As I walked into game night this week at my more normal time (around 6:30), things were a bit amiss.  There was an odd, fuel-like smell in the air... and the store was dark.  

Due to a series of events that I will not get into here, the power was off as game night began.  However, the most odd thing about the whole situation was that the room was still pretty much as full as normal.  Players were holding flashlights, electric and propane lanterns sat at the end of gaming tables, and gamers all over the place were generally squinting and straining their eyes to continue playing their beloved games.

I wasn't able to fit into a game immediately, so I mainly watched and held a flashlight as Kenny, Chip, and Tom played Roll Through the Ages.  Eventually, a few games wrapped up and I helped set up a game of...

Pandemic

Technically, I didn't actually play in this game.  We had 6 players interested in Pandemic, so I decided instead to take on the role of game explainer and general game moderator.  Three of the players were new, so I also interjected some potential strategy tips into the mix while I tried to keep the game moving. 

I set up using 4 Epidemics and the Mutation challenge from the On The Brink expansion, and it turned out to be way too easy.  And whether it was all the new people, having 5 players, or just the impact of the poor lighting, the game took freaking forever.  Despite that, however, I still think that everyone had a good time.  

Time: 78 minutes
Score: Humans (Joe*, Adam*, Ken, Keith*, Tom) - Win; The Pandemic - Lose
Ratings: Joe 8, Adam 8, Ken 9, Keith 8, Tom 9 (and Me 10)

It's Pandemic.  I love it... and I need to get in 18 more plays of it to hit 100 by the end of the year!


Saboteur

Playing in the dark had sort of turned into a theme night, with one group playing Shadows Over Camelot particularly for that reason, so we thought we'd join in with a game about Dwarves digging dark and treacherous mines.  I was a loyal "gold-digger" all three rounds, and was actually the one to get to the treasure the first two times.  That meant, of course, that I won, though it wasn't by as much as I thought it'd be. 

Time: 44 minutes
Score: Me 9, Keith* 6, Tom* 6, Adam 5, Ken 3, Joe 2
Ratings: Me 7, Keith 6, Tom 7.5, Adam ?, Ken 7, Joe 7

I actually like Saboteur quite a lot, but the lack of granularity in the scoring almost ruins it.  The gameplay itself, especially with the role and selection of the Saboteurs, is great.  It's still a card game, of course, and there's a ton of randomness in the cards you have to work with.  But for its length and depth, it does the whole traitor mechanic really well. 

The Princes of Florence

At the end of Saboteur, the lights came on.  In an odd sort of way, I was actually disappointed.  When it was dark, this week was pretty special, and it felt sort of like we were all off together on a camping trip or something like that.  But one of the good things about proper illumination was that I felt comfortable introducing people to a more complicated game that had a lot of scripty writing on the cards.  And that game, my favorite game, was The Princes of Florence.  

Since it doesn't get much play these days (being a former Game of the Month! from way back in May of 2007), three of the players were new.  I went through a pretty careful rules explanation, and volunteered to be the start player.  I didn't really mean to, but as new players always do (despite warnings from me), they underestimated the strength of the Jesters and I was able to pick up two of them early on for practically nothing.  They also way overestimated the value of Builders (especially in the late game), even though the second place person (Joe) managed to put together a decent builder strategy.

In the end, I completed 8 works and had the "most Jesters" prestige card to score 72 points and win.

Time: 61-ish minutes
Score: Me 72, Joe* 44, Tom* 42, Denise 41, Michelle* 38
Ratings: Me 10, Joe 8, Tom 8.5, Denise 8.5, Michelle 8

Princes obviously requires a lot of planning and strategy, and I was very pleased that they all enjoyed it and gave it enough benefit of the doubt that it'll be even better the second time around.  So hopefully, some of them will join me with it again soon, and maybe even Kenny (who watched part of the game after coming back from supper) will be able to find a spot in that game. 



Hive

People were finishing up games around this time, so Tom and I pulled out Hive to kill some time.  He had played some online, but was still a little shaky on rules.  I beat him pretty easily the first game, but then he managed to turn the tables on me and win the second in a much longer session.  While the AI is decent on the iPod app and online, I think that I've also learned some sloppy play because there are just certain tactics that the computer won't use.  As I said last week, I really need to play more against real people, and maybe Tom will be another regular opponent. 

