Games played since last missive:
Dark Tower, Through the Desert, Risk, Get Out!, Liars Dice, Wiz War, Family
Business, 99

Omission: Steve and Suzanne were at the clothing optional game night.
People told me I may have omitted that.

Dark Tower? The game with that battery operated tower? Yup. Ed and
Pritch and Phil and I played a game of this classic on "easy" mode.
Nostalgic more than anything, but not a bad game. The tower held up the
whole game too. Want to buy a copy of Dark Tower? Well, hope you find it
at a garage sale, because collectors pay $100 for a working tower.

Through the Desert (Camel Game). Phil KILLED us. I mean, gez, it was
like he had an extra turn at the end of the game. a 20 point victory.
Truly impressive planning.

Risk (played with the "Dominion" cards available through Bolder games).
Fun, you get a SET number of armies for a set of cards instead of the ever
increasing number in regular risk. Also, the cards have options. You can
use them for a set OR you can take the specified action on the card and
discard it. They are GOOD options. Sandy wiped out 80% of my forces in
turn two through a nuclear type strike. I never recovered. The game
lasted until 3am when Jeanette (Why is everyone attacking me?) and Tom were
neck and neck. Jeanette conceded when Tom got further reinforcements.
She would have given him quite a run had it been 3 hours earlier in the
evening.

Pete and Michelle had heard the premise of Get Out! by Cheapass Games, and
wanted to play. The object? Get enough money to get and apartment and
move out of your parents basement. The first time we played this, the game
went on WAY to long. I modified the rules so that instead of having to
hold your success for 4 complete "years", that simply moving out was
victory. This worked much better, and the game lasted a normal amount of
time. The game was silly fun, but far from great.

We played a single game of Liars Dice (is that possible?) just to show
Jeanette how to play. She considered it "confusing". She then went to
sleep on the couch.

We split into two game then, with Pete and Tom and I playing "Wiz War". I
always liked this game, and I'm glad to report that the guys thought it was
alright.

The three of us then went on to "Family Business". This time, however,
there was lots of color with stories and explicit storylines behind the
contracts. Ma Barker eventually went down (after 3 escapes!) and left the
other two gangs in a final shoot out. In the end, Joe Bananas was left
holding the victory. But at what cost... at what cost?

The girls finished up the night with 99. Take a deck of cards, and try to
get rid of your cards by piling them on a stack which can not total over
99. Simply fun. Jen cheered at the end, so I assume she won. Her sister
was here too, but I have no email address for her.

Anyways, that gets you all caught up. I still want to play Union Pacific
again, and I am trying to find a copy of Citadels, which is very popular
right now.

See you all next week.

Last Saturday it was the Mansons, Ed, and us. Well, the kids had fun until
about 9:30, we chatted until ten, then broke out Wizards again. I knew
Neal's impatience with complex rules, so this card game was perfect. Two
rules (assuming you know how to play any other trick playing game). A
normal deck has two "suitless" card types added (4 each). The wizard
(higher than an ace) and a Jester (lower than a two). Second, you have to
predict the number of tricks you'll take, losing points for being wrong.
There is one cards dealt to each player time the current round, making the
complexity of the game change throughout. The suitless cards allow you to
throw-off or trump even if you have the lead card. Makes for a very
interesting strategy change!

After rocketing to a vast lead, Laura got caught at the end. She and I
ended up tied at 260 points. Truly a fun game for 4-6 players. Alas, we
played slow and talked so that was pretty much it. Hope to get more in
this weekend!!

See you then!

Saturday marked the return of Pat and Eric, the 2nd week in a row for the
Mansons, Phil & Sandy, Pete & Michelle... All to celebrate Pete's
birthday!!! Even Jen's sister dropped by.

We started with a couple of games of wizards with the stragglers playing
bean game. We tried the twist with Wizards, which is to say blind bidding.
Adds a fun new element.

We then played Pete's "birthday" game of Star Trek UNO (tm). Highlight?
Having to say "Star Trek, the final UNO frontier" when you have one card
left. Please were drawing cards just to avoid saying this. There were 4
cards different from traditional Uno. Not really worth breaking down, but
did change small elements.

We ended the night with a game of PIT and champagne. Wild and wacky, lots
of yelling as always. Hope we have full houses that that more often.

Next week, no official game night as it is lounge-o-ween night...

p.s. Pete's cake was delicious.