I was delighted to learn
Race for the Galaxy and
Glory to Rome on Sunday afternoon; even if I was a little sleep deprived.
I had partied with games until midnight the night before then driving an hour home before some sleep and church....I made it to Fuddrucker's at 1pm to make sure a friend and Assistant Organizer felt at home there and met some people she will be seeing again. So I was a bit tired through the day since I sacrificed my Sunday afternoon nap.
I am not sure if my fatigue was apparent to the game facilitator who was teaching me and another guy Race for the Galaxy...either he thought I was tired, or just plain slow at learning new games when I have not had a preview. But he knows me pretty well, so I trust that he knew it was both.
Race for the Galaxy is a cool game. I suspected as much with the hype on Boardgamegeek.com. Rob, are you gonna buy an I-Phone, so that you can get the RFtG background? lol.
You can Develop technology, and you can end the game by building 12 things...so I did both. Some of the other nuances of the game escaped me, but I had a nice time, even if Rob had to re-explain each phase to me each turn. And I guess that Rob enjoyed it since he got to evangelize myself and another about one of his favorite games.
Speaking of evangelizing, I am still in love with Qwirkle, after what seems like two weeks of owning it. A month after playing it for the first time, I was still daydreaming about it; so, I bought it.
So after learning RFtG, I was about wiped out...so I was working on leaving. Two of the fluffy gamers from my group--well I can't call my Assistant Organizer fluffy anymore since she really like Puerto Rico-- but they were trying to find a game to play. And since I can teach Qwirkle pretty quickly and its about the complexity and weight they needed, I got them to play it. So I taught it too them and watched them for a couple of turns, when an old friend from the
Almost Inside the Loop games meetup showed up. And even though I told my group I had to leave, I decided to stay and play with my old friend since I had not seen her in ages, and she lives waaay up in Houston.
So after jockeying for a quick game to play, I mentioned that I wanted to learn Glory to Rome, and I was quite surprised to learn that Lewis had it. So he taught us, and I caught onto the mechanics, but I had to leave for another obligation before we finished. Glory to Rome certainly has an ingenious card design mechanics, where every card can be used for four or five things.
I was dragging a bit as a result of sleep deprivation, but I got to share a game that I love, and I got to watch a friend develop a crush on a
game so it was absolutely worth it.
5. Kingsburg, the only medium game I tried, really needs an expansion. Last night was my 5th game, and I basically confirmed that there's really only 3 possible solid winning strategies (church track, embassy track, and lots of dice mods to get the queen as much as possible [who gives you 3VP's each time]). The Dice Despot that I am, I still enjoy it, but last night was the first time I was bummed by this. 
It has been a long road, but I am proud to admit that I was able to turn my wife from a game-disliking (hating is such a strong word) person to a true gamer... although not as obsessive, compulsive, competitive, as me. Still, she is a gamer, and I love her even more for that. It took me about 3 yrs to get here, but the nay-sayers out there, it can be done. Today we played a game of Caylus Magna Carta (EXCELLENT as a 2 player game btw). She won... I admit I am not the best gamer in town, but I do admit to having been lax in my strategy while playing with her today. Every now and then she needs a victory to stay motivated and just plain interested in gaming. 
What was played? We started things off with a game of Last Night on Earth (JD's). It's basically a zombies vs human characters in a race to achieve certain goals by the end of a set number of rounds. The undead forces (Lewis and me) will rule the world if last night was any indication of what a zombie attack may end up looking like. To be fair, JD and his 4 human characters were painfully close to saving the 4 townsfolk they had to find and save (he had 3) before the zombies killed 2 of them or time ran out. For the Horde (any World of Warcraft players out there?)!!!
Then we moved on the dicey games starting with Airships....were players are racing to build zepellins....yeah! great theme! I tried this game last year at BGG con, and being a huge fan of dice/action activating games, I just had to get it. It joins other great dice games like To Court the King, and Kingsburg. JD and Lewis seemed to enjoy it. I like it a lot, but still prefer To Court the King a bit more because I thoroughly enjoy the more sophisticated 'dice manipulating' powers of To Court the King. Still, it is indeed a very enjoyable game. We even finished the Hindenburg (which from what I read only happens about 25% of the time).
