Took the family to Seattle for Thanksgiving weekend - it is a tradition for us to explore some area or just go somewhere for this holiday since all of our family is out of driving distance. This year we trusted in Amtrak to get us to Seattle.  We did this 4 years ago (compliments of Corillian for some hard work for a new big bank we had just signed) and thought it was time to give it another try.

I'll post some more photos upon return, but here are some pictures of the gaming we've done this weekend.  We played a few games on the train ride up from Portland - the Cascades is a great train ride, about 3.5 hours so not much longer than a drive and much more relaxing.  We managed to play Settlers of Catan: Travel Edition, the Monopoly card game, and a bit of checkers.  Back in the room, Matthew, Jacob and I had a great game of Wyatt Earp.  Jacob and I have played about 3 games of Chrononauts so far - he keeps requesting to play this Looney Labs game.

After another long week of travel, I was determined to spend as many waking hours over the weekend with Julie, Jacob, and Matthew.  On Saturday, Julie and Jacob had a Cub Scout outing for the morning and early afternoon.  Matthew and I did some Christmas shopping, had lunch and Matthew's favorite fast food joint (Arby's), then came home for some fun one-on-one time.  We opened up the game closet to see what we should play - we both agreed that Battlecards would be a great two-player game to idle away the afternoon.

Battlecards: World Conflict, Pacific Theatre

I own each of the expansions for this game except for the newly released North African Campaign.  I wrote a review of the first product back in March.

This game was very one-sided, with me on top for the entire game.  In fact, we didn't even finish the game since it was clear I would prevail.  The Pacific expansion is different in that most of the battles have Pearl Harbor as a pre-requisite.  This potentially leads to quite a bit of buildup before the first battle.  Unfortunately for Matthew, I drew most of the military buildup cards.  This just shouldn't happen - there's a decent distribution of these cards, so I don't think this is a flaw in the game.

Battlecards: World Conflict, The Russian Front

Jacob arrived and saw the tail end of my game with Matthew, so we went to battle on the eastern front.  Similar result this time - I ended up winning every battle and achieving the victory condition of > 1/2 available victory points.  Even though these games were one-sided, I still really enjoy playing this game.

Can't Stop

Julie, Matthew, and I played an abbreviated game of Can't Stop before bed time.  This has become one our light favorites - very often when I come home from work I learn that Julie has played this with the boys after coming home from school.  I won with an amazing string of high rolls on the 10 and 11 tracks.

A few of us over at the BoardGameGeek tech Yahoo group are exploring some ways to use web services to provide programmatic access to BoardGameGeek.  Even if you aren't a developer, there are some very interesting applications that could come from this capability.

• Some of you like to use programs like GameTracker to keep track of gaming collections and session reports.  One challenge with "unconnected" software like this is that it is always out-of-date.  With a web service to BoardGameGeek available for programs like this, they can synchronize their game databases with what has already become the authority.
• Do you like to perform offline analysis of your collections, sessions, game rankings, etc.?  With a web service interface, you could integrate programs like Excel directly into BoardGameGeek using toolkits designed by Microsoft.
• If we make web service available for modifying the database (e.g., submitting new entries), some cool offline submission tools could be developed.

I was in New Orleans this week at a banking conference, but managed to squeeze in one evening of gaming with the Westbank Gamers thanks to a welcoming invitation from Greg Schloesser.  I have followed his gaming group for the past year - Greg writes very entertaining session reports and is an extremely prolific writer / reviewer.

It took about 30 minutes to get to Greg's house via taxi from my hotel - I had to navigate for the driver and he made a few wrong turns.  When I finally arrived I found a room full of gamers (at least 15 people) and was warmly greeted and introduced.

Greg has each table make detailed notes of the games played, so you should expect to see a session report from him soon after he returns from his vacation in Ireland.  He also has all players rate the games played on a 1-10 scale.  I like his model and may consider adopting it for my local game sessions.

Thanks to the group for inviting me and for providing such a welcoming atmosphere!

Princes of the Renaissance

I've been reading about this game in many of the session reports from Essen and was anxious to try it.  There are some reviews and reports here, here, here, and here.  I played with Jimbo, Dave, Jerry, Spouey, and Jason.

