I just love it when I'm almost done with a post (mostly on time, of course), and then some little electric hiccup happens and the web-based software you're using just forgets that you ever even started it.  And then, of course, you're so frustrated about how the "auto save" hadn't saved your work from the last 40 minutes, which (again, of course) was exactly how long you've been writing out a long series of absolutely hillarious yet deeply profound statements about our life in the modern boardgaming hobby, that you say, "Just screw it!" and don't touch your blog for the entire weekend, even though you got a lot of cool, new games for your birthday and Father's Day.

Okay... actually, I don't love it.  It pretty much sucks.  But maybe I can get back on track now during lunch, because tomorrow is game night, and I can't be a whole week behind; that'd suck even worse!

So anyway, let's go way back to last Tuesday, when I was walking in at nearly 7pm due to Gwen's crazy workload and having to run Samantha all the way home and feed her supper before coming back up to Burlington...   

Macao

I rounded the corner into the gaming area carrying my massive stack o'games, which prompted a cackle of laughter from one table.  Apparently, they had been waiting for me for some time before getting started with a game of Macao and had just given up on me and started anyway, some seconds before I arrived.  Thankfully, they allowed me to jump in anyway, slightly revising their setup in the process (I love my gaming buddies!)

Anyway, I was in first place on the wall by random draw, so I felt comfortable taking the Paper Storage in the pre-round of card drafting.  I then took one of the paper goods on turn 1 and another on turn 2.  The other "strategy" that I sort of fell into was to not ever move myself on the wall.  It seemed to make sense at first, and then became more of an experiment as the game went on.  Unfortunately, the experiment looked worse and worse as I was stuck with expensive or useless cards time and time again in the later rounds.  It wasn't quite the difference in the game, but the -9 points I garnered in penalties definitely hurt my final score. 

While I had some early synergy between a few cards early on, I never felt like I had much of anything going.  I tried to get into a money -> tribute pattern, but didn't get it online until the last two rounds, so it didn't net me many points.  Meanwhile, Chip came on very strong in the end, and with a strong city score and no penalty points, he won the game. 

Time: 86 minutes
Score: Chip 78, Me 65, Chris 64, Alton 44
Ratings: Chip 8, Me 9, Chris 6.5, Alton 8.5

Not much to say about Macao, other than "I like such a type of games. Thay are so homy!"


Portrayal

The nominations for the Spiel des Jahres were recently announced (just in case you've been under a rock or something), and I thought it'd be cool to play some of them before the winners are announced later this month.  I currently own Portrayal (Identik), Dixit, and Roll Through the Ages, so I brought them along this week, and I found a few other people who were willing to try out a few of them with me.

We began with Portrayal, and had a full table of 6 people to run through it.  Now, while Portrayal is a drawing game, it's not supposed to be one that really requires you to be able to draw.  And that's a good thing, because while I consider myself a pretty artistic person, it is completely not in the realm of freehand drawing.  However, there are some bounds to how "good" you have to be, because on, say, my traditional stick-figure dude, it's really hard to include such things as nipples or an apron.  In fact, at one point, Charles accused me of drawing a winkie** on one of my figures that was supposed to be a waitress, but I still swear by the fact that it was actually a pocket on her apron.

Chris, however, seemed to have the perfect blend of basic artistic talent that was clear yet not too time consuming, allowing him to draw quickly while still being able to accurately represent all the pertinent details.  He smoked us all... 

Time: 32 minutes
Score: Chris* 60, Beth* 50, Charles* 47, Me 46, Brad* 45, Michelle* 38
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Beth 9, Charles 6, Me 6, Brad 7, Michelle 7

I like Portrayal.  It gives a pretty unique experience that seems to be more about the describing and listening than about the drawing.  But still, as a "drawing party game" (which it is always going to be grouped as), it has been totally eclipsed for me by Telestrations / Eat Poop You Cat, and it still seems pretty out of place and outclassed by most of the other nominees.
 

