Architecturally intriguing...

The first official meeting of the second semester of the game club happened on Monday, January 23, 2006! It's good to be back.

Jake did some game purchasing over the break, and one of his new purchases was Villa Paletti, a strategy/dexterity/building game. It's a nifty little game where you are all taking turns building a tower. The game begins with a bunch of columns in different colors holding up the second floor of the tower. Each turn consists of moving a piece from the bottom floor to the second floor. Once enough columns have been moved up, another floor is placed, and the tower climbs higher. The different columns have different point values, so there is some strategy regarding which columns to move. Since they still have to support the lower floors, your choices may be limited.

The game conveniently comes with a hook, with which you can yank those pieces out, sometimes with vigor and enthusiasm. The first time I (Chris) chose a questionable piece to withdraw, and yanked that hook fiercely, I let out a battle cry which caused the entire table to just about jump out of the pants. It was great.

We had four players for the game -- Jake (yellow), Manny (green), Chris (blue), and Danielle (Red).

As you play through the game, the person with the most points on the highest level gets the "Master Builder Seal" to note the current leader, as well as the previous leader. If anyone besides the leader destroys the building, the leader wins. If the leader destroys the building, the previous leader wins. As we built up, Jake got the seal first. Chris (after continuing his groaning and screaming each turn) obtained the seal next. Danielle got the seal as she started on the next floor.

Jake then knocked it down -- Danielle wins the first game of the year!!

[There is a sort of deluxe version of the game called Palazzo Paletti -- probably also fun -- if you have $125 to throw around on a game. Yeeps.]