Once again, here I am two weeks after a game night, trying to reconstruct what happened.  It was a really good game night, though, so maybe I can remember a few important details...

Hansa Teutonica [BGG]

In its last week as Game of the Month!, I wanted to test myself in a game of Hansa Teutonica against Sceadeau and Charles, who definitely have an edge over the rest of us in understanding the game.  Keith joined us as well, and things started off much like they always do, with people trying to advance their action track by filling the routes around Gottingen.  When my turn came, however, I decided to do something different, and started to claim the route containing the "remove 3 cubes" bonus marker. 

As the game developed, I got myself up to 4 actions (once most everyone else had moved on) and started to build a pretty good trade route.  I focused on picking up more bonus markers as well, and felt like I was doing pretty well.  Near the end of the game, I picked up a bonus marker that let me advance one of my tracks by a space, and I ended up using it to increase my privilege  (letting me get into more cities) so that I could build my network a little more.  In hindsight, that was probably a mistake, because I probably should have used it to advance on the "key" track (which multiplies the score for your largest network of kontors).

Mostly, the mistake was because I didn't realize that Sceadeau would be able to pull off all sorts of crazy action-filled shenanigans to collect all three bonus markers on the board and force the end of the game (since there were only 2 more to draw).  If I had just one more turn, however, I would have claimed the key bonus anyway and probably would have won, but as it happened, I had to settle on finishing second to our undisputed Hansa Teutonica champion. 

Time: 41 minutes
Score: Sceadeau 49, Me 38, Keith 24, Charles 21
Ratings: Sceadeau 10, Me 9, Keith 8, Charles 10

I don't really know what else to say about Hansa Teutonica, other than it's pretty darn great.  But even after a month or more of playing it, I still feel like I'm only scratching the surface.  I'm getting a decent handle on the basics of the game and starting to pick up more on some of the subtleties of the map, but things like pacing (obviously) still elude me.  I've upped my rating to a 9 as of now, which places it in my all-time top 10, and I hope that it continues to hit the table for a long time to come.    

Code 777 [BGG]

I had heard a lot of people talk about Code 777 for years, but never bothered to put together a homemade copy or anything like that.  I received the new Stronghold Games version for Christmas, and was excited to give it a try with some gamer friends as game night.  I explained the rules and got started, but then we had to restart after discovering that they had given me an additional 2 instead of one of the yellow 7's that I was supposed to have.  After a quick correction using a sharpie marker, we reshuffled the tiles and started over!

Just in case you don't know much about Code 777, it's a deduction game where you try to figure out which three tiles you have in front of you.  You can see everyone else's tiles, and on you turn you answer a random question (from a deck of cards) that will give the other players some information about what you see.  At any point, you can guess your tiles, after which you discard them and draw three more.  The first person to guess their tiles three times will be the winner.

In this game, I started off very well.  I powered through my first two sets of tiles, but then the game changed a little when we ran out of new tiles to draw.  Basically, you then shuffle up the discarded tiles and start drawing from them, which sounds fine except that it totally resets all of the information that you have been collecting up to that point.  So I was then at the mercy of information gained from the questions each turn, and for like 4 or 5 turns, I didn't find out anything that I didn't already know.  So instead, my nemesis Sceadeau managed once again to slide in and steal my victory away!    


Time: 41 minutes
Score: Sceadeau* 3, Me* 2, Adam* 1, Keith* 1, Charles* 0
Ratings: Sceadeau 8, Me 7.5, Adam 7.5, Keith 6, Charles 9

Code 777 is really good.  For what it is, a themeless, brain-burny deduction game, it is nearly perfect.  But it's also not something that I'd necessarily want to play all the time.  Other than the mis-sorted tile, I was impressed with Stronghold Games' production of it, even if the box wasn't able to stand up to my full body weight when I accidentally stepped on it while taking a picture (that, boys and girls, is why you should never put a game box on the floor... and why we can't have nice things).  It's also something that I think could easily make the transition to non-gamer people, as long as they are thinky non-gamer people, and I have a few in mind that I'd love to introduce it to.        