Time: 12 minutes (for 2 games)
Score: Tom - 1 win, Me - 1 win
Ratings: Tom 8, Me 7.5

Dominion

After suggesting Macao, I learned that the pin on my pocket watch had apparently gotten pulled out at some point, and that it was over an hour later than I thought it was.  despite it being nearly midnight, Chip, Kenny, and Tom joined me for a game of Dominion. 

As I've said before, I haven't played nearly as much Dominion as the rest of the world, but it seems like almost every game I've played has been with the "first game" setup recommended in the rules.  So despite the fact that it was Tom's first game, I insisted that we use a random setup, which may not have been an entirely good idea.  The cards we pulled were the: Chapel, Village, Thief, Feast, Militia, Spy, Throne Room, Laboratory, Library, and Adventurer.  If you don't know what those cards are, we essentially got 3 different attack cards with no way to defend against them.  Plus, we had a glut of 4-cost cards, some of which had questionable use.

Anyway, we had a lot of Thief proliferation early on, because if one person did it, we felt like all of us needed to follow suit.  It was really hard in this particular environment to ramp up to getting 8 gold, so most of the group focused instead on buying all of the Estates and Duchys that they could get.  I focused more on the Village/Laboratory combo, though, and that helped me eventually escalate into getting 8 gold with some regularity, so once I was pretty secure in my position, I bought the last Feast card to end the game (since all the Estates and Duchys were already gone). 

Time: 51 minutes 
Score: Me 28, Chip 19, Ken 18, Tom* 9 
Ratings: Me 8, Chip 7, Ken 7.5, Tom 7

This session was interesting.  Clearly, it was not an easy pool of cards to work with, but at the same time, it also gave me a bit of a wider appreciation of what Dominion can do.  Everyone knew that it was going to be a slower game than most of them are, and so I felt like I had a bit more time to sit back and develop my deck than normal.  Thankfully, I got it working before they had totally drained the lesser VP cards and ended it.  So while I may reconsider a purely random setup for the immediate future (or at least reserve the right to make a modification or two), I still want to play a lot more.

Other Games Played

Age of Empires III: The Age of Discovery
Time: 120 minutes
Score: Ian* 80, Keith* 75, Adam 71, Alton 51
Ratings: Ian 8.5, Keith 8, Adam 9, Alton 9

Escalation!
Time: 26 minutes (for 6 hands)
Score: Chris 39, Michelle 47, Graham 54, James 58, Mark 59, Brett 69
Ratings: Chris 7.5, Michelle 9, Graham 8.5, James 8, Mark 7.5, Brett 8

Pandemic
Time: 48 minutes
Score: Humans (Charles*, Chip, Ken, Beth*) - Win; Pandemic - Lose
Ratings: Charles 10, Chip 9, Ken 9, Beth 9

Ra: The Dice Game
Time: 55 minutes
Score: Alton 50, Chip 45, Ian* 36, Charles 28
Ratings: Alton 8, Chip 8, Ian 7.5, Charles 8

Roll Through the Ages
Time: 45 and 40 minutes
Game 1: Charles* 36, Alton 32, Beth 26
Game 2: Chip 31, Ken 19, Tom 17
Ratings: Charles 7.5, Chip 7, Alton 8, Beth 8, Ken 9, Tom 7

Samurai
Time: ? - No Report Sheet Found
Score: Adam ?, Charles ?, Ian ?, Alton ? 
Ratings: Adam ?, Charles ?, Ian ?, Alton ?

Shadows Over Camelot (No Traitor)
Time: 75 minutes
Score: Forces of Darkness - Win; Loyal Knights (Beth, Brett, Chris, Graham, James, Michelle) - Lose
Ratings: Beth 10, Brett 8.5, Chris 7.5, Graham 7, James 7, Michelle ? (didn't like it much)

Through the Desert
Time: 27 minutes
Score: Chris 89, Brett* 72, James* 68
Ratings: Chris 9, Brett 8, James 8

Vegas Showdown
Time: 50 minutes
Score: Mark 60, Chip 51, Ian* 44, Alton 33, Charles 31
Ratings: Mark 8.5, Chip 8.5, Ian 8, Alton 8.5, Charles 8.5

Witch's Brew
Time: 35 minutes
Score: Beth 28, Charles* 26, Chip 25, Chris 20, Graham 13
Ratings: Beth 9, Charles 9, Chip 9, Chris 9, Graham 7.5

* First play for that Person