I enjoyed a fun night of gaming last week while visiting Bellevue/Redmond.  There's a group that meets weekly on Tuesdays at the WizKids Storefront in Redmond, so I headed up from Portland a little early to join in on the fun. Fantastic group of people - very welcoming and I hope to return and join the group soon.  Let's get to the games...

Corsairs

This is a simple, fun, pirate-theme game with a bit of luck and a bit of strategy.  Not for deep thinking, but a solid opener.  It is hard (for me) to resist any game with a pirate theme, and this was no exception for me - I bought a copy of the game from WizKids.  The game is for 2-4 players, and each player is trying to gain the most victory points by boarding galleys.  Galleys have victory points commensurate with the difficulty of capture - based on the number of cards necessary to attempt a board or the die roll necessary to successfully complete a board.  Player interaction comes in the form of broadsides, where one player can fire on another and steal or destroy their cards (provisions), or counter attacks, where a player can try to board a galley after another player by beating his or her roll.

Apples to Apples

The largest game of Apples to Apples for me so far - at least 12 folks joined in for two games.  Fun stuff, but I was ready to move on the meatier stuff.

Puerto Rico

My second play of this fantastic game - there were 4 of us, 1 veteran, me (played once), and 2 newbies.  I went for a corn strategy but couldn't get enough to make a difference, and made one bad tactical move during the Captain phase and shipped the wrong good.  I probably would have still finished second, but would have been much closer to the ultimate winner (the veteran).  I hope to play this again this coming weekend when I host some gaming down in Sherwood.

Piratenbucht

Another pirate game - arggh.  This is better than Corsairs, in my opinion - more tension and player interaction, and more strategy since you can customize your ship.  I've ordered this from Funagain and can't wait to give it a try with my kids.