Dang!  Sometimes the week just flies by!  I thought I'd have enough time to get this written before the end of the week, and then again over the weekend, but instead, I'll left at the last minute trying to get a play report up just before the next week's game night.  Maybe with my New Grad orientation calming down a little, I'll have more time and energy to get back to normal.

Dixit (with Dixit 2) [GeekDo]

When I got to game night, Chris was just about to start up a game of Dixit with the newly reprinted Dixit 2 expansion cards.  I started off really strong, running neck-and-neck with Kenny for most of the game.  But near the end, I just fell apart with one clue that was just way too obvious and in missing a few guesses I really needed to get.  In the end, Chris overtook me and managed to tie Kenny at 31 points to end the game. 

Time: 37 minutes
Score: Chris 31, Ken 31, Steve 28, Me 26, Michelle W* 17
Ratings: Chris 8.5, Ken 8, Steve 8, Me 7.5, Michelle W 7

I don't know that I really need to say about Dixit.  It's a really great party game, and Dixit 2 adds more of the same great and quirky cards to the mix.  I picked it up myself, and my only qualm is that it seems a bit expensive for just another pack of cards.  But they're big cards, and they are the heart of what makes Dixit so cool anyway, so it was worth it.

Lunch Money [GeekDo]

After playing Poo last week, I really wanted to get Lunch Money back out and give it another shot (for nostalgia's sake at least).  It's probably been 10 or 12 years since I've played, even though I do get the cards out from time to time to laugh at the totally abusive comments which are juxtaposed so well against the pictures of innocent little girls.

When we actually played the game, though, I fell apart pretty quickly.  Alton disarmed my chain and I couldn't put together any defense or First Aid cards to save my life.  I did at least get to humiliate Alton by pulling down his pants and showing everyone his frilly pink panties.  But payback was a... well, you know, and I coughed up the last of my lunch money soon thereafter.  Chris and Josh had beaten each other up pretty bad as well, so Alton was able to rule the schoolyard and take all the money as the last one standing. 

Time: 14 minutes
Score: Alton - Win; Chris*, Josh* & Me - Lose
Ratings: Alton 6, Chris 6.5, Josh 7, Me 6

As gorgeous (and somewhat disturbing) as the cards are, this game is just crying out for some sort of symbology to keep you from having to keep checking back with the rules to see what everything does.  It's a silly and quick little fighting game, but dadgummit, I still think it's a lot of fun.  Compared to the "award-winning" poo released some 14 years later, it's got a lot more style and is a better game all around.  So, hopefully, I'll be able to get it to the table again soon, and this time with the Sticks and Stones expansion! 
Sultan [GeekDo]

Next, Adam pulled out Sultan, a game that he picked up as the free giveaway in the Board Room at Origins.  It's a quick blind-auction-ish set collection game that really impressed me a lot.  Everyone has a deck of cards numbered 1-15, but you only draw five at a time, and you take turns placing them next to colored gems that are pulled randomly from a bag.  Once everyone has played a card, whoever played the highest-value card on a gem takes it.  Gems have an inherent value (based on color), but also score bonus points based on how many of a kind you get.  And for a 15-20 minute filler, it was really good.  I don't know why I haven't heard of this before (it's a Queen game), but I'd definitely like to play again, and would even consider picking it up sometime to add to my collection.

Time: 18 minutes
Score: Josh* 49, Adam 35, Michelle* 31, Me* 30, Alton* 28 
Ratings: All 7's


Notre Dame [GeekDo]
GotM! Championship Game!!! 

After all the preliminary gaming was done, we sat down to play out the championship game for Notre Dame.  Since seating position is so important (or more specifically, who is passing you cards is so important), we decided to be as fair as possible and randomly determine where everyone would sit.  It turned out (moving to the left) that it was me, Alton, Keith, Chris, and Adam (who was to my right).  

