In all the hustling and bustling to get Samantha fed and bathed, I totally walked out of the house without my camera this week.  So, no real pictures this time.

Parade [GeekDo]

Upon arrival, a game of Ra was already in progress, and a few of us wanted to kill some time without getting tied up too heavily in a longer game, so we pulled out Parade.  I had heard Doug and Shelley Garrett talk about this game a time or two, and picked it up recently when it finally hit American shelves.  I actually ended up playing it twice this week, both the start off and the to end the night. 

Basically, you have a line of cards in the middle of the table, and on your turn, you must add one card to the end of the "parade".  Adding a card with value higher than the number of cards already in the line is always safe, but otherwise, you may have to pick up cards based on the color and value of the card you played.  The point is to collect the fewest points, and there are a few wrinkles in scoring, mostly surrounding the fact that cards are each worth their face value unless you've collected more of that color than anyone else, at which point they are each worth only one point.

Parade is a nice little filler with a lot of luck but still some very real opportunities for tactical (and even a bit of strategic) play.  It's definitely more substantial than something like Escalation!, and probably close to the level of even No Thanks!   

Time: 20 and 33 minutes
Game 1: Me* 2, Michelle* 9, Keith* 13, Cristian* 20, David* 27, Kenny* 37
Game 2: Kenny 12, Chip* 15, Me 17, Keith 21, Alton* 28
Ratings: Kenny 7.5, Me 7, Michelle 7.5, Keith 8, Chip 7, Alton 6.5, Cristian ?, David 7

Cyclades [GeekDo]

We then shuffled up just a bit and four of us jumped into a game of our new Game of the Month!, Cyclades.  In the first few turns, Michelle claimed Poseidon and launched her ships to control a majority of the foreign trade spaces, accumulating a pretty incredible 6 income in the process.  I invaded a nearby island with Ares, and later used Poseidon and the Siren mythical beast to wrest control of a few of those spots and increase my own income to 7, which served me well for most of the game.

David quietly built up to three different buildings and three philosophers, but Michelle pulled out some major obviating to point this out the turn before he could have won.  Bids therefore went high, and Michelle even used the Satyr to steal one of those philosophers from him, just as she also invaded one of my islands that I had foolishly left open to attack. 

A few turns later, after I already had one Metropolis from four philosophers, I claimed Poseidon when all I needed was a port to win the game.  Unfortunately, I didn't realize that I didn't have an extra spot to build the darn thing, and my plans were put on hold at least until I could take another island to build on.

In the last few turns, things got a little stupid (as they often do) with people digging for and using mythical creatures.  Keith therefore managed to sweep in at the end using the Pegasus to fly 3 armies over to my island containing a Metropolis and some other buildings, captured it, and used those buildings to put together his second Metropolis for the win.  

Time: 77 minutes
Score: Keith* - Win; David, Michelle & Me - Lose
Ratings: Keith 8.5, David 9, Michelle 8.9, Me 7.5

This was a lot of fun, mostly because it seemed like everyone was in a position to win.  We all knew when someone was at the brink of victory, but also knew that stopping them could easily help someone else to get the win instead.  I've mentioned before some of my issues with Cyclades, but those things still don't diminish the game significantly enough for me to not enjoy it.  And if all my games of it this month are this entertaining, it'll be a great GotM!
  
Castle Ravenloft [GeekDo]

Keith and I were sort of then left out of a big Tribune game that was starting up, so I asked him if he had any interest in a game of Castle Ravenloft.  As we were setting up, James and Tommy wandered over and joined in as well. 

Wanting a bit more complexity in the scenario, I decided to move ahead and play the second multiplayer adventure, Klak's Artifact.  I let then choose their characters and which related pre-painted mini they would use, and explained the basics of the game to them.  I told them which powers were suggested for each, but they still made a few different choices.

As we started exploring the dungeon, I (being the Wizard) quickly found that I was ultimately ineffective.  I quickly took some damage and then hovered just above 0 hp for most of the game.  On two occasions, James' cleric healed a point of damage from me when I was at 0 to prevent me from using up a Healing Surge.  Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one taking some major damage in the process, and James had to use his one true healing spell on himself to get out of trouble as well.

We didn't run into too many traps, but did draw an environment card early that dealt a point of damage to us anytime that we ended our turn on the same tile as another hero.  We also pulled several of the more dangerous monsters, mostly while I tried to cower behind things and keep from getting killed.

In the end, we found Klak's laboratory and his evil artifact in a room immediately next to the entry stairwell!  In the "fiction", we had apparently made a wrong turn as we came in, but of course, in the game it was just random chance that we were exploring that area when the tile (inserted semi-randomly into the stack) came up.  In the process of fighting the kobold sorcerer and the extra monsters that he revealed, both James and I finally bought a farm and had to use up our two healing surges to survive.  Even once we killed Klak himself, it was still close as we had to fend off the surviving monsters while dealing enough damage to the artifact to destroy it.

We won, but it was incredibly close, with 2 or 3 of us having only 1 remaining hit point and no safety net to catch us if we fell again.      

Time: 84 minutes
Score: Heroes (James the Dwarf Cleric, Keith the Human Ranger, Tommy the Dragonborn Fighter & Me the Eladrin Wizard) - Win; Klak the Kobold Sorcerer and Castle Ravenloft - Lose
Ratings: James 6, Keith 7, Tommy 9, Me 7.5

This session gave me a lot more hope for Castle Ravenloft.  Between using a slightly more complex scenario, having the rules down pat, and seeing opportunities for the characters to work together in real cooperation, it was a lot of fun.  I don't need to go into a lot more detail now, but I definitely plan of giving this more play both alone and at game night.


It's a shame that Klak was the big bad guy in this scenario, because I'd have loved to face down the dreaded Count Graham in our final battle...  
Other Games Played

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
Time: 50 minutes
Score: Graham* 64, Chip* 54, Chris 51, Kenny* 45
Ratings: Graham 8, Chip 7.5, Chris 9, Kenny 8

Cyclades
Time: 67 minutes
Score: Graham - Win; Chris, Shawn & Matt - Lose
Ratings: Graham 7.5, Chris 8.5, Shawn 8, Matt 8

Kill the Overlord! (a prototype)
Time: 44 minutes
Score: Graham 42, Chris* 40+, Matt* 40, Alton* 39, Michelle* 36, David* 34, Shawn* 19
Ratings: Graham 6.5, Chris 6.5, Matt 7, Alton 7, Michelle 5, David 7, Shawn 7

Masons
Time: 40 minutes
Score: Kenny 110, Chip 102, Alton 97
Ratings: Kenny 8, Chip 8, Alton 8

Mix Up
Time: 3 and 7 minutes
Score: Chris - 2 wins, Shawn* - 0 wins
Ratings: Chris 7.5, Shawn 7

Ra
Time: 51 minutes
Score: Shawn 36, Chip 34, Graham 33, Chris 18, Alton 16 
Ratings: Shawn 9, Chip 9, Graham 7.5, Chris 8.5, Alton 10

Thurn and Taxis
Time: 60 minutes
Score: Alton 25, James* 13, Shawn 5, Tomy* 3
Ratings: Alton 9, James 8, Shawn 8, Tommy 8

Tribune (with the Brutii expansion)
Time: 56 minutes
Score: David* 4, Alton 3, Chip 3, Michelle* 1, Kenny 1
Ratings: David 9, Alton 9, Chip 9, Michelle 9, Kenny 9

* First play for that Person