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Friday night after work I got together w/ the normal crew (sans Melissa, who was at Girl Scouts with Unique) and played some Glory to Rome. When Melissa got back we played a couple rounds of True Colors. This was the first time any of them had played and everyone enjoyed it (though I ditched a few of the more risque cards.

True Colors is a party game in the truest sense of the word, since you don’t play the game to win. The strategy of guessing what your opponents will do and you will attempt to counteract them doesn’t fit with a game like this, since that would corrupt the process. Honest play is the best. You shouldn’t “game the game”. I explained this, and then later in the game they accused me(!) of gaming the system. The audacity of it all.

Saturday: Hike & Games

We ended the games at around 10pm, so I was awake bright and early the next morning. I’d planned a hike at Mount Higby for 10:30am, and we had a beautiful day for it. Accompanied by 4 other intrepid adventurers, we braved the heights all the way to the terminus above the exit 19 rest stop on 91-N. Round trip the whole thing was 3 hours, so I was back by 1:45. I went home, gathered together a couple of my games, and headed to the board games event that Mark Casiglio had organized down in Stratford.

There were probably 40ish people there, with games all set up on 7 – 9 different tables. When I showed up around 3pm, everyone was playing, so I started watching Mark Delano, Keith Orbo, Lisa, Charlie, and someone else (maybe Star or Dustin?) playing In The Year Of The Dragon.

Charlie had brought his new Dreamblade stuff with him, so he was wanting to get a game in. I happily obliged once ITYOTD finished (Charlie won). And Charlie won again in Dreamblade, triumphing over my forces 6 to 3. I played a Valor and Passion combo, as did Charlie. He made good use of his Lunar Handmaiden and Brighthammer Avenger.

After that, I got together with Patrick, Mat Daigle, and Alan Stern for a friendly game of No Thanks!, which I won with 21 points (and with only a single chit in my hand at the end of the game – phew!). We then went on to play a few rounds of Flaschenteufel (or “The Bottle Imp”), which is definitely going into my collection at some point in time. This was an excellent trick taking game with good screwage and strategy involved. Pat seemed to put a good strategy together by the end of the game. I came in second, I think. His last hand was like for 50 points though, so he scored 100+ whereas I had only in the 70s (iirc, after 4 games).

We then busted out with Key Harvest at Patrick’s pleading. He’d won it at ConnCon here in Stamford a month(?) ago, and wanted to give it a go. It took us a while to get up to speed as far as the setup went, but after that it went pretty smooth. I like the game; it’s fairly complex. It has an Age of Steamish feel to it, insofar as you feel overwhelmed by information. Not for the AP prone! I came in third of 4 people; I have an excuse for this one though – I was teaching a bunch of ladies how to play For Sale.

They’d walked in and were asking for Mark Casiglio, because they were pretty much clueless. They didn’t know any of the games (as I was teaching them the game, the word “Candyland” actually escaped one of their lips! I’m surprised she didn’t spontaneously combust.), so I selected one for them and proceeded to give them the quick and dirty of the rules. Even so, they were still clearly confused, so I guided them through a hand and started them with a second while the other guys were taking their turns in Key Harvest.

Mark got back and thanked me profusely for coming to their assistance, since he was expecting them and was planning on taking them under his wing himself. The second game I set them up with, since they wanted to try something “a step up” from For Sale, was Coloretto. As I had made the selection and was beginning to get the cards out, Mark popped over and said he’d take over, which I was not averse to since I was still in the midst of Key Harvest.

After KH, Patrick and Alan begged off and Luz, Mat, Ben and I played Tichu. Ben had never played Tichu before, so I gave him a rundown of the rules. Mat had played a lot, and filled in a couple of things I neglected to mention. It was Mat and I vs Luz and Ben, and we pretty much crushed them. 2 double wins, followed by a blind Tichu call that we missed when Luz went out.

Now in the midst of one of my games, this guy Chris had stopped by and asked me if I’d brought Glory to Rome with me. He wanted to play. So the games of Tichu were kind of a “filler” while his 7 player game of Citadels was winding down. Luz, Ben, Chris, this one other guy and I started up GTR. I taught the game to the newcomers (the new guy primarily, though Chris had played the first edition and needed to be informed of the rule changes between the editions) and we started it up.

I put out the Villa early on, because I could complete it with a single material and that would give me a decent influence edge in the early game. I had a pretty sick combo with the Atrium and Aqueduct, however. Check this: The Aqueduct doubles your max clientele and allows you to take a client from your hand in addition to the client you take from the pool. So I’d ramped up my influence to like 9 — Initial(2) + Villa(3) + Aqueduct(2) + Atrium(2). I had a Merchant client and a Patron client, so when I lead the Patron, I took 2 Merchants from my hand (Aqueduct), two other cards from the pool. I now had 3 Merchant clients. The next round, I lead a Merchant and just took 4 cards from the top of the draw deck (Atrium) and put them in my Vault. That was between 4 and 12VP, plus any majorities I could have gotten. Well, Chris saw that and he busted out with the Catacombs, because he saw where that was going (with 9 influence, I could have – and would have – done it again next round). The Catacombs are a kill switch for the game; the game just ends when it’s completed (he played and completed it in a single turn), and we score up. I had 30 points, FTW. I think I had 3 of the vault 6 majorities just from the random draw I got from the deck (and that’s 9 points!).

GTR was the final game of the night. Chris and I took the table we’d been playing on, broke it down, and stacked it in the pile, along with the folding up the chairs as well. It was a little after midnight.

Sunday: Church, Hike, & Birthday Party

On Sunday I went to the 9am service at church, and after that I went up Mt Chauncey with my bible. I had my backpack in the car w/ water in it from Saturday’s hike. I went up the steep, direct route. Barefoot. I took some pictures on the top and read the third chapter of Galatians. I put on my tevas for the hike downhill, though.

After that, I got some cat food for Simon (since he was out) and some other foodstuffs for the house at BJs. I wanted to fill my car up there, but the lines were too long. I went home for a nap and a movie, then I went over to John & Melissa’s place for the birthday party they’d organized for their sons. I brought along the gifts I’d prepared: Bobbin’ Bumblebee for Thomas, and a new soccer ball for Jacob.

I spent much of my time there talking with Jason Belcourt. We spoke primarily about predestination and Christian counsel. He’s going to school for a degree in counseling, and planning on using it in a Christian context primarily, though he’s hoping to set up a practice as an end game. He runs a very real danger of giving people advice based on what this American culture thinks is best, or what Jason thinks is best, rather than what God thinks is best. I mean, how can you know God’s position on an issue, and then go and give advice to the contrary? It’s insane.