So finally, the day came.  Unfortunately, it has now gone as well... and another week has slipped past in addition.  My Game Room was officially opened to many friendly gamers on Saturday, October 10, and much gaming fun was had.  In all, ten people participated in at least some part of the day.  We played for about 11 hours, getting in 18 plays of 13 different games.  Personally, I got in 8 games of 7 different games, including two of my top 10 games!  But no more of this boring statistical nonsense!  On with the stunning report!!!

No Thanks!

After sitting around in the living room for a bit, for reasons I'm still not clear on, we ascended into the gamer's haven and started our first game.  Since I thought that at least another person or two might arrive, I pulled out No Thanks! as out starter, and it worked really well.  In all, we played 4 hands, and my brother Tony joined us after the first.  

Interestingly enough, the first game was just crazy.  Graham scored only 5 points, but that was just good enough for third place out of five, since I collected a mere 2 points and Chris had a ridiculous -1.  After that, things looked a little more normal, with winners being at 3, 3, and then 17 points, while everyon else was well into the double digits.  

Score: Graham 89, Chris 91, Alton 104, Kat 118, Me 143, Tony 121 (only 3 hands)

Dixit

Having a perfect 6 players at the time and upon Chris' suggestion (thinking that his wife Kat would like it), Dixit hit the table next.  Chris then took the game by storm, lapping the VP track and winning with a score of 32.  Tony was hot on his heels, while our previous winner, Graham, languished in a distant last place.

Score: Chris 32, Tony 30, Alton 21, Me 15, Kat 14, Graham 7

Dixit is a very solid little party game.  It does a nice job of combining some of the creativity of Balderdash with the elegant scoring from Cluzzle, all along with some really cool art and an attractive quirky concept.  For me personally, however, I just don't know that it has quite the same level of "fun factor" as most of my favorite party games.  You can check out Chris' review at Snackbar Games for more detailed information.

Ghost Stories

I had been trying to get Tony to play Ghost Stories since last December or so, and with Graham and Kat joining us, this was the time.  Unfortunately for all of us, I had almost forgotten how difficult the game can be with four players, especially with three of them being new.  Most of my plays have been either solo or with really seasoned players, and I'm pretty used to winning on even the hardest difficulty.  On this day, however, we barely made it halfway through the deck on the easiest level.  Haunters seemed to vomit forth from the stack of ghostly oppressors, and we finally succumed to the pressure in one domino-like turn when all of us lost our last life points from having full boards.

Score: Wu Feng (Uncatchable) - Absolute Dominance; Taoists (Graham, Kat, Tony, and Me) - Complete and Utter Defeat

As you can see from Graham's face, it wasn't a very positive experience for the group.  Most co-op games make you want to try again when you lose, but Ghost Stories can be absolutely disheartening with its brutality.  Mostly, we wanted to curl up in the corner and cry after this one.

While we were playing, Chris and Alton played Easter Island three times, with Chris laying down the smackdown on the old man.  Then they watched the last few moments of our humiliation.

Citadels

Wanting to play something all together, I next removed Citadels from its beautiful spot within my game collection.  Chip arrived just as we were starting and was able to join us as well.  With a few new or rusty players, the first few turns took a while, but then we got right into the swing of things.  The immediate pattern which emerged was a prevalence of Witch King's in our midst.  Specifically, it seemed like the person who was the King would almost always choose to be the Witch next, assuming that it wasn't the one facedown card.  Of course, one time, the Witch chose to bewitch the King, so they were a King Witch instead, but for the most part it held true.  

I didn't specifically say so, but it is the standard in our group to replace the Assassin with the Witch and the Magician with the Wizard from the Dark City expansion.  The Wizard is just more interesting than the Magician, and the Witch gives a better result for both herself and her victim than does the Assassin.  Unfortunately, the Witch is powerful enough (and safe from all attack) that it's almost a no-brainer to choose her first in most cases.  I'm not crazy about the inherent imbalance of this situation, but it wasn't really any different from games with the Assassin instead.     

Score: Chris 28, Graham 27, Chip 24, Tony 23, Me 23, Alton 21, Kat 20

Citadels is just a great game, but I really don't need to say much more about it here.  You can check out my review if you want to know more.


Fury of Dracula

I was a bit surprised when Chris then suggested playing Fury of Dracula, but he again thought that it would be something that Kat would enjoy, and I'm always up for a play of one of my top 10 games.  Plus, it's October and I still hadn't gotten this vampiric, cat-and-mouse game to the table.  While Chris has played Dracula before, I'm still more familiar with the game than he is,so I took the role of the Count while Chris led Kat, Tony, and Gwen as the team of hunters.  

I started off down south in Italy and got lucky enough to have a New Vampire encounter in my opening hand.  I was a little disappointed a couple of rounds later when my Evasion event came up (since it's so much better later on), but shifting up into Germany made it even harder for the meddling do-gooders to find my new bride, and soon after the dawn of a new day, I found myself at 3 vampire points from my progeny and the maturing of all my other plans.  

