October 29, 2008

Participants: Jon, Gili, Nadine, David K

A quiet game night.

Carcassonne: the City

Nadine 133, Gili 111, Jon 89

I used to have Hunters and Gatherers, but I gave it away as no one was playing it; I thought maybe this new version could spark a renewed interest.

Gili was ok with trying it, while Nadine was much more guarded, claiming that Carcassonne is exactly the sort of game that she's bad at. Both of them took a very long time on each of their turns, seeming to forget from round to round how the scoring or tile placement mechanisms worked. I grew a little bored.

Despite this, I lost by a large margin. My mistake: I tried to save my towers for larger scoring opportunities, but the game ended before I could use them. The same with my meeples. In other words, the game ended before I could utilize all my resources.

I'm still less than thrilled with not having to match tile color areas, like you have to in H&G. In contrast, I like how a less than useful tile can at least be added to boost one of your wall meeples. There were a couple of rule questions; I'll head over to the Geek to check them out.

In the end, I liked the game, but I wish my opponents would have played faster. And I don't think either of them really liked it. I hope to have the opportunity to play it with others.

Power Grid

David 19, Jon 18, Nadine 17

Three experiences players, we played on the northern areas of the Benelux board. Despite a mistake or two, we all ended up close to each other near the end of the game. Nadine and I survived only by buying out the fuel and plants David needed to end the game two rounds in a row.

The game manipulations we needed to use to extend the game were antithetical to the game's theme, and, while amusing, were also somewhat annoying. I began to feel that the game is basically silly.

Other things that annoyed me, this time: that you have to keep calculating connection costs. The game would play similarly, but quicker, if all connections were a multiple of 5: 0, 5, 10, 15, or 20. And the auctions, as well.

Final game scores were nearly entirely due to the luck of the timing.