The first thing I did this week at game night was to watch a truly exciting game of No Thanks! be played.  Three of the five players were new to the game (so "strategy" was a bit lacking at times), but they were all having an absolute blast with this incredible little filler.  In the end, Kenny and Chris were way in the lead and seperated by only 3 points going into the 5th (and last) hand.  Everyone focused a lot attention on them, however, and they ended up collecting 88 points (putting Kenny into last place) and 66 points, respectively, while Adam actually lost 6 points to win the game by a good margin.

Time: 43 minutes (for 5 hands)
Score: Adam 138, Michelle 177, Chris 177, Alton 182, Ken 196
Ratings: Adam 9, Michelle 8.5, Chris 8.5, Alton 8, Ken 8

No Thanks! is just such a great little game.  It may, in fact, be the "perfect" filler, and I'm actually working on a review of it and most of the other Z-Man filler card games, so maybe I'll be able to share a few other of my thoughts about it soon.

Carson City

I had a good time watching the card-playin', but was very happy to actually sit down and join in as we set up Carson City for some Game of the Month! action.  John, the Z-Man demo guy, was actually there, so Chris and Mark went off to give Skyline 3000 another try with him, leaving Alton, Adam, Kenny, Michelle, and me to take a ride in the Way Back machine (the actual time machine from the Rocky & Bullwinkle segment, not the web archive do-hicky) to the old west.

I'd been thinking some about what I wanted to try out this week, and had at least planned out my first turn.  I decided to choose the Banker as my role, solely to pick up the extra $9 that went along with it.  I had lucked into getting the one perfect place for a Ranch in my opening property placement, so one of my cowboys got the ranch at a steal of only $3, while my other two took the $2/VP spot and the generic $4 action.  At the end of round 1, therefore, I converted $32 into 16 VP and was left with exactly $1 for round 2.  And my strategy ended right there, with a considerable lead on everyone else, but not quite as great as I'd hoped it'd be, since Kenny also decided to convert money into points, using the $3/VP space.

Being pretty much penniless, I then decided to spend all of round 2 trying to make some money.  I took the Sheriff, and then claimed spots for the 3 extra guns (uncontested, since I used the Sheriff token), $2/gun payout, and 1VP/2 guns spaces, leaving me 2 extra cowboys for extra firepower.  So at the end of my turn, I had $23 and had added another 7 points to my total score.  And by this point, I was way behind in board position (for claiming parcels of land and building buildings), and someone else made a passing comment about how tight the board got in a 5-player game.  All that together helped me decide on my final strategy, which was to focus completely on earning points during the game with firepower and money, rather than on getting end-game points from buildings.


Just before we resolved round 4...
So on turn 3, I chose the Captain and bought the last three of my cowboys from the general supply (giving me access to all 10 of the little suckers!).  Then and in turn 4 (when I chose the Mercenary), I threw my weight around getting the 3-gun token and turning them into money and VP.  On the last turn, Adam took the Sheriff and blocked the $5/VP spot, so I instead decided to bully everyone else around and steal some of their money to limit their VP potential.  I actually did pick up a Mine in the last turn to give me the extra gun and another couple of VP's, since I still had an empty parcel left over from the start of the game.  

Alton was trying to work out his property-buying strategy, and I was thinking that I would have to duel him for the 1VP/2 parcels spot, but Michelle did it for me.  Kenny had lost a couple of big duels to Adam on turn 3 and 4, so he had fallen behind the leaders of the pack.  One of the most dramatic moments in the game came when they were fighting over the 1VP/building space in round 4.  They had exactly equal firepower, but Adam had the initiative.  Adam rolled a 1, which would normally mean that Kenny was celebrating, except that his die came up a 1 as well, and Adam won on the tie-breaker.  Adam was therefore my next biggest threat, and it wasn't until the final tally that we realized he hadn't picked up quite enough properties to catch me.              

Time: 109 minutes
Score: Me 48, Adam 46, Alton 43, Ken 32, Michelle 27
Ratings: Me 7.5, Adam 8.5, Alton 8.5, Ken 8.5, Michelle 8


While my opinion of Carson City was on the decline last week, seeing how a completely different strategy could actually work this week made me reconsider it a bit.  I'm still not completely convinced about its long term replayability and depth (expecially for the 90ish-minute time investment), we're definitely having a lot of fun with it.

The Stars Are Right

Between getting a somewhat late start and then having Carson City run long, it was already 9:30 or so when we were looking for another game.  Kenny had been wanting to play The Stars Are Right again (since he hadn't actually gotten his copy to the table yet), so I and Michelle took pity on him and sat down.  We then proceeded to tax our brains over the next 53 minutes, only to have Kenny flop down a winning Great Old One on the turn before I was going to do the same.

Time: 53 minutes
Score: Ken 10, Me 8, Michelle 6
Ratings: Ken 8, Me 7, Michelle 7.5

I really like what you're doing in The Stars Are Right, but I really dislike how long it takes.  It's essentially a carefully cultivated growth medium for analysis paralysis, and at times the whole shebang can really grind to a halt.  Our 3-player session wasn't really bad at all (other than a few turns when I could have played Michelle in a hand or two of No Thanks! while Kenny analyzed his next move), but I still wonder if its sweet spot might actually be as a 2-player game.  

PowerMage 54

I just wrote my review of PowerMage 54, so you can check that out for my thoughts on the game.  Kenny and I fought it out for a while until he finally drew cards for a 140-point attack that I had no answer for. 

Time: 10 minutes
Score: Ken 15, Me -116 (that's remaining health)
Ratings: Ken 4, Me 4

Dominion

It was late, and almost everyone else was heading home, but Kenny and I decided to stick it out a bit longer.  He had never played Dominion, and since my interest in it has been increasing as my interest in Race for the Galaxy has waned, I offered to teach him.  The game seemed to drag a bit, and for a while I thought I was going to run away with it.  But over the last 3 or 4 rounds, I just kept drawing into dead-ends and ending up with 7 or less money each time.  Kenny made a run to get the last 3 Province cards, ending the game and taking the win in his first game! 

Time: 36 minutes
Score: Ken 43, Me 34
Ratings: Ken 8.5, Me 8

I coached Kenny a bit on strategy as we went, but he picked up on it quick and figured out most of his deck by himself.  And the most promissing thing is that he said he'd be up for playing it any time.  So maybe I've found a partner that I can explore the base set and maybe even an expansion or two with.  Who knows, maybe we'll even pick up another gamer or two at the store who also feels left out by or disillusioned with Race.


Other Games Played

Race for the Galaxy
Time: 28 minutes (for 2 games)
Game 1: Chris 53, Alton 26
Game 2: Chris 71, Alton 19
Ratings: Chris 10, Alton 10

Speaking of getting "left behind" in Race for the Galaxy...

Skyline 3000
Time: 67 minutes
Score: Chris 76, John 74, Brandon 62, Mark 47
Ratings: Chris 8, John 8, Brandon ?, Mark 7.5

Campaign Manager 2008
Time: 48, 30, and ? minutes
Game 1: John 271, Chris 210
Game 2: Mark - Win, Chris - Concede
Game 3: Mark 271, Chris 266
Ratings: John 8.5, Mark 8.5, Chris 6