up our scores.  There was a little confusion about whether or not collected trade tokens counted for you as Glory points, but we got it figured out (they do not, by the way), and Chris still managed to eke out an incredibly close win.

Time: 78 minutes
Score: Chris 49, Chip 48, Ken 44, Me 36, Alton 33
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Chip 8, Ken 8, Me 8, Alton 9

Almost immediately after we finished, comparisons were made between Endeavor and Age of Empires III.  In general, our feeling seemed to be that Endeavor was quicker, cleaner, and more elegant than AoEIII, and personally, I think that it length and pace are way favorable.  But on the other hand, I'm afraid that there may not actually be as much diversity in strategy in Endeavor.  Sure, there's a lot of choices to make in how you build your growth engine, but my initial impression is that it will be more about subtle tweaks in how you balance all the different elements rather than about focusing on any one particular one. 

But regardless of any comparisons, Endeavor is a fantastic game with a lot of depth and significant player interaction, and I think that it will prove to have a lot of potential for us in the future. 

Bang!

After we finished Endeavor and the other group completed construction on a Big City, Britt and Carol headed home, leaving us 7 gamers itching for more action.  That number is, of course, perfect for Bang!, and Alton immediately pulled out his copy in its tricked-out little homemade box.  I hadn't ever played with the expansions (which he had all of), so that was pretty interesting by itself, but that wasn't the reason why I had the most fun I've ever had with Bang! on Tuesday.  Instead, I think that we were somehow possessed by the spirit of long-forgotten, cheesy spaghetti westerns, and our attitudes and banter lived up to the inspiration.

Chris was the Sheriff in the first game, and right from the start, Adam (being right next to Chris) revealed himself as an Outlaw when he started taking potshots at the lawman.  I was also an Outlaw, but didn't exactly have a hand that let me do much.  Apparently, I was pretty much yeller-bellied, hiding in my barrel with iron plates stuck down my britches.  I was a little touched in the head, though, and decided to light up some dynamite, you know, just fer fun. 

Kenny also revealed his intentions pretty early as a Deputy, which you would have thought was a good thing with him being on Chris' other side.  But instead of being a Bat Masterson type of deputy, Kenny came more from the Barney Fife mold.  Heck, he even got himself locked up in the Jail on one occasion, a scene straight out of Mayberry.  Chip was the other deputy, but even with his help and with drawing up to 5 cards a turn (due to his special power), Chris still couldn't hold out against Adam and me once I drew into a few attack cards, and we won the game.  Technically, Brad won as well (also being an outlaw), but he and Alton (a deputy) had some sort of little feud going on between them the whole game, and he didn't do much to help our cause.


The first game was so quick and crazy fun, so we shuffled up again and started over.  This time, I was the Sheriff and, apparently, the town grave digger.  Again from the start, Adam started unloading on the sheriff, which was less fun this time since that was me.  I soon found myself surrounded when Chip started shootin' at me as well, but Chris came to my aid by doing what he could to take down Adam.  I was able to defend myself pretty well, and got a boost to my life when Adam bit the big one and I got to dig his final restin' place.  

For whatever reason, Alton decided to continue the feud from before, smacking Brad for no apparent reason at all.  He let up some when Brad showed himself to be a deputy and tried to help me with Chip, but I was already convinced that he was the Renegade (since Chris was obviously a deputy as well).  When I got in the final shot to kill Alton, however, I found out quickly that I had made a huge mistake.  He was, in fact, a deputy (though not a particularly good one, since he spent most of the game trying to kill the other deputy), and I lost every card I had in play and in my hand because of it.

Kenny was the third Outlaw, and with Alton finally out of his way, Brad unloaded on him with a Volcanic, spraying him with six Bang!'s or so and knocking him out of the game.  I was sitting at 5 life (after burying the outlaw as well), and feeling a little nihilistic after burying my own deputy, so I lit up another stick of dynamite.  Unfortunately, Chip managed to get past my defenses and deal a couple of points of damage to me.  When my turn came back around, I found that my fuse was a little bit too short, and buried myself by exploding my remains all over town.  

Time: 23 and 52 minutes
Game 1: Outlaws (Adam, Brad, and Me ) - WIN; Chris (Sheriff), Alton and Ken (Deputies), and Chip (Renegade) - LOSE
Game 2: Outlaws (Adam, Chip, and Kenny) - WIN; Me (Sheriff), Alton and Brad (Deputies), and Chris (Renegade) - LOSE
Ratings: Adam ?, Me 7.5, Brad 8, Chip 7, Ken 8.5, Alton 9, Chris 7

Bang! is not a perfect game.  It's way too confusing for what it is, there's a lot of downtime, and some cards (stupid General Stores) slow everything down too much.  But it does one thing well, and that is to create a fun experience.  And if it always worked as well as it did this week, I'd rate it a heck of a lot higher.

Other Games Played  

Race for the Galaxy
Time: 13, 24, and 23 minutes
Game 1: Alton 51, Chris 47
Game 2: Chris 50, Alton 29
Game 1: Chris 54, Mark 54, Chris W 42, Alton 41
Ratings: Chris 10, Alton 10, Mark 10, Chris W ?

Galaxy Trucker
Time: 95 minutes
Score: Brad 46, Carol 44, Adam 44, Britt 6
Ratings: Brad 8, Carol 7, Adam 7, Britt 4

Witch's Brew
Time: 28 minutes
Score: Mark 35, Chris 34, Alton 26
Ratings: Mark 8, Chris 9, Alton 8

Big City
Time: 62 minutes
Score: Britt 76, Brad 76, Adam 64, Carol 48
Ratings: Britt 7.5, Brad 7, Adam 8.5, Carol 8

Now the next thing I have to look forward to is my big Game Day/Game Room Open House on Saturday!  I hope that most of my group can make it, 'cause I plan on having a freaking awesome time!