Since Mark was away at band camp in Boston Mass. this week. I volunteered to host a game night for the masses. It's been a while since I hosted. I may have to do it more often. Maybe a monthly event.

We had a pretty good turnout too. Present was:

Me
Susan
Ed
Jon
John
Joe



Ed and Susan brought a new game Uptown that I haven't seen before. The game play is straight forward tile placement game. The game really comes down to the tie breaker of who took the least amount of tiles. Of course I had the largest amount(bad). So I spent the last few rounds taunting the other players to TAKE A TILE! Of course this didn't work so well. It's a quick game, and fun. A good starter for the night.



The next game I played with Susan and Joe was Himalaya. I've actually been wanting to play this tilsit title for some time now, but just never came to the table. So thanks to Susan for bringing it. The game plays a little between RoboRally and score like Samurai. The trick of the game is to try and NOT do the same moves as other players. And if you do be first! Of course simultaneous programming of your movements, you can never tell where you will fall on the board. Susan took a demanding Yak lead(First goose thief, no Yak hoarder!) And that was enough to give her a win in two areas. It's a total Knizia scoring with Majorities in TWO victory conditions. The rules show that for 4 players, it becomes a way more vicious game. Overall not bad.

Then Joe Jon and I pulled out Formidable Foes. Here is a sleeper that really fell off the radar last year. I think it got a bad rap, as people thought it was going to be a dungeon crawl, but it wasn't. What is was was a fun little romp. I think it got the same stigma that Tempus got with the "This isn't a Civ Lite" crowd. I guess the theme mechanic tie-in is an important aspect to game design, and one that hurt FF. That's too bad, because we had a hoot playing it!

As Ed, Susan and John were wrapping up a game of Phoenicia on the other table, we had time for one more quick card game of Fairy Tale. I love this card drafting game, plays quick and dirty. It's a game you should play a few times to watch what your opponents are doing, as it plays way better with player hosage. This was Joe's first time playing, but it looked like he enjoyed it. I think we ended up tying at the end. I really should pull this one out more for the night enders.

Overall a great week! We got a lot of different games to the table, and I hope to do it again soon.