As we began, I decided to try out my VP-building strategy that had worked a couple of times recently.  Unfortunately, both my Bank (for gold) and Residence (for VP) cards came up at the same time, and when I let the Bank go, I didn't realize that I'd be dooming myself to poverty for most of the game.  So as a result of never getting another money-granting card from Adam, I was unable to recruit any of the special people for many, many turns, and fell completely out of contention.

Alton went for his standard "big money and no rats" strategy, and despite getting almost no help from me, managed to work it out anyway.  I figured that the winner would be somewhere in the 50ish point range in this game, but Alton proved me wrong by wearing us all out and scoring almost 70 points.

Chris, having finished in second place every single play of Notre Dame this month, claimed that he would have his copy of the game cast in silver to commemorate the occasion.   

Time: 48 minutes
Score: Alton 69, Chris 59, Adam 58, Me 50, Keith 37
Ratings: Alton 9, Chris 9, Adam 8, Me 8.5, Keith 8.5

Notre Dame is such a great game, and in fact, when I suggested playing again "just for fun" and with the expansion, everyone was up for it!


Notre Dame (with expansion from Alea Treasure Chest) [GeekDo]

We kept the same seating arrangement, and Chris read through the different card abilities once so that we'd all sort of know what was coming up.  I decided to change things up significantly in this play, so I started off going for some gold and intentionally passing on Residence cards.  At the end of the "A" phase, however, the Minstrel came up, and I had three cubes sitting on the Bank which I didn't think I'd need again, so I moved them over to the Residence anyway and shifted gears into my "usual" strategy anyway.  In this game, it worked out a lot better and I was able to have some success right through till the end.

Unfortunately for me, Chris had a lot more success.  Despite losing ground to the plague and the rats that carried it, he managed to score a lot, including an uncontested trip to the Cathedral at the end of the A or B phase.  Since he wasn't right beside me, I didn't watch the specifics of his choices very closely, but I couldn't help but notice his growing stack of VP chits all game long. 

Chris got the win, but "tarnished" his status as perpetual bridesmaid in the process. 

Time: 48 minutes
Score: Chris 72, Me 62, Keith 53, Alton 51, Adam 43
Ratings (for the game with the expansion): Chris 8.5, Me 8.5, Keith 8, Alton 8, Adam 8

Overall, we weren't crazy about all the expansion cards.  You're supposed to mix them in with the originals from each phase and then chose which ones happen randomly, and that might be a better way to handle it.  As it was, some of the cards seemed either a bit too good or a bit too harsh.  But I'd still be willing to play with them from time to time.

Oh, and did you notice that both games were exactly the same length?  Pretty weird, right?

Notre Dame was another great Game of the Month!  After a little discussion, we chose to make August an Ameritrash event and named Nexus Ops as our new Game of the Month!  It will be quite a departure from the last several months, and I'm looking forward to it. 

Railways of the World: The Card Game [GeekDo]

Adam was our token representative to Origins this year, and one thing he came back with was a copy of the new Railways of the World Card Game.  I'd actually heard some pretty good things about it from the show, so I was interested to give it a try.

I had a pretty good draw of locomotive cards, and was able to build some nice chains of cities early on.  As the game moved on, I got my engine up to 6 and was shipping goods all over the place.  I took the lead early and never looked back, and despite a strong comeback near the endgame, even Keith couldn't catch me.

Time: 43 minutes
Score: Me* 65, Keith* 54, Adam 52, Alton* 44
Ratings: Me 6, Keith 6, Adam 7, Alton 7

In an interview or two, I heard the designers of this game talk about how the train theme and Railways of the World brand were added to it once FRED distribution was on board.  For most of the game, I thought that the goods movement mechanic was pretty seamlessly integrated into the node-control core of the game.  I did think that it was a little strange that they changed the way points are distributed when you use other people's links (from the way that Steam/Railways of the World does it, anyway), but still, it seemed to work. 

But the biggest problem seemed really to be the endgame, which seemed to come awful quick.  It was like we were just getting our lines all up and running, and then it just ended when we ran out of cards.  It's like I almost wonder is all the goods movement portion makes the game heavier than it really needs to be, and I'd like to try the "family game" variant to see if the more streamlined (and "original" version) feels more appropriate.  As it is, I liked the game well enough, but don't know that it's something I'd want to come back to all the time. 