The Hunters called in their ally Rufus Smith, who doubles the blood drain I suffer while traveling by sea, but initially they weren't too close to me and I didn't worry that much about it.  Feeling confident the ability of this ally, they bypassed calling in Jonathon Harker and Sister Agatha as potential allies.  I therefore felt even better about my situation, as I had drawn two Devilish Power cards with which I could cancel Mr. Smith before I first embarked.  As they finally tracked me down and cornered me in Amsterdam, I made my move to eliminate their blasted ally.  Unfortunately, a stroke of Good Luck saved him, and I was wary about spending my last Devilish Power to press the attempt.  That proved to be a mistake, however, because nothing hurt me more in this pursuit than having to pay a blood for every turn I remained at sea.  


I made a stop at Cagliari, but Chris was wise to my ploy, and I had to soon flee from my island retreat.  I didn't go far, again disembarking at Genoa, then using my Unearthly Swiftness to make two moves, one of which was enhanced through assuming the form of a wolf.  Again I felt safe for a time, but was shaken when the hunters discovered the Vampire Lair of my bride and attacked her, costing me some of my rising influence.  As they always do, the Hunters again found my trail and chased me off the northern edge of Europe one more time.  

Thinking that they would not suspect me to reuse the same strategy, I again disembarked at Cagliari.  This time, I fed and hid as well to spend three rounds there and throw them off.  I even used my wolf form to further enhance the ruse.  But time was not on my side as they soon exhausted all other possible ports where I could have landed, and the chase was on once again.  

By this point, I was running very low on blood and thought it best to make a run for my stronghold, Castle Dracula.  The Hunters were on me quickly, however, and our inevitable confrontation proved imminent.  For a moment, though, I thought that my plans would come to fruition.  As I sat on 4 Vampire Points, Mina Harker encountered one of my New Vampires while night was still shrouding the land.  Not wanting to leave my fate to the whim of a die roll, I played Seduction, which would cause Mina to become bitten, thus incapacitating her and giving me the victory.  Again my luck didn't hold, however, as she summoned Great Strength to shrug off my bride's embrace.  Instead, I found myself face-to-face with a very well-armed vampire hunter, weakened to the point of being on the last tier of my blood pool.  All it took was a stake to my heart while attempting a bite of my own to end me and my diabolical plans.  Sometimes I wonder what I ever saw in that impertinent witch!

Score: Hunters (Chris, Gwen, Kat, Tony) - Win; Dracula (Me) - Lose with 4 Vampire points

Fury of Dracula is so completely awesome!  I probably felt the tension and excitement of the hunt as well or better in this session as I ever have before, and I think that everybody had a good time with it.  Gwen has to jump in and out because of warming supper and putting Samantha to bed, but she has even expressed interest in trying it out 2-player with me some time.  Tony was very into it as well, and I think that the only real issue with the game continues to be its 2-3 hour play time.  For me, though, it's completely worth it every time. 

Kingsburg, FITS, and Tribune

While we were fighting our epic battle over the fate of Europe, everyone else was playing a number of other games.  Tony's oldest boy, Alex, joined us briefly, and Kenny arrived as well to spend the rest of the evening playing some games.

Kingsburg
Score: Chip 48, Alton 43, Graham 40

FITS
Score: Chip 10, Kenny 8, Alex 5, Alton 5

Tribune (VP variant)
Score: Chip 32, Alton 29, Kenny 18

Pandemic (with On the Brink)

Some of us then wanted to get in another play or two of Pandemic with its new expansion.  I thoght about pressing to try the Bio-terrorist, but instead settled for a play both other challenges.  We lost miserably to the Virulent Strain challenge with 4 epidemics, and then managed to win against the Mutation challenge (again with 4 epidemics).  It's such a great game, but you probably don't need me to gush more about Pandemic, so I'll move on.

Game 1: Virulent Pandemic Strain - WIN; Pittiful Humans (Gwen, Kenny, Tony, and Me) - LOSE 
Game 2: Powerful Human Heroes (Gwen, Kenny, Tony, and Me) - WIN; Impotent Mutating Space Herpes Pandemic - LOSE

Unspeakable Words and Witch's Brew

Alton, Chris, and Kat got in four plays of two different games while we were fought to save humanity.

Unspeakable Words
Game 1: Kat 53; Alton and Chris - Insane 
Game 2: Kat 98; Alton and Chris - Totally Nuts 
Game 2: Alton 95; Kat and Chris - Way Off the Deep End
 
Witch's Brew
Score: Chris 40, Kat 33, Alton 24

Yahtzee Free For All

And then, finally, the evening came to an end with one game of Yahtzee Free For All with all remaining gamers.  I again came close to a win, but was edged out by Alton.

Score: Alton 30, Me 28, Gwen 22, Kenny 20, Tony 18

In all, it was an incredible day filled with some amazing gaming.  I was so thrilled to officially open up my game room in such a stellar fashion, and I hope that it's but the first of many such days!