The basic idea in this game is to purchase, through auctions, characters in one of the five major cities in Italy.  These characters will score victory points at the end of the game based on the relative status ranking of their city.  Status can change through war or through the recruitment of artists that increase status.  Play proceeds through three decades (each decade is a game phase that ends when all artists for that age have been purchased).  Within the decade, play rotates clockwise with each player choosing a single action to take.  Actions include putting a character or artist up for auction, recruiting a military unit, having one city attack another, or purchasing a treachery tile.  Victory points can also be earned by winning battles and recruiting certain characters or artists.

I'm usually hesitant to think too much about strategy when learning a new game like this.  Since this is an auction game, I decided to follow the tactic of trying to bid up some of the early auctions while not winning them myself - this can be dangerous if your bluff gets called, but I figured worst case I'll be accumulating some characters at a slight premium.  It worked out well as I was able to snatch up some bargains at the tail ends of all three decades.  Which leads to another point - especially with a six-player game, you truly never can tell when your last action of a decade will be.  There are (I think) 4 artists available in each decade, and if players start snatching them up, the decade can end quickly.  Since I chose a prince that gives a particular military bonus (artillery), I made sure I grabbed a few military units early on.  This led to an arms race where about 75% of the military units were purchased in the first few actions.

Someone had mentioned that in a previous game, the player that won had earned 10 VPs through military victory (the first win gives 1VP, the second 2 more, the third 3 more, etc.), so I figured a decent strategy would be to try and recruit at least 4 characters in the game, then use military force to elevate the status of their cities.  To that end, I tried to ensure that the characters I recruited gave military bonuses of some sort.

Combat is interesting in this game.  Players don't declare war against each other - rather, a player can force one city to attack another.  Then players bid for the right to serve as the attacker or defender.  There's little to lose in fighting, and much to gain, so bidding can be fierce.  At the very least, you can make some profit if your bid ends up being less than the current status since the city pays the player that much to fight on their behalf (we are just mercenaries after all).

I was on the winning side of combat three times, and managed to hold 4 characters at the end of the game in the 2 highest cities.  I managed to win with a score of 33.  Other scores were Jerry-29, Jason-27, Jimbo-24, Dave-23, Spouey-18.  I like this game a lot and will probably pick it up sometime over the holiday season - I rate it an 8 for now.

I'll post pictures for a few of the other games played without commentary - like I said, I'm sure Greg will write them up soon.

Circus Maximus (Rome version)

Maya

Finstere Flure

This one looks fun - I was hoping to get in on this game but the timing didn't work out.

Spank the Monkey

I just can't wait to see what sort of Google hits my weblog will start tracking after writing up this game.  Unfortunate that they had to give the game this name - I suspect it will turn off some prospective buyers.  It truly is a fun game!

Jim, Jason and I decided to give this one a try.  Very simple to learn, and very quick to play.  I compare it to Flux in terms of chaos and variable game length, though there probably is a marginal amount of strategy hat can be applied in this game.  The basic premise is to stack junk into a pile in a junkyard so that you can climb to the top of your stack and spank a monkey that is on his own pile of junk.  And you want to do this before anyone else does.  On your turn you can add or reinforce your own junk tower or try and knock pieces out of your opponents' tower.  Jim and Jason each won a single game; I was winless.

Shark

Lost Cities

Fantasy Pub

Greg and I finally managed to synch up to play a game together, and after some deliberation we decided to try Fantasy Pub, a game given to him at Essen so that he could write a review.  It looked like a promising light game - players control a party of 7 fantasy characters (hobbits, dwarves, warriors, and an orc) that are trying to drink as much beer as possible in a pub.  There are fiddly rules about how characters move around the pub, when they can drink beer, and how they can leave the pub.

This game doesn't work with five players.  We had serious lockup issues, and for such a light game the downtime was unbearable.  Three different times I waited 5 minutes for my turn to happen, only to roll the dice to find that all I could do was rotate my hobbit around the bar one full cycle and achieve nothing.  It just got too crowded to be able to apply any sort of strategy and turned into a dice fest.  I'm not excited to play this one again, but if I was forced to I would make sure there were only 2 or 3 players in the game.

Die Sieben Siegel

We wrapped up the evening with a short game of Die Sieben Siegel (the seven seals), a trick-taking game similar to spades or bridge.  Players make bids of exactly how many of each suit they will take (no more or less), and there are some interesting twists that make this a winner for me.  I grew up playing games like this (particularly spades and hearts and my grandparents' home), and given the choice between trick-taking and rummy style games, I think I prefer trick games.  I will probably pick this one up.  Shanna was on fire and won this game easily (we only played 2 hands).  I was in second place not too far behind.

