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I got together with Paul and Luz last night at Paul’s place for some gaming. I’d brought along Taj Mahal (since I haven’t played it yet), and we ended up playing that.

I’d read the rules, but I basically went through the rulebook with them, expanding on points where I could to get appropriate context. Paul basically understood what was going on, but Luz was kind of lost (and Paul was a little lost), but after a couple of rounds they had it.

One of the mistakes that I’d made was counting the Princess on the +2 special card as a Princess when she’s played. It didn’t matter because I was tied with Luz for it when I withdrew on the first turn, and once we saw that she had the oval backing on the image (and none of the other characters did on the normal cards) we decided that she didn’t count after all. The rulebook does state that the special cards give special abilities, but they don’t state that they don’t count the lower figure (as the normal cards lower figures are counted).

I’ve played Santiago three times thus far.

Rules

The game is fairly simple mechanically: you have an empty tile-based board, and you bid for tiles which you must place. You have control markers on the tiles, but these markers will go away unless the tiles are adjacent to a stick, which may be placed in between the tiles on the board. The person who bid the least for choice of tile gets to decide where the stick is placed each round (and the stick must be placed). The other players offer up victory points as bribes to the person who bid the least so that their tiles don’t lose control markers at the end of the round. After 11 (or 9 in a 5 player game) rounds, the game ends and you score up.

Each tile has two attributes: the number of control markers it’s owner gets to put on it when it is placed, and the color (ie “crop”). Both of these attributes are important.

End game scoring is as follows: each orthogonally contiguous area is scored in turn. A player receives a number of victory points equal to the number of tiles in that area multiplied by the number of control markers they have in total in that area. So if I have 7 markers on an area that has 9 tiles, I get 64 victory points. If I have 4 control markers on an area that is 3 tiles large, I get 12.

Excellent weekend! I thought it was going to be dreary all weekend long, and I stayed out late on Friday playing board games with John, Melissa, and Paul. John and Paul and I played Khronos (wherein I taught them how to play by soundly winning), Mhing (which was enjoyed by all), and Santiago (which was a hit, though I got crushed!). I didn’t wake up until 9ish on Saturday, and around noon I realised that it was really nice outside, contrary to expectations.

Hiking West Peak

I’d missed out on the AT hike Kevin & co were doing (since I’ve needed to have left around 7am to make the trailhead), so I went to my trusty West Peak around 1:30. I used my small Mountainsmith lumbar pack and Go-lite jacket (which soon found itself strapped to my pack, since it was so “hot” out), and the Marmot shoes I’d picked up over winter to deal with the rain and snow.

There’s this side trail off the main trailhead (the one that branches on to the road up the mountain) that goes steep up the cliff, and that’s the one I took. After a couple of rests going up the bluff, I found myself at the pavilion. There was a turned over, full sized propane grill inside of it (sans tank). I was pretty tired, and the sun was bright and the day was pleasant, so I just laid down on the rough mulch that’s been spread in that area and took a rest.

I know, you’re sitting there, pondering the following question:

“What should I get Adam for Christmas?”

Well, I would hate to keep you in the dark. You see, my obsessions are very focused.

I am a board game freak.

I got together with John, Melissa, Don, and Paul on Friday and Saturday nights. My co-worker Charlie was having a BBQ I'd already committed to going to (which was a good time), so after I jetted out of there a little early, I went home and picked up some games. I think I brought along I'm the Boss and Fist of Dragonstones, but we played neither. Instead, Niagara (w/ the Spirits of Niagara expansion) and Manila found their way to the table.

We didn't start until 8:30ish, and I had to lead a hike the next morning, so I think we finished around 10pm. But we planned on getting together the next day for a late lunch/early dinner. I got home from the hike around 1:20 or so, and mowed my lawn, and when that was done I headed over to John's with a Basket O' Games.

Shadows Over Camelot

I wasn't planning on gaming in Norwalk on Friday night, but traffic was so horrific that I ended up hitting the Norwalk exit at like 6:30ish, and so I decided to stop in and just game rather than sit in traffic. There were a large number of people there, and while some were just hanging out, others were involved in a game of Tsuro. I walked in barefooted and bearing no games, but there was a large array set out. Amongst them was Shadows Over Camelot, a cooperative game I'd heard good things about. It was supposed to be like rummy, but was a board game with miniatures.

Ricardo was the only one who'd played the game before (once) and that was a while back. He remembered some parts about it, but I had the rule book and so I just started reading the setup instructions. The board is very well produced (it reminds me of Battlelore), and includes a number of secondary boards as well.

The object of the game is to fill up the round table with white swords, and to have a majority of swords at the end of the game. Each player (from 3–7 players – we had 7) is given a character sheet, which provides a turn summary and the special ability of the character. He's also given a loyalty card. All but one of the cards say “LOYAL”, and one says “TRAITOR”.

Well, I had a good visit with Audrial this Labor Day weekend. She flew in on Friday afternoon, and we went to Fratellos in Manchester, NH for dinner with my parents and brother. I wasn't particularly hungry (since I'd eaten some Chinese near the airport, which was actually better than I was expecting), I ordered the “Italian Pie”, with a view that I could always take it home and reheat it. Audrial had some staple linguine and huge meatballs.

Over the weekend we played a lot of board games, and I played outside with Audrial a fair bit. Here are some pictures.