Gaming last night... Agricola makes a come back...

Ignoring our patriotic duty to watch the debates once again, JD, Andy, Lewis and I met at my place to play some games.

Andy, JD, and I first played a game of Notre Dame. We had fun fighting each other to have the best 'developed' borough in Renaissance Paris. This one is in my personal top 10. The game is short (<1hr), but shock-full of painful but interesting decisions for such a short game. It combines some interesting, and not overused mechanics like card-drafting. It has something like worker placement, where you place a marker on a spot on the board, and it triggers an effect which we've seen before (Agricola would be the latest game sporting this mechanic). The twist lies in that the benefit gaines from said spot on the board is multiplied by the number of markers you already had on that spot. Sweet. At the same time you are allocating resources to prevent the rats from infesting (lose 2 VP's and a marker from the board) your burough (like the beggar card in Agricola, this is terrible, but not necessarily game-breaking).

Then we played Zooloretto when Lewis arrived. It was all the game is meant to be... fun, light. We used the 'disaster tile' expansion which makes the game too nasty for this kind of game, but it was still fun.

Then we pulled out Agricola. We played with the Interactive deck. That deck has some intersting cards. I squeeked a victory (although Lewis is doubting my math) with some interesting card combos.

Last but not least, we played San Juan. I think I can conclude that Race for the Galaxy, its close cousin, has jaded me. I can't play San Juan anymore. I'm terrible at it, because I'm trying to play it like Race for the Galaxy.... by giving priority to things that don't apply in San Juan. Oh well...

When Lewis left, JD and I played a quick game of Voltage. It's an interesting quick 2 player card game that combines 2 other quick and interesting 2 player card games (Lost Cities, Balloon Cup).

'til next time...