Escalation! [BGG]

Woo-hoo!  I thought I was going to win until I had a terrible last turn and let Alton slip past me.  Keith (pictured to the right), however, had several bad rouds and didn't do so well.

Time: 29 minutes (for 5 hands)
Score: Alton 38, Me 43, Charles* 46, Sceadeau 57, Keith 90 
Ratings: Alton 8, Me 7, Charles 7, Sceadeau 8, Keith 6

Goa [BGG]

Most of my Goa experience has been against Gwen in 2-player games, so I was really glad to get it back to the table at game night.  Sceadeau has been involved in the tournament scene for Goa at EuroQuest and WBC, so I had no illusions of winning or anything, but I still wanted to learn more about it and practice my rules teaching with Kenny and Charles, who were both new to the game.

I remembered talking to Sceadeau about it in my first play, and knew that he felt that card-drawing and spice harvesting were definitely the ways to go.  But I sort of wanted to play around with strategy a little bit more and try out some things that I had seen work in the 2-player game, so I went more for big money early on.  It looked to be decent for a while, and I pulled off a great auction round a time or two, but even with some nice plantations at my disposal, I couldn't keep up with the card-drawing engine that Sceadeau had put together.

By the end of the game, it wasn't even close, and even Kenny pulled past me in his very first play.   

Time: 98 minutes
Score: Sceadeau 56, Kenny* 38, Me 37, Charles* 31
Ratings: Sceadeau 10, Kenny 8, Me 9, Charles 7

I still had a great time, even though my experience against Gwen seems to have led me astray a bit in multiplayer games.  I definitely learned a lot more about the value of various things, and got to see how powerful (and possibly broken) Sceadeau's strategy really is.  He mentioned that Rüdiger Dorn was thinking of tweaking a few things on the development tracks in the supposed eventual reprint, and if anything, this experience only led me to look forward to that even more.

7 Wonders [BGG]

It was late, but the "Goa gang" decided to finish up with a quick game of the upcoming Game of the Month!, 7 Wonders.  We used my brand-spankin'-new copy that I also got for Christmas, but no one seemed to respect my property as they all proceeded to kick my tail.  With the exception of me, it was incredibly close, though! 

Time: 26 minutes
Score: Sceadeau 56, Charles 55, Kenny 54, Me 48
Ratings: ??

I don't know exactly what's up with me, but I just don't seem capable of putting together points in this game.  I figure I'll have lots of chances to play it, but I need to figure out something or I'll keep embarrassing myself!

Other Games Played

7 Wonders
Time: ??, 16 & 29 minutes
Game 1: Mark 67, Sceadeau 61, Charles 52
Game 2: Sceadeau 65, Charles 55, Chris 41, Mark 40
Game 3: Chris 55, Mark 48, Adam 43, Ken* 40, Joe* 33 
Ratings: Sceadeau 9, Chris 8.5, Mark 9, Charles 9, Adam 8.5, Ken 8, Joe ?

Gosu
Time: 90 minutes
Score: Chris - Win; Joe, Ken & Mark - Not Win
Ratings: Chris 7, Joe ?, Ken ?, Mark 7

Jump Gate
Time: 24 minutes
Score: Sceadeau* 34, Mark* 24, Adam* 23, Charles* 23, Chris 22
Ratings: Sceadeau 7, Mark 7, Adam 6, Charles 8, Chris 8

Race for the Galaxy
Time: 14 minutes
Score: Chris 64, Mark 39
Ratings: Chris 10, Mark 10

Thurn and Taxis (with Power and Glory)
Time: 25 and 45 minutes
Game 1: Alton 2, Mark 1 (is this right?)
Game 2: Alton 20, Mark 13 
Ratings: Alton 9, Mark 8.5

Toledo
Time: 40 minutes
Score: Adam 17, Sceadeau* 15, Ken 12, Charles 8
Ratings: Adam 7.5, Sceadeau 4, Ken 7, Charles 5

* First play for that Person