The Howling Hag that got away and other timely misfortunes

It was a strange sort of Border Board games for February 18th.  With the village hall seeing some other use, the action moved to the newly re-christened Creaserton Abbey.  Mike and Dennis came up from St. Jay early to get their game on.  The afternoon started with Age of Empires III.  Beth and her Dutch legions staked an early lead that she would not relinquish over the ten turns of the game.  Racking up many points in the colonization rounds coupled with some fortunate capital buildings allowed her to run off with a commanding victory.  Dennis and his Portugese forces employed an interesting armed camp variation that effectively slashed into Beth's point total while bolstering his own.  While the French under my leadership explored like mad, my lack of a presence in the colonies hampered my startegy.  Though not sure what strategy Mike employed, his was at least as successful as my own despite a fourth place finish.

We then launched into a few rounds of Trans America at which point Mike O arrived.  As Trans America goes, it tends to end quickly and a disasterous secound game saw Dennis plunge into the Pacific in near record time.  I hink everyone saw the advantage ofusing the Screw You pieces and the second game saw frenzied placement in the rush to avoid a cliff-diving finale.

We then brought out Castle Ravenloft in a co-op frenzy to defeat the Howling hag.  It was, in my estimation at least, one of the more difficult scenarios I have played to date.  Having the party scattered to the four corners of the map forced us to rely on our own pitiful skills in the early going.  My wizard and dennis' rogue teamed up in the one two-man group while the Mikes and Beth had to fight their way out of their respective corners.  Dennis and I caught up to Mike O's ranger in short order while we blazed a path to the central summoning circle.  Dennis, amazingly, managed to draw four of the five zero monster tiles in our push ahead.

Beth had poor luck as she almost instantly drew the howling hag figure.  The tile placement was also working against her, locking her into a corner while Mike's fighter tried to cut his way down.  Eventually we managed to open the circle and start whittling away at the time tokens.  This is where things took a turn for the weird.  Mike O had already taken heavy damage, often as the result of unfortunate Encounter draws.    With two of the five time tokens off, the hag teleported Beth closer and herself further from the action.  This is where we thought we had it won.  Suddenly, my raggedy wizard was sucked off into a corner with two monsters including an Environment strengthrned ghoul.  I used my fire blast but managed to slay only the rat swarm.  The ghoul took one swipe and down I fell.

Meanwhile, the others battled an assortment of fiends near the circle as well as dealing the death blow to the hag herself.  sadly, two of our companions dropped as well.  All we needed to do to win was remove the final three time tiles by simply starting and ending our turns in the circle.  unfortunately, two of the four characters in the circle were lying in pools of their own blood and we had but a single Healing Surge remaining.  Thus, with the monster defeated, we still took the loss.

To cap off the night we rolled out an oldie but a goody: Settlers of Catan.  It went as settlers often does.  While most of us bickered amonst ourselves, the 8s were noticeably absent and the 4s and 10s obscenely prevalent.  This was good for virtually everyone at the table except for Dennis and myself.  Mike O pulled out the ninja victory by slowly but surely building up his roads and armies while everyone else concentrated on whomever built the latest city.  In a stunning final move Mike O connected his two neighborhoods snatching away the longest road from Mike while simultaneously laying down his third knight to claim largest army for the win.