Dixit

Speaking of party games, our little group stayed together to try out the other party game on the nomination list, Dixit.  Chris did well again, but was challenged by Beth for dominance, and by the end neither could break the tie. 

Time: 31 minutes
Score: Beth* 33, Chris 33, Charles* 28, Me 24, Brad 22, Michelle 20
Ratings: Beth 8, Chris 9, Charles 7, Me 7.5, Brad 9, Michelle 9

We just love Dixit.  It's a very solid game, well deserving of its nomination, and I'd be pretty happy to see it win.


Michelle, our lovely, young high-school graduate!  Congratulations!!!
Escalation!

To kill a little time, we played a couple of hands of Escalation! while waiting for some other groups to finish.  Of course, this was the only thing that I could win all night.  woo. hoo.  Me not so homy...

Time: 10 minutes (for 2 hands)
Score: Me 3, Charles* 9, Beth 19, David 23, Brad 28, Michelle 29
Ratings: Me 7, Charles 6, Beth 10. Davic 7, Brad 7. Michelle 10


Pandemic

But then I set up a game of Pandemic using the same difficulty that Gwen and I have been using lately: 6 epidemics plus the mutation challenge.  We dealt two roles to everyone, so we at least had some hope of choosing a team with some synergy.  I was the medic, joined by Brad (the Generalist), Charles (the Troubleshooter), Kenny (the Dispatcher), and Tom (the Operations Expert). 

Tom jumped out and built two additional research stations pretty quickly, and then someone drew the New Assignment card that allowed him to change to the Scientist, so we'd also have some "quick cure" ability.  We worked hard, but it was no use.  Even with eradicating blue, the board went to hell in a handbasket and chain reactions (in red, IIRC) wiped us out.

Time: 22 minutes
Score: Mutant Pandemic - WIN; Hopeless Humans (Brad, Charles, Kenny, Tom, and Me) - Lose
Ratings: Brad 9, Charles 9, Kenny 9, Tom 9, Me 10

"I like such a type of games. Thay are so homy!"

Dream Factory

It was late, but we still pulled our Dream Factory (you know, Traumfabrik / Hollywood Blockbuster) next and gave it a go.  I was the only one with any previous experience with the game, but you wouldn't have known it based on our results.  The only really decent thing that I did was to carry a lead in actors into the first party space, but then Kenny took the "lead" from me and never looked back.

And while I finished in last place, let me defend myself at least a little bit by saying that Kenny beat me out for one particular space in the last season that would have allowed me to complete Tsar Wars: The Return of the Vampires  for 20 or 21 points, which would have been the single biggest movie completed all game long, and would have at least propelled me into 3rd place.  But, you know, it didn't work out... so I almost didn't suck.

Time: 55 minutes
Score: Kenny* 82, Charles* 62, Tom* 47, Brad 42, Me 40
Ratings: Kenny 8, Charles 8, Tom 7.5, Brad 7, Me 8

As I said in my review, this is just such a solid, thematic auction game.  I really need to get it to the table more often.


Other Games Played

Ghost Stories
Time: 100+ minutes
Score: Wu Feng (Bone Crusher) - WIN; Taoists (Kenny, Michelle*, Adam* & Matt) - Lose
Ratings: Kenny 7.5, Michelle 7, Adam 5, Matt 8

Macao
Time: 95 minutes
Score: Adam 82, Chip 67, Alton 63, Tom 58
Ratings: Adam 9, Chip 8, Alton 8.5, Tom 9

Race for the Galaxy
Time: 26 and 20 minutes
Game 1: Mark 73, Alton 63, Chris 54
Game 2: Chris 51, Alton 40
Ratings: All 10's

Roll Through the Ages
Time: 27 and ? minutes
Game 1: Mark 54, Tom 26
Game 2: Mark 54, Tom 26
Ratings: Ratings

Game
Time: ?? minutes
Score: Scores
Ratings: Ratings

Game
Time: ?? minutes
Score: Scores
Ratings: Ratings


Adam totally freaks out during a marathon game of Ghost Stories...

* First play for that Person
** You know, male genitalia