Eight Percent

Several games went back in the closet tonight.  As I (Greg) slid the boxes to the back of a shelf, I felt a small sense of loss knowing that it would be a long time until we would get to see those games again.  Then again, I thought, we put down another eight percent of our 100 games in just one weekend!  At this pace, maybe we will see those games again this year.

Our weekend started with some farming smack talk and four very determined gamers as we rolled out one of our favorite and more challenging platforms for competition, Agricola.  We paired this game with one of it's well designed expansions, Farmers of the Moor.  Utilizing a combination of the "Komplex" deck and the "Advanced" deck, we set out to play.  About fifteen minutes of card reading later, and after a quick reminder of the details of the rules, we began spreading out on our acreage.  Based on our game play, we can conclude that many hands make light work.  Another way to put it is, "have lots of babies, 'cause they make cheap labor."  (I think the game's theme predates laws against that.)  You still have to feed them and make sure they have a warm bedroom to sleep in, but it's still good to have the workers.  It is one of the closer games we've played in a while.  When all the points were tallied up, we found that there were only two points separating the winner from the two who tied for "number 1 loser."  Somehow, I managed my farm and family the best and edged out a close one for the coveted win.  Bob came in a close one point behind.  The girls, with all their horses and other pastured critters, were close enough that one or two changes in any turn and the game would certainly have declared a different master farmer.

Three happy gamers

We exchanged our overalls and pitchforks for togas in the Roman forum as our list dictated Alea Iacta Est was our next challenge (see picture above).  We rolled our dice and moved our... well... dice.  Nothing more fancy, but when one starts with eight of them in hand, there is a rich feeling to the options available.  This was the girls' game.  They worked their patricians and provinces into a perfect support system and left the boys in the Latrina pondering where we went wrong.  Heather ultimately gained the most popularity in Rome to solidify her victory. Jennifer gave her a run for her money, losing by just one point.

Kia is less interested in the game and more interested in the snuggle

Trading our equipment and clothing once again, we became city planners in Alhambra.  While I'm not sure what kind of clothing the architects of these town squares would have worn, I'm sure it wasn't the garb of farmers or Romans.  The game got off to a roaring start, or rather, everyone just got greedy, grabbing for money on their turns.  Of course, that doesn't last long as eventually pockets get very warm with a pile of money burning a whole in them.  Thus the purchase of buildings and arranging them around the fountain got underway as well.  Surprisingly, Jennifer found a way to come up just one point short, again.  She was getting a little worried about this plan to play through 100 games if she was going to continue to be a point or two away from winning every game.  I was awarded the win here, too.  Not a bad weekend already.  Having a fast start and a nice long city wall made the difference.

Apples to Apples (or Pineapple to Orange?)

And now, for something completely different, we played Apples to Apples.  Bob and Heather smoked us.  Those lucky card players seemed to have a great card for every turn.  In the end, Bob collected the most green cards and just edged Heather for the win.  Yet another game having a difference of just one point between the winner and second place.

It had already been a great weekend of friends, food, and fun playing games.  The fact that we got into the B's on our list just took it to another level.  Good old Backgammon was next and we all had to brush up a bit on the rules.  Jennifer had never played before, but picked up the game and some basic strategy quickly.  After some practice, we played as couples.  We (Jennifer and Greg) were able to make a good enough run to win.

We had to take a break at this point.  No more games until morning.  So we went our separate ways to rest and prepare ourselves for another day of battle.

"A ha, HA, ha, ha, ha, ha, HA."  This is an attempt to quote Heather, who used the nearly canned sounding chortles in an attempt to avoid real laughter while reading the definitions offered her in Balderdash.  Here is a little of what she was up against:

-- Wheeple: A poor attempt to whistle loudly.  (the correct answer for a particular round)
-- Bayocks: The back section of a rhinoceros, near the tail.  (Not the correct answer, but laugh inducing)
-- Tankle: The retirement party for a circus clown.  (Also not the correct answer, but good for a few guffaws)

...And on they went.  Somehow Bob pulled out a victory from third place to the finish-line.  It was a masterful takeover.  I had been in first for much of the game, with Jennifer right on my tail.  But Bob would not be denied.

Hayden attempts to provide a little distraction for the battling players.  

Bananas!  Jennifer and I had never played Bananagrams before.  After whetting our appetite with Bob and Heather, we just had to have our own game.  So we are now the proud owners of a copy ourselves.  Which reminds me, we need to return their copy as we needed to play some more after the party disbanded for the weekend.  It's a thoroughly stress-filled joy ride.  We played this one tournament style.  After one practice round we set out on our race.  The first game was over quickly with Bob handily beating all of us.  This did, however, eliminate Heather (as she had the most tiles left).  I was out next.  Then came the final round.  It was Jennifer versus Bob in a winner take all, no holds-barred, mano a mano, knock-down drag-out, word to the end game.  Bob seemed to be leading for much of the game, but now Jennifer was coming on.  The game was long and grueling.  Each player had too many of the letters they didn't need and not enough of those important ones.  Somehow, in the end, Jennifer placed her last two tiles and declared an end to the game.  We had our banana champion.

For our final romp through our game weekend, we learned and played Bible Blurt!  We weren't sure what to expect here as none of us had played Blurt! (at least to my knowledge).  The game plays basically the way you might expect.  You literally blurt out answers until someone manages to get it right.  Each of us took our turn being the reader of questions for the other three to blurt out possible answers to.  After quite a few funny bouts of probable and sometimes improbable blurts, Heather found herself in a challenge position with Bob to trade places on the board.  She won the challenge and it was smooth sailing to victory after that.

Wow, what a run of games.  Eight percent of our collection gone, just like that.  We decided we needed a little break from gaming, so we took an opportunity to watch one of Greg's favorite movies: How to Train Your Dragon.  Fun accents, different story concept, few inconsistencies, and an ability to stay true to the theme while not being too serious all make this an easy watch.  It was a nice way finish our weekend.

-Greg