What I Played Today: July 13

Eclipse, Dominion, The Resistance

My quest for gaming groups and, let's face it, friends in this strange new land continues as I went to another game store to enjoy another game night. This one was slow to start, as the people who usually come didn't show up for a good couple of hours. Luckily, the store was extremely interesting, with a huge inventory of both games and comics, so I spent some time poking around. Eventually someone who knew me showed up (they have better memories than I), and after an hour of talking about comics (they are weird yo), eventually a girl showed up and everyone lost their mind, then we started playing games.

Some people saw Eclipse, literally the only game I have right now, and wanted to play because it looked awesome, and so I had to explain it. I thought I did okay...but the looks on some faces showed they seemed to think they got in over their head. We made it through three rounds with people seeming to understand the game pretty well, but it was decided that we really didn't want to spend the rest of the night finishing the game, so I suggested we just call it and move onto something else.

Then a game of Dominion, which was alright! I still like Dominion, and I don't care what some jerks saw, Intrigue is probably the second-best set after Prosperity (screw you jerks, Prosperity is the best). The new people I played with liked it a lot, and I really hope my games get here some decade so I can show them off.

Then a game I was really excited about playing: The Resistance. I like this game, and I really like the plot cards, which I finally got a chance to play with. Turns out I was still playing the game wrong in general when I used to play. You have to have a vote of no confidence FIVE times in order to lose the game. The Resistance won every time, and I was a traitor twice. We won the first game really easily when the traitor hesitated far too long when he got a card forcing him to show his loyalty card, and it was easy to tell from there. The second I remember losing pretty soundly because we just weren't organized enough, but the third game was pretty great.

One of my traitor friends was forced to show his loyalty card, so he really played up showing the card to his friend, and everyone immediately assumed his friend was lying. It was clever. And after we just let the first couple of missions pass, suspicion was all over the table...except on me. After a few no go votes and a bunch of people being tied to each other so that they were either spies together or they weren't, we managed to flub the fourth mission and then...I spoke up, pointed the wrong finger, and somehow everyone figured it out. WHOOPS! But it was nice to play this game with a group that really was into it. Lot more discussion.

What I Played Today: July 7

Eclipse

It is another time RIGHT NOW.

Finally got Internet, finally got settled-ish, so I went on a small adventure to check out my new surroundings. Went to check out The Source, which is my new favorite store, because they both have a ton of games and a ton of comics, and for a mere pittance, I get 10% off of everything, it's amazing. The Source, in Roseville.

But after there, I went to the Fantasy Flight Event Center, which I heard is pretty great, and I will say that it is pretty okay! They talk it up a lot, but in truth it's just an outlet in a mall, you can see everything at all times, and while it is the biggest space I've seen, it's still noticeably smaller than a convention hall play area. I still got a membership there, because free wifi and game rentals, that's great, and just sat down at a table and put my copy of Eclipse on the table and waited...like a venus fly trap...

It worked! A guy walked up and said, "Hey, I have a couple of friends coming, can we play this game with you?" To which I said, "Of course!" and as soon as they got there we played a four-player game, and it's actually super interesting when you get used to it.

The one part of the game that I completely misunderstood when I was reading the rules is that each action you take uses an influence token, and at the end of the round, you have to pay upkeep based on how many influence tokens you have left in your supply; the fewer, the more expensive it is for you. So...you can do a lot during your turn, but it'll cost you. It's a very interesting mechanic, I like it a lot.

We started the game pretty divided, and it wasn't easy to make contact with each other. We each built a small empire and made treaties with each other, but eventually, there were only two groups that haven't allied, and it was me and this other guy, so of course he marched his extremely fast and capable (and free!) cruisers into my territory and kicked me around. It put me at a disadvantage, but eventually he offered an alliance, which I took, and I got a chance to build up some huge victory point locations.

In the last round, there was a lot of cutthroat turnabout, my former friend going after my monoliths, which I defended ably, and another player sneak attacking him. The backstabber won, I was a point behind, but it was a pretty close game, considering. Good balance in this game, I will play again, preferably with aliens.

Then I went to get pizzas, and was told of a few other places where they play games, which was awesome. Apparently they liked that I didn't rage out when I was attacked or when someone didn't understand a rule, which is an odd distinction, and it also sounds like they have a huge group of players. So I'll make a point to check out some of these new places this week. Being somewhere different is fun!