Sunday: Race for the Qwirkle of Rome

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.