I've been travelling too much - only two days at home between trips this time.  I'm back on the road again, this time in New Orleans for our big annual conference: the BAI Retail Delivery show.  On Friday night I was able to engage the boys in a few games.  Jacob and I played the new Risk game: Lord of the Rings: Risk, Trilogy Edition, and Matthew and I played Balloon Cup.  On Saturday, Jacob, Matthew, Ken, and I ventured down to Corvallis to watch the Oregon State Beavers dominate the Stanford Cardinal in football.  Rarely have I seen such a one-sided event - it rained most of the game, but we were mostly oblivious given the dominance of OSU.

Lord of the Rings: Risk, Trilogy Edition

I haven't played any of the prior Risk variants, so I have no basis for comparison.  I can say that this version is much better than the original game of Risk.

Yes, it is still a dice fest, but there are several reasons why I think this game is better:

• Theme, theme, theme.  Just the simple addition of a map of Middle Earth and counters reflecting good and evil units make a huge difference.
• Cards add an element of surprise.
• Leaders add a strategic element to the game, since they can help you gain new cards while contributing to battles.
• There is a countdown as the ring move towards Mordor, limiting the lengt of the game.

I hadn't played risk in probably 15 years, but I could still remember some of the basic stratagies.  I think my recent play of Wallenstein helped.  I quickly gained control of several regions, accelerating my reinforcement each turn.  Just like in the original Risk, there is a bit of a runaway leader problem - Jacob was without hope once I controlled 3 regions.

Eventually Jacob conceded- it was only a short matter of time before I would overrun the Fellowship.  I'm anxious to play a 4-player team version.

Balloon Cup

This is one of my favorite 2-player games.  Matthew and I squared up for what was probably our 5th head-to-head game of this new classic by Stephen Glenn.

This was a very close game - it came down to a competition for the final grey trophy, and the outcome was solely dependent on who would draw the first grey card, and what the number turned out.  Matthew turned up a mid grey card, giving him the victory on the final race and granting him the grey trophy.  Have I mentioned before how lucky this kid is?

Front Porch Classics is (has?) released a “classic Coffee Table Game” for the whole family: Master & Commander, The Far Side of the World.  I'm a huge fan of the series of books by Patrick O'Brian, and can't wait to see the new movie starring Russell Crowe.  I read here that only 3,000 are being produced, and that the sticker price is $90.  Ouch.

Every once in a while we will play more traditional family party games like Pictionary, Guesstures, and Cranium.  Cranium is particularly popular with the boys, especially the kids version Cranium Cadoo.  Cranium is particularly fun since it incorporates a number of different skills - sculpting, trivia, drawing, charades, and more.

Anyway, to the point: Cranium is offering online the ability to make custom Cranium cards.  These are theme-oriented, downloadable (PDF) card sets that you can customize for your game. I particularly like the family-oriented theme - give it a try!

Jacob and I were finally able to attend another group gaming session on Saturday, this one held at Doug and Mimi's up in Vancouver.  We had a great time, and as usual they were excellent hosts.  This session lasted from about 1pm to 9:30pm.  On with the games...

Formula Motor Racing

Jacob and I didn't play this one, but Doug, Mimi, Phil (a friend of Doug/Mimi up from San Francisco), Sabrina, and Greg.  Doug ended up the victor in this one, which finished up shortly after we arrived.

A Dog's Life

Doug, Sabrina, Greg, and I started a game of mun Re, while Jacob, Mimi, and Phil decided to give A Dog's Life a try.  This was a new one for me - I hadn't seen or heard of it before. 

Jacob loved the theme, and overhearing some of the conversation about piddling and “you can't pick up food until you drop your bone“ sounded pretty humurous.  Really cute dog figurines too.  Phil was the winner.

Maestro

Mimi always does such a great job picking out games for Jacob to play - she tries hard to find light, funny themes in their vast game collection.  Next on the table for Mimi, Phil, and Jacob was Maestro.  Apparently players are trying to hire musicians to debut in a concert.  Phil managed to win again.

Amun Re

It has been a while since I'd played this game, and Sabrina/Greg were intrigued by the theme.  Doug, Sabrina, Greg and I squared off for a game of this pyramid-building Egyption game.  Doug and I went head to head, and I had the upper hand after the old age (first round of scoring) with a slim lead of two points.

