What I Played Today: January 23

Incan Gold, Glory to Rome, Don't Starve

I eventually showed up to game night, and games were ending, so we played a quick game of Incan Gold, where the runs kept ending unceremoniously and nobody made any money. Stupid mummies.

Glory to Rome was played, and I think I get this game now. I managed to do quite well by playing a garden and completing it early, which allowed me to get a ton of clients and made winning really easy. I did do a cool thing where another player had build the forum, which allowed them to win if they got all six client types, and I built a building that allowed me to make it so a building counted for everyone. So...I used it on his forum, which got me that much closer to winning. Hurray!

Also built a Meat Effigy in Don't Starve. Hurray gross meat effigy.

What I Played Today: December 29

Race for the Galaxy, Glory to Rome, Battlestar Galactica, Guild Wars 2

Some dudes wanted to play some board games, and I said sure. There were only three of us, but a couple of guys who are apparently huge in the Twilight Imperium scene joined us for some games. First a game of Race for the Galaxy, which went fine, I got second, I managed to nail some good achievements. I really don't understand why my group in the Bay Area never wanted to use the achievements, they really help drive some strategies.

Also got to crack open the new set of Glory to Rome that I acquired. Sure, I already owned the game. After some slow explanation, the game started, and I must admit, this game is weird. It has a very obvious early-mid-late cycle to it, in which everyone is on even ground early on and suddenly everything sucks later, in which a lot of actions become invalidated later on that there is somehow little interaction at the end of the game. I managed to tie for last after an obvious leader kind of forced us to end the game before he got too far ahead. But....I like it. It's a little complex, and it would really work better as a computer game because the playmat just doesn't work, but I think I like it.

Then a game of BSG suddenly! With four people, which the worst idea! We were doing alright at the beginning, as expected, with a huge dump of invasions early on, but a Cylon admiral who managed to trick me completely trusting him kind of tanked us, as we got stuck with a huge invasion force that we couldn't combat and a whole ton of civilian ships blew up in a single turn. And...of course, I realized ten minutes later that we made a critical mistake and I should have seen it. But it was fun, at least.

And then I really fell into the Guild Wars 2 rabbit hole. I played for HOURS. HOURS! I went to the Charr homeland and fought a bunch of Ascalon ghosts, which made me feel super shitty, because I liked those guys, but I managed to march through the zone like a boss, and I am really just tunneling through the levels. I respect the decision to de-level you to an appropriate level based on where you are standing, because it makes the game constantly challenging, and really recreates the sense of vanquishing that I enjoy from Guild Wars. Sure, I still have a number of skills based on my overall level, which makes it slightly easier, but still, challenging. And frankly, in some games, I love doing everything.