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My usual gaming gathering on Fridays was a no-go this week, so I RSVPed that I’d be at the FCBG meetup. It was great to see a bunch of people I really don’t get to see that much of, plus some new faces.

Fairfield County Board Games

Matt Loter and Steve Wood were playing Memoir 44, and had out some kind of airplane expansion that looked pretty cool. Matt was also involved in a game of Blackbeard when I left, which is a game I’m definitely interested in playing from what I’ve heard of it. Don had his blimp game out, and another group was playing Hamsterrolle (a fun looking dexterity game).

When I walked in with this guy Ed, Ricardo and Greg were both idling. We looked over some games, and chose Glory to Rome. Ricardo had played before, but Ed and Greg had no so I taught the game. Ricardo was to my left, Greg to my right, and Ed opposite me. The first client I pulled in was a Merchant; the second a Craftsman.

I built a Storeroom first off, allowing my clients to act as Laborers. I gathered another Merchant client, added the +2 clientele and +2 vault cards. I don’t recall what my other card was, but I had a max of 11 cards in my vault at game end. I filled it, and ended the game with the Catacombs for 47 points.

After that, they were going to pull out Ninja Burger, and I was inclined to stay, but it was already 10 so I went home rather than be super tired. I’d already had a couple of cocktails prior to heading over there, so I didn’t want to push it.

Saturday

I don’t quite recall how I spent Saturday. I got some laundry and dishes done. Ah, yes. I did laundry and dishes, finished the first season of Dexter on Netflix, and borrowed my neighbor’s lawn mower to mow my much overgrown lawn. I did mow it. I got a call from Luz; she wanted to organize a game day at her condo. Paul and Ethan were down, and she invited her friend JC. We started at 5.

While we were waiting for JC to arrive, we played a couple games of The Bottle Imp. Then some Tichu. Since Paul had taught Ethan (who is 9 or 10) Glory to Rome and recently played a 2p game of it with him, they were itching to play another with more. I was happy to oblige.

This was another one that I taught – JC had never played before. I believe this was her first real heavyweight game (she’d played Sticheln with us before).

I got another early Merchant this game, and a couple of Craftsman. I had the “Use anything to build a stone building” card, the stone “All of your role cards go into your Stockpile” Sewer card, the Vomitorium (which I used to win the game, though I didn’t necessarily need to), the +2 hand size Shrine card, the Circus (doubles instead of triples to petition, an excellent synergy with the Shrine and Sewer).

My real competition this game was Paul. He was going for a Forum win, and I made sure I let everyone know it. I had the most points on the table due to opportunistic Merchanting and a superior build strategy, and Paul as shy two Clients: the Laborer and the Merchant. This kind of put a damper on my Vomitorium, as I knew as soon as I barfed my hand into the pool he’d just Patron and pick up what he needed, and win the game with the next Architect action (he had marble in his Stockpile). Paul was also nicely situated to use the Legionary, with both the Bridge (reach everyone, steal from opponents stockpile as well) and the Colosseum (also steal their clients!).

Well, Ethan had built the Prison. The last time he’d played with his dad, he’d prevented a forum win by stealing an already completed Forum. Paul wasn’t going to make that mistake again, and so he wasn’t going to complete the forum until he had all of his clients lined up. So I suggested to Ethan that he build it and take Paul’s Colloseum, but now that I think on it I don’t believe Ethan had the bridge to reach Paul anyway (Ethan was to my right, Paul to my left).

Well, I was growing frantic trying to prevent Paul’s forum win. And then I drew the Catacombs, and let him know in no uncertain terms that he was going down. I had 2 Craftsman clients, a 7 card hand, and the ability to start Craftsman. Luz started Craftsman, however, and when my turn came around I was shocked and dismayed to find that the last out of town site for stone was taken!! JC had started some stone structure. That totally botched up all my plans. The game would have to continue at least one more round. So I took all the sites I could and started some buildings in my hand; another one of the end game conditions is that all of the sites are used up (regardless of whether the buildings are actually built or not). When my turn game around 2 rounds later, there were less than 7 cards in the draw deck. So rather than start a Craftsman action, I used my Vomitorium to rid myself of my entire hand and then drag all the cards in, ending the game.

I believe I finished with 38 points or so. Paul was in the 20s; I believe the rest were in the teens.

It was a great game, especially near the end. Paul and I had some serious contention going on.

After that, Luz’s son Alex wanted to join us for a game, so we played some For Sale, and then a few rounds of Wizard. He wasn’t in for a longer game, and so didn’t join us for the meat of the night: Power Grid.