Things got very contested in the second age.  I made a critical mistake in the bidding for one province.  I had the power card that prevents someone from overbidding by one, and played it after bidding 3 gold.  I should have bid 6 and forced Doug to go up to 15, but he grabbed it for 10.  And 15 was beyond my means, so I had to leave it for him.  This was probably a deciding factor in the game - it gave him 2+ pyramids and some good production.  I managed to keep it close and went for the most gold and the 6 victory points that go with that, hoping that my give me the edge.  This meant making a substantial sacrifice in the last round to drive up the farmer harvest.  Trouble was, Doug also owned the province with the two temples, so this ended up helping him more than it did me.  Doug ended up with 50 points, I had 46.  Greg and Sabrina had cash flow issues - it took too long for them to understand the production cycles and some of the tradeoffs (like making sure you get some farmers early).

Autoscooter

Did I mention that Doug and Mimi have a butler?

Seriously, Greg had to take off for a hospital charity event.  Fortunately, right at this time (about 4pm) 3 new guests arrived.  Joining us were Tyler, a local Vancouver resident who is finishing up his MA in Medieval history, Kim, who recently moved to the Portland area from Tucson (we've gamed with her before), and Michelle, who just moved up here from Monteray.  We thought it would be a good idea to try a light game that everyone could play together, so out came Autoscooter.

This is a light “programming“ game, ala Robo Ralley or Dragon Delta.  Each player controls a bumper car, and the goal is to crash into the other players' cars without letting them hit you.  Cars can drive at speeds from 0-3 (indicating the number of hexes move), and can accelerate +1/-1 per turn.  Each player starts with 10 chips that represent points, and when you crash into an opponent in the right way you can steal their chips.  It obviously doesn't make much sense to crash into someone that has run out of chips.

Players plot their moves each turn, using a letter-coded quick reference guide that describes several pre-plotted moves.  For example, if you are going at a speed of two, then you could plot a move where you advance forward one hex, turn 60 deg to the left, then go forward a hex, then turn 60 deg to the right.  I was extremely luck in this game (it can be quite chaotic with this many players) - I was never bumped during the entire game and ended up with 28 chips.  Phil also did well and finished with 23.  You can see the (slightly blurry - sorry) scoresheet below.

Puerto Rico

Phil, Tyler, Michelle, and Kim embarked on a game of Puerto Rico.  It was hard for me to resist - this game is one of my favorites.  But I wanted to try Warcraft, so I'll have to wait for another opportunity.  Tyler won this game - I don't know what the scores were.

Warcraft: the Boardgame

I received Warcraft Saturday morning in a Funagain order (along with Lord of the Rings Risk: Trilogy Edition and New England).  Doug, Jacob, and I agreed to play and learn as we go.  The rules recommend playing a special scenario called The Elf Gate when playing with three players, so that's what we did.

The rules were a snap to learn - the most time was spent sorting pieces; there are tons of bits in this game!  Overall quality is nice.  There are some complaints about the lack of miniatures for this game - each of the races uses generic wooden pieces for melee, ranged, and flying combat units.  It didn't bother us at all, and the strong color differentiation was nice.

Things start off slow in this game, with very little player interaction.  This is much like the computer game, as players focus on harvesting resources, upgrading units, building new production facilities, and training units.  Each race has some specialization - I played humans, Jacob was undead, and Doug played the orcs.  In this scenario, there is also a cluster of neutral night elves in the middle of the board.  Players are trying to get control of the elf gate in the middle of the board - control consists of having a unit in the middle of the board, with less than 3 enemy or neutral units adjacent to the middle.

I decided to only train ranged and melee units, avoiding the costly flying units to see if I could conserve resources.  I started pushing to the left and center, trying to make my way into the middle.  In three player games like this, he who attacks first is often the loser, so everyone was very patient.

Things got interesting when Doug decided to come in on my right flank towards my town center - I had just a few units there and looked fairly exposed.  He fell right into my trap, since I had two town portal cards that allowed me to teleport six of my combat units into supporting positions (see the picture below).  This created a huge setback for Doug as I wiped out a significant chunk of his military.

Then I made a serious tactical error.  Jacob in the meanwhile was working his way into the middle - we had a bit of a skirmish on our borders, and he decided to lay off and start fighting the elves.  He had also trained a flying unit that was in range of the center - now vacant since I had cleaned it out.

