All A-Board Game!

As is often the case, sometimes what you plan to play turns sideways and other stuff happens first. Rob did bring Axis and Allies and, one of these days, it will get played. Unfortunately its extended playing time coupled with some other gaming favorites persuaded us that next time would be sometime in the future.

We had a new player turn out this week - Chris. Chris is a fan of rail games and brought along his copy of the Avalon Hill Classic Rail Baron. We started the night with a gateway game of Ticket to Ride. My pronouncement that Chris ought to be wary of the little blond girl proved prophetic as Chris' early lead (with some mighty long routes) evaporated as Alexis unveiled her coast to coast masterpiece. Despite losing 21 points for being locked out of Washington she still posted an impressive 165 point end game to beat Chris by a handful of points.

After TTR we split into two groups. Chris and Beth played Rail Baron, which Beth likened to a kinder, gentler Empire Builder styled train game. The addition of extra players would affect the dynamics of the game immensely as players find themselves increasingly forced to ride their opponents' rail lines, she said.

Rob, Angela, Homer, Alexis and I indulged in a game of Last Night on Earth. Not surprisingly it gave rise to Evil Homer the Zombie Master. We randomly selected a scenario, discarded it (because we had the town set up and were not about to undo it for the mansion set up) and chose the Rescue the Townsfolk scenario. The early signs were inauspicious as Evil Homer slapped down zombie cards that forced the heroes to discard the top card of the hero deck. Within four rounds two of the six townsfolk were in the rubbish bin and the best we could manage was a single rescue of the Principal. Interestingly enough he was located in the high school.

Our stash of weapons was equally unimpressive. Father McFeely found a flare gun which he put to good effect as he dashed pellmell across the town to the barn realizing he had inconveniently forgotten something there. Otherwise we were left with the Father's baseball bat, a pair of fire extinguihsers and the revolver that Sally found in the high school. Though the heroes managed to slay half of the 11 zombies that originally spawned (interestingly enough Evil Homer never managed to spawn more), the pairing of the dirty drifter who had a peculiar love-hate relationship with student Sally (two Last Night on Earth zombie cards with a Bickering card sandwiched between them) caused the heroes to lose half of their actions on three consecutive turns.

In the end the zombies won out by trapping and slaying Jake and Sally as the two consummated whatever perverse and complicated relationship they experienced in the trashed remains of Zombie Town High. That scenario seems to be one of the scenarios that gives a decided advantage to the zombie player. There are only six townspeople available and "Just What I Needed" cards aside, losing a third of them in the early goings was a blow from which our heroes could never recover. Granted, Evil Homer did play the right cards at the right time, even orchestrating the fact that Jake needed to spend a round with a female character to rid himself of a curse card setting the pair up for three lost turns.

After the zombies destroyed the world Kim joined us for a game of Shadows Over Camelot. For whatever reason it seems impossible for me to not be the traitor. It seems to happen most often as I select King Arthur but, on this night, Sir tristan led the knights astray. Once again I found myself in the unenviable position of being the traitor and yet, based on my cards in hand, I was as equally hard pressed to betray as to aid. There really is only so much a fistful of 1 and 2 fight cards can do for a fellow.

My hand was so bad I could only go and toss them away on the Excalibur quest knoing that their loss didn't hurt the knights much but, by securing the sacred sword, I might be able to deny the heroes an advantage later on. Sadly I continued to draw mediocre cards even as King Arthur (Alexis) won Lancelots armor while Sir Gawain, Sir Percival and Sir Galahad tackled and won the Holy Grail. With such victories under their belts and in light of Sir Palamedes staunch defence of the castle from the enemy catapults, the treacherous Sir Tristan never had a chance.

It was actually one of the few games of Shadows where the knights succeeded with far greater frequency than they failed. The Black Knight quest ran its course twice over but the Knights of the Round Table defeated all three of the artifact quests as well as repelling a single threatening Saxon invasion. It isn't unusual for the courtyard to be overrun with catapults, the Picts and/or Saxons standing one draw away from invasion and either the Grail or Excalibur quest belching out catapults like Gotterdamerung except on this night when Sir Tristan's little sabotages could hardly outshine the glorious deeds of his brethren.