Dominion [GeekDo]

After RotW:TCG, we decided to play a quick game of Dominion.  We randomly dealt out a setup from the base game, and were a little less than impressed with what we got.  There were no real "extra action" cards in the mix, and most of the cards were pretty lackluster in our thoroughly amateurish opinions.

Alton went with the "buy money all the time" strategy, and picked up a lot of province cards late to get the win. 

Time: 28 minutes
Score: Alton 36, Adam 24, Me 24, Keith 18
Ratings: Alton 8, Adam 8, Me 7.5, Keith 8

I really like Dominion, but the only little irritating thing about it is that I still wonder if there's a consistent way to perform better than by just buying money all the time.  I haven't really seen it in the base game, but I need to add in some expansions (I own Seaside) to see if it makes a difference.  Alton calls the game "too easy" because he says that he never loses using the strategy. 

What do y'all think about it?

Tribune: Primus Inter Pares [GeekDo]

It was pretty late by then, but we decided to play a game of Tribune anyway.  Keith had somehow managed to miss every previous game that we've played of it, so I had to start with a rules teach.  He, like almost everyone in their first play, was pretty lost for most of the game.  But then again, almost anyone can get like that if they get behind the curve in this game.

I used to be good at Tribune, but at some time along the way, I lost my focus about it or something.  I was actually doing pretty well this time even, and was one turn away (assuming that I would have been able to pull off what I was wanting to do) from getting another 2 or 3 victory conditions.  But my "pretty good" was at least one turn too late when Chip managed to win outright with 4 conditions.

Time: 45 minutes
Score: Chip 4, David 3, Alton 2, Me 1, Keith* 1
Ratings: Chip 9, David 9, Alton 9, Me 9, Keith ?

Still, for its time investment and level of depth, Tribune is really hard to beat.  I do wish that someone would develop some additional victory cards, because there's really only one viable one for 5 players (since the other has an obligatory Tribune associated with it).  We're probably just needing to play the VP variant the next few times we get it out, or we need to use the Brutii expansion to really mix it up. 


Other Games Played

Chaos in the Old World
Time: 120ish minutes
Score: Josh 51, Ken 42, Brandon* 32, Britt 19
Ratings: Josh 8, Ken 8.5, Brandon 8, Britt 8

Dixit
Time: 17 minutes
Score: David 31, Michelle W 28, Michelle 26, Steve 9
Ratings: David 8.5, Michelle W 7, Michelle 8, Steve 7.5

Forbidden Island
Time: 50 minutes
Score: Treasure Hunters (Michelle, Brad* & David) - Win; Forbidden Island - Lose
Ratings: Michelle 8, Brad 7, David 8.5

No Thanks!
Time: 15 minutes
Score: Chris 44, Steve 63, David 72, Michelle W* 127
Ratings: Chris 8, Steve 7.5, David 8, Michelle W 7

Notre Dame
Time: 51 minutes
Score: David 55, Josh 51, James 49, Chip 44
Ratings: All 8's

Pandemic
Time: 50 minutes
Score: Humans (Chip, James, Ian, Steve & Michelle W) - Win; Mutant Pandemic - Lose
Ratings: Chip 9, James 8, Ian 8.5, Steve 10, Michelle W ?

Thurn and Taxis
Time: 95 minutes (???)
Score: Michelle* 29, Ken 22, Brad 20
Ratings: Michelle 8, Ken 8.5, Brad ?

Toledo
Time: ??
Score: James 20, Chip 18, Brad 13
Ratings: ???

Unspeakable Words
Time: ??
Score: Michelle W 83, Michelle 92 (but crazy), Steve 82 (but totally loony), David 58 (and completely off his rocker)
Ratings: Michelle W 7, Michelle 7, Steve 7.5, David 6


* First play for that Person