Doug was still a threat, so I extended myself out on the right flank to hopefully finish him off and then take the middle.  So I engaged him on one of the squares adjacent to the middle.  It was a tight battle that I won, but each of us lost all of our units on the contested hex.  This left only two of my units adjacent to the middle square.  Next it was Jacob's turn.

Jacob wisely flew his unit two hexes into the center, then engaged the only remaining elf units in his way.  It was a close battle, and only one of his units survived.  But it was enough for Jacob to claim victory, since I had only two units adjacent to the middle.  You can see the final results below - Jacob was purple, I was blue, and Doug was red.

Take it Easy

While I cleaned up Warcraft, Jacob joined everyone else for one final game of the evening (for us anyway).  Take it Easy is a fantastic puzzle game.  I don't remember who the winners were, but two tied for the win with 158 points.

A co-worker of mine asked me over dinner tonight what would be some good boardgames to introduce to younger kids (5-7).  I have my own ideas, which I'll share in a bit, but first its a good idea to see what other folks have already said on this topic.  To that end, let's head over to BoardGameGeek to check out some of the relevant GeekLists.

• Games good for adults to play with children - I think this is the best list for that age group.  Bohnanza, Apples to Apples, and Franks Zoo are classics.
• Favorite Children Games for Adults - A few good titles here - I personally loved playing Hick Hack in Gackelwack the one time I played it.

The other lists out there are geared towards older / more advanced kids, but I'll mention a couple of the better ones:

• Games My Kids and I Love to Play! - I like this list because it hits on something I've learned with my boys - theme is critical!  Do they like playing Settlers of Catan and Samurai?  Yes, but I'll tell you it is a LOT easier to get them to play Age of Mythology or Star Wars: Epic Duels.
• Games Non-Competitive Kids Enjoy Playing with Adults - Some great titles here that my kids have really taken to - Matthew and I played a lot of Balloon Cup this summer.

I've already posted Jacob's current list of favorite games - I hope to post Matthew's soon.  Here's my list of some great games to get kids steered away from the standard roll & move games:

• Apples to Apples - More of a party game than anything else, it is still a great way to ease kids into this hobby.
• Fluxx - Many adults hate this card game with a passion, but kids tend to like the chaos and lack of skill required to win the game.
• Balloon Cup - A great little card game - easy to learn, quick to play, but with some nice strategy.  A great counting game for kids.
• Capt'n Clever - I don't like this game very much, but Matthew does.  It is very simple, easy to learn, and has a cute theme.
• Star Wars - Epic Duels - A fantastic game and amazing value. Can you say theme?  If you have boys that like Star Wars, get this game.
• Dragon Delta - A great game to move to once your kids are ready for something a bit more advanced.  A cool theme and a nice “programming“ mechanic that gets kids thinking ahead.
• Lord of the Rings - The Confrontation - Another nice two-player game with a great theme.  Similar to Stratego, but more subtle strategy.
• Carcassonne - This is an easy game to play, but can take some time to learn how to score it properly if you are learning from the rules.  Kids love laying the tiles and building castles.

Finally, it is probably worth mentioning how to find these games.  I think the best place to start is always a local game store.  Maybe you have a local Wizards of the Coast or Gamekeeper store.  If your searches fail, then try one of the fantastic online stores like Funagain or GameSurplus.  Funagain is my favorite because the are in Oregon and ground shipping only takes one day.

The biggest event each year for the boardgame hobby is Spiel, held in Essen, Germany each October.  There are quite a few Essen reports available online, but if you read only one be sure to check out Mark Johnson's report in The Games Journal.

One interesting part of Mark's commentary was his take on the crowd makeup at Essen.  To quote:

It's an impressive sight. Essen was generally so packed with people that getting through the aisles was difficult. And this was only Friday! The next day's attendance would be even greater. The crowd, while thick, was a lot more pleasant than those that I've rubbed shoulders with at American conventions. You know what I mean? A very normal crowd. More twenty-something guys than anything else but not overwhelmingly so. There were lots of women, children and older folks too. Everyone was clean and generally sociable.

In a nutshell, there were far fewer of the weirdos and nerds so prevalent at the American cons I've attended. If boardgaming is ever to gain as much of a presence in our society, it will need to see a similar shift in audience. Wider participation in our hobby isn't likely as long as we've got so many games about orcs or gamers wearing costumes. Actually, there was one hall (of about six) that featured various dragon-y things, swords and armor merchants. Craig Berg called it the American convention inside Essen!