Early on in the game I made a land grab using some cheap connections in Luz’s territory, and she retributive did the same to me. It was probably wise, because the connections in the SE are cheaper than going midwest (where Paul was), and JC was mid-south and migrating into both my and Luz’s territories. I was able to gain the southmost Floridian 10 because of it.

Near the end of the game I was in contention for the win. Luz and I bid up the first 6 to like 100, and I won it. It was garbage, and nobody else was using that resource. Luz eventually got in on the garbage trade as well. Both she and Paul had a number of 4 city plants; Paul was primarily nuclear, and Luz was primarily hybrid/oil. My second 6 was an oil or coal (I forget, I think oil), and my final 7 was another garbage that I got for a song (I bid Luz up to 45 on it, she went 46 (the 46 was already out; another 7), I went to 47 and she let me have it (like I thought she would). The good thing for me was that I’d declined to use my garbage plant the previous round because I wanted to use the resources on this 7 plant.

That was a dumb move, btw. I would have gotten another 30 electros for providing energy with it, and the resource cost would have been only about 15, so I saw a comparative net loss of 15, plus I bound myself to that one plant. I should have just used my resources.

In the end, I could supply 19, and the most anyone else could supply was 17 (Ethan, I believe). I got myself from 14 to 18 for a cost of ~130.

There was definitely a high tension between myself and Luz for bidding. I came out with all the big guns in the game though, and that’s what counts at the end. If you’re buying the 4s, then you absolutely need to upgrade them or you can only supply less than 15 cities at the end. Both Ethan and JC were my competition in the end-game. Neither had the max capacity I had though. And I’d been hoarding cash for a few rounds. I had 250 when I spent 100 on the 6er.

It was a good game. I’m kind of ambivalent about replacing the paper money with poker chips. Paper is pretty easy to hold in the hand and hide. I don’t think that chips would be all that much worse. I need to bag some up for the game (the box has room).

It was like 1am, so we called it a night.

Sunday

Sunday I went to church at 10, then hiking from 1 to 2. It felt like it was starting to rain, but it never materialized in full. I hiked Mt. Lamentation at Guifrida park, going up a way I’d never gone before. I found a covered bench in the woods along the trail that kids smoke out at (according to the graffiti inside). I went directly up on a red wooden-blazed trail, which was much less traveled than the main one. I eventually went directly through the woods to the blue trail in search of the vistas. I found one and sat at it for a while, looking over the land and thinking.

I felt some light rain, just a hint, a single drop, and it was enough to spur me into action. I ran the trail, using my poles creatively, and skipped on the way down. It was fun to play on the rocks and jump and twirl on the trail like that. Oddly enough, I didn’t see anyone else on those trails during my hike.

On the way home I picked up some Boston Market for lunch: 5oz turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and creamed spinach. When I got home, I ate while watching the movie His Girl Friday on Netflix. I’d put a number of B&W highly rated flicks in my Instant Queue. I was watching that when I fell asleep.

I didn’t wake up until like 9pm. Whoops! I finished reading the rulebook to Taj Mahal (which I’m pretty psyched about playing, it sounds like totally my kind of game), watched the most recent episode of Lost in HD online, and then watched a great show on William Tyndale on Netflix called God’s Outlaw: The Story of William Tyndale.

I definitely felt an affinity with Tyndale. He was totally into an uncompromised life and would plainly speak the truth, regardless.

So get this: at the time, people were getting burned and killed for heresy by the Catholic church for knowing the “Lord’s Prayer” in English. Tyndale was a scholar, and saw that their practices were contrary to scripture. He tried to get a sanction from the most likely of the Catholic local-power guys to translate the bible into plain English, and got rebuffed. So he went to Germany, did his translations there, and packed them back to England.

He was like public enemy number one at the time. Those guys wanted him bad. The king wanted him alive as a councilor, the church wanted him dead for “heresy” (giving the word of God to the people in their own tongue, so they need not rely on the “church” for revelation of the truth), and he was on the lamb all the time.

Eventually betrayed by a false brother, whom he regarded with charity, Tyndale was burned alive. His dying prayer was that the king would have a change of heart, and later in his life he did just that.

It was really a great story. I wish I knew more people like Tyndale. It wasn’t simply the good that he did or the opposition that he faced, but rather than man that he was that endears him to me. A man after God’s own heart. Gentle, and unrelenting.

This is the kind of Christian vigilantism that is justified. Though the question remains as to how it is different from the abortion bombers. The answer to that, I think, is violence. David was gentle and unrelenting, and he was fed to the lions; Tyndale to the fire.