Despite getting to game night a little bit earlier than I do sometimes, I had just missed the start of several games and had nothing much to do for a while (I actually started my first game around 9pm).  I used the time to complete a trade for money (also known as a sale, I suppose) of my copy of The Lord of the Rings (the coop game) and then turned that money around to buy Nightfall.  As it turned out, that actually became the first game I played in the evening as well...

Nightfall [BGG]

I had read the rules through once online and then skimmed them one other time, so I was pretty miserable at teaching the game to Shawn and Sceadeau.  Still, though, I think that we pretty much played it correctly, if not also very slowly and poorly. 

In addition to dealing as much damage as I could, I also used a few cards to remove wounds from my deck (one was the starting character that lets you exile any card from your discard pile and then a minion that lets you specifically exile a wound).  As with most deck-building games, there's not a lot to say about how it actually played out.  I do remember that I attacked a mostly-defenseless Shawn on the last turn to make him not win, but then still came up one wound too many to tie Sceadeau.


Time: 53 minutes
Score: Sceadeau* 7, Norton* 8, Shawn* 11
Ratings: Sceadeau ?, Norton 7, Shawn ?

I really want to like Nightfall.  This particular play was a little hard to take anything away from, though, both because it was a learning game and because I was so scattered with the rules.  It seemed awful fiddly during play and took a little longer than I would have liked, but in both ways seems to be pretty comparable to Dominion in retrospect.  The draft for personal archives and the first collective archives is a cool touch which doesn't slow things down too much, and the rest of the card manipulation and shuffling is basically endemic to the deckbuilding style of games.  I would also expect that play time would drop dramatically both with rules mastery and greater familiarity with the cards themselves.

The only significant nagging issue that I have with the game is that it's really hard to know who is "winning".  People take wound cards when they are damaged, but there's no outward sign of how many wound cards they've taken.  If you really want to know, I guess you could keep track of it mentally, but I can't say that I'm really looking for a memory element in my deckbuilding games.  But at the same time, writing it down or tracking it publically (on dice, for example) seems sort of like cheating.  I don't know, though, because maybe once I don't have to work so hard at figuring out what I'm doing, I'll be able to have a better idea of who has taken the most damage.

I'm definitely looking forward to playing Nightfall more, though, and especially want to try it with different numbers of players.

Tier auf Tier [BGG]

I pulled out Tier auf Tier (a.k.a. Animal Upon Animal) as a quick filler and actually managed to win.  Here's a picture or two.  Oh, and I can't wait to get my hands on the new Balancing Bridge sequel to Tier auf Tier, mostly to have more types of animals for this original game!

Time: 5 minutes
Score: Norton - Win, Sceadeau* & Shawn - Lose
Ratings: Norton 8


Chronicle [BGG]

Still in need of a filler, Keith joined us for a game of Chronicle.  It was his first time, though, and he didn't do so hot.  But I just love this little trick-taking game, and would play it almost anytime!

Time: 39 minutes
Score: Sceadeau 5, Norton 3, Shawn 3, Keith* 1
Ratings: Sceadeau 7, Norton 8, Shawn 8, Keith 7


Puerto Rico [BGG]

To finish the night, I finally managed to get in another game of Puerto Rico, our outgoing Game of the Month!  As he had already done once in the night, Sceadeau chose to play advisor to a new player (and the rest of us, for that matter) rather than play in the game himself.  His help was so valuable, in fact, that the new player (Keith in this game and Shawn in the other) managed to win both plays! 

For the first time that I can remember, though, I employed a shipping strategy using the Harbor and lots of variety in my goods to score lots of points.  Since I also had three corn, I picked up the Wharf as well, but then was poor enough for the rest of the game that I never picked up a VP-generating building.  Chances are, if I had made a different choice there, I would have been able to pull out the win... probably.


Of course, on the last turn I also blocked Kenny in the Captain phase since I thought he was winning (based on the fact that he was filling up his city spaces and triggering the end of the game), but if I had blocked Keith instead, that also may have at least made the game a little closer than it already was.

Time: 79 minutes
Score: Keith* 54, Norton 51, Kenny 42
Ratings: Keith 8, Norton 9, Kenny 8


Okay, it shall be official.  Puerto Rico is now one of my favorite games.  I feel very secure in the 9/10 rating I'm currently giving it, which therefore means that it would be in my overall top 10 as well.  All previous biases aside (which actually made me want to dislike PR), I just can't get away from how interactive and fluid every play of it seems to be.  I had heard a lot about how a weak player can give the game to the person to their left (which is way overblown, by the way), but what impressed the heck out of me is how almost anyone in the game can screw with anyone else based on which role they chose at any particular time.  And at the same time, there are countless variations of strategy available even within the relatively limited scoring opportunities.  

I don't know if I'll summon the courage to write a formal review (because, in the big scheme of things, I'm still a newbie with it), but I certainly hope to play it a lot in the future.  By the way, anyone out there up for a game? 

Other Games Played

7 Wonders
Time: 17 minutes
Score: Chris 51, Sceadeau 45, Stacey 43
Ratings: Chris 9

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer
Time: ?? and 52 minutes
Game 1: Shawn 72, Matt 44, Brad 43
Game 2: Stacey* 76, Chris 52, Keith 52
Ratings: Shawn 10, Matt 10, Brad 9, Stacey ?, Chris 10, Keith 8

London
Time: 61 and 100 minutes
Game 1: Sceadeau* 111, Tom* 30
Game 2: Stacey* 40, Tom 37, Ken 32, Chip* 31
Ratings: Sceadeau 8.5, Stacey 8, Tom 8.5, Ken 8, Chip 8

Neuroshima Hex
Time: 38 minutes
Score: Chris* 13, Keith* 1
Ratings: Chris 6.5, Keith 7

Parade
Time: 19 minutes
Score: Keith 14, Chris 16, Stacey* 24, Jessica* 33
Ratings: Keith 7, Chris 7, Stacey & Jessica ?

Pastiche
Time: 45 minutes
Score: Brad* 41, Matt* 26, Shawn 24
Ratings: Brad 9, Matt 7, Shawn 9

Puerto Rico
Time: 60 minutes
Score: Shawn* 45, Kenny 40, Tom 37
Ratings: Shawn 7, Kenny 9, Tom 9

Race for the Galaxy
Time: 39 minutes
Score: Chris 34, Jessica* 22, Stacey* 17
Ratings: Chris 10


* First play for that Person