Having attended a few American game conventions (GenCon and the local Game Storm), I can see where Mark is coming from.  The people-watching is a unlike most other gatherings (think trekkie convention), but there can be negatives. There were signs all over the Indianapolis convention center that read something like this:

Avoid Gamer Funk -
All of the Local Hotels Provide Shampoo and Soap
Use Them!

I don't think this is a serious concern in the areas we attended - the boardgaming set tends to not fit the gamer stereotype as much as the roleplaying gamers.

Apparently there's a big toy contingency as well as a hall dedicated to kids.  I must find a way to work a family trip to Germany around Speil next October!

Today was supposed to be an afternoon gaming session at Kevin Graham's, but unfortunately Jacob wasn't feeling too well.  We were all suffering from some form of allergy attack (perhaps related to the cold weather here coupled with our heating system kicking in coupled with an air filter that desparately needed cleaning).  So we decided to stay home and not risk it across town.

Jacob, Matthew, and I elected to play another game of Age of Mythology from Eagle Games.  We've played this 1.5 times and were eager to give it another run.  We randomly drew cultures; Jacob was Egyptian, Matthew was Greek, and I played the Norse.

The first thing I need to mention is that in our first 2 games (we never finished the second game), we didn't play correctly.  I discovered this early in today's game as I was referencing the rules.  In the first 2 games, we played that every player took the chosen action in turn unless it was an attack.  This means that if one player chose build, then the others would build after that. I guess I was just too used to playing Puerto Rico and didn't read the rules carefully enough.  Only on the gather and explore actions do all players get to take the action.  Obviously this changes the dynamic quite a bit, and I think the game is a bit easier when played correctly. 

Things started off in a very confrontational manner.  Jacob (pictured below) decided to attack quickly - he went after both Matthew and me in the first turn.  With his elephants in hand, it made sense since they have an edge up on other mortal units.  He defeated both of us and stole resources.  He took things a bit too far though, and continued attacking until his own military was depleted, and that cost him dearly as Matthew and I sought revenge.

I opted for a build strategy while maintaining just enough defense to deter attacks on me.  I was able to make a few opportunistic attacks when either Matthew or Jacob ran out of military units.  Jacob and Matthew also need to work on their strategy and tactics for this game - they play “gather all“ cards too frequently, and this allowed me to race even farther ahead.  They both sensed my advantage and started dumping victory point cubes in the wonder category, assuming that I would never advance far enough to build a wonder.  They were wrong...

This turned out to be a very lopsided game.  Jacob in particular usually stays even with me (he beat Ken and I in Wallenstein last weekend), but his mistakes early on hurt him.  I ended up winning all categories (largest army, most buildings, and wonder).  Chris 22, Jacob 1, Matthew 1.

Julie, Jacob, Matthew, and I sat down for a game of Piratenbucht this afternoon.  It was a busy day with other activities, but with 3 hours free in the afternoon it sounded like a great idea.  This is probably our most played family game with all four of us - a fun dice fest with a great theme.

My strategy was mostly avoidance of the other players, and it worked out well.  I didn't have to fight anyone until I had built up my ship, and then I couldn't lose.  I raced out ahead in fame points and quickly became a target for everyone else.  I also didn't make any friends by tipping off the Royal Navy...

Jacob had terrible luck - if he wasn't fighting a stronger player, he had to face Blackbeard.  We play with the variant where Blackbeard moves either 1 or 2 islands after the players have moved, so you never know where he's going to end up (though he is easy to avoid).  Sometimes you just really want to get that treasure on an island where he may be headed though.

At game end, I thought I had it wrapped up - an eight point lead on the closest competitor (Julie), with only tall tales to reveal.  I only had one (I discovered Atlantis), but Julie racked up 10 points!  The picture below is where Julie revealed that she was, in fact, Blackbeard all along.

We were running out of time, so we declared me the winner since I had more gold.  I think we were supposed to fight another head-to-head battle, which she probably would have won.

I gave Jacob and Matthew a project a few weeks ago - write down what your 5 or 10 favorite games are with reasons.  I promised to publish them, so here is Jacob's list.

Star Wars Epic Duels

Age of Mythology

Wallenstein

I’m The Boss!

Tigris & Euphrates