And so it goes. Games, games, games.
Ashlei(pirate)
Captain Condom (victim) <--- I have no idea WHO that is! Not even sure if he's real!
Cathy Willms (pirate)
Chrissy (pirate)
Dave (ninja)
Don Phelps (pirate)
Faith (ninja)
Fenwick (pirate)
Gordon (ninja)
Joe (pirate)
Mike (pirate)
Mitesh (pirate)
Nolan (ninja)
Paul (ninja)
Sam (ninja)
Sean (pirate)
Tim (victim)
TJ (ninja)
Victoria (ninja)
19 people!! And let's look at this week's breakdown: Ninjas = 8. Pirates = 9. Victims = 2.
My camera is still broken, so the images are still quite random. Try to find the connection to the game!! Ooh, it's a puzzle. I think Ashlei took some, so we might get some more relevant ones up later...
[2:10 pm] Cartagena 2: The Pirates Nest
Players: Sean (p), Ashlei (p), Nolan (n), Fenwick (p) Removes some of the simplicity of the first version, which was some of its charm. I do like it, but the flow is somewhat interrupted by the boat passage. It seemed a LOT harder to play catch up -- it seemed likely to have a runaway winner with no chance of even coming close to catching up (this will be proven when we discuss the results in a moment...). I would guess we'll play Cart I a LOT more.
Ashlei really hated it. Specifically, she said that "this boat #*@%ing sucks."
Nolan got all six of his pirates to the nest, but didn't have any action points to raise the flag for the win. It's quite alright -- he was comfortably winning. After the flag was raised, he had all 6 of his in, Chris had 2 in, Sean had 1 in, Ash had 1 in, too.
[3:00 pm] Pivot
Players: Dave (n), Fenwick (p), Sean (p) 
This is an old game club standard when we need a filler. Simple greater-than/less-than up/down game mechanic. Plays quick. Simple. Lot of luck, but you can try to plan ahead some... hey, it's better than Uno!
Dave won 4 games.
Sean won 3 games.
Fenwick won only 1 game.
[3:30 pm] Castle Keep
Players: Dave (n), Sean (p), Fenwick (p), Gordon (n) Another new game for game club. It's a
Gamewright game. It's an american company that makes good games, which is unfortunately rather rare. Their games are ALWAYS of very high quality and rich in theme. Many of their games are for younger kids, but even the ones for youth can mostly be enjoyably played by anyone. This one kind of falls into the middle of their range... We've played other Gamewright games:
Loot, Maya Madness, Zeus on the Loose, Frog Juice (love that one) -- all very cool games.
Turn the Tide is theirs, too, which I think is one of the most challenging bidding games I have ever played with one of the cutest themes (Sheep getting flooded!) I have ever seen.
This one has a castle seige theme... you need to build your castle, and try to destroy your opponents' castle. It's basically a matching kind of game -- silly fun, and with high potential for screwage. This is game club gold.
"Go away, or I shall taunt you a second time!"
We played 3 games. Sean won the first 2. Dave won the 3rd. Fenwick and Gordon didn't win at all.
[3:40 pm] Cartagena
Players: Paul (n), Sam (n) Sam brought Paul to have some fun, which was awesome -- New player!
Cartagena is a good intro game... it's basically Candyland for adults.
Sam got all 6 of his dudes on the boat while Paul only got 3.
Pirates. NOT known for subtlety.
[4:00 pm] Great Dalmuti
Players: Dave (n), Gordon (n), Faith (n), Victoria (n), Captian Condom (v) The quote of the day comes from Tim, who, right before this game began declared: "Does my banana offend you?"
Somewhere in the middle of Game Club, almost always gets a call for Dalmuti. It's simple and has a lot of tension, and causes everyone to get up and move between each hand of play, great to prevent blood clots in the leg!
This was a rather rowdy game of G.D., and actually no score was even recorded. They played for about half hour, and then the game sort of petered out... Not sure who won.
We did have to remind folks of the number 1 rule of game club: "We are here to play games. We are NOT here to have fun."
[4:10 pm] Hive
Players: Don Phelps (p), Fenwick (p), Sean (p), TJ (n) FOUR players are listed for a TWO player game. Whassup with dat? Of course, we rotated... Although it has been suggested that getting two sets, and putting dots on one set to indicate a difference, and playing a FOUR PLAYER game of hive can be rather ridiculous. I can only imagine.
Anyway.... here's how it went:
(Bold indicates winner)
Game one:
Phelps vs. Fenwick
Game two:
Phelps vs. Fenwick
Game three: Phelps vs. Sean
[DRAW!]Game four: Phelps vs. Sean
[DRAW!]Game five: Phelps vs. Sean
[DRAW!]Game six:
Sean vs. TJ
Yes. You read correctly. Don Phelps and Sean had THREE tied games in a row. It was madness. Sheer, unadulterated madness.
[4:30 pm] Voltage
Players: Ashlei (p), Fenwick (p) Simple play. Great bits. All sorts of screwage. The mechanic of some of the card BACKS indicating when to switch the polarity of the circuits makes me very happy. You can see what the next cards will be, and know whether it will be a switch. And then you have to decide whether or not to pick it, or let your opponent have that chance. Painful choice sometimes.
The game goes quick, and has an air of games like Knizia's Poison and Figaro, where you don't want to push a total up too far. The device here is different, but it feels like I'm using the exact same brain cells. It's actually a lot more like Heave Ho! in game play. But I DEFINITELY like this better.
For a game by Mattel, this is tremendous. I hope this is successful and they make more games like this. Definitely has a much more Euro feel than I expected.
Simple card playing game -- if a row has a +, you need to overload the circuit (have higher valued cards), if it has a -, you need to 'underload' the circuit (have a lower value). You just need to get to 4 points to win the game. SO, there is some really good tension... the game stays close throughout.
Ashlei won, 4 to 3.
[4:45 pm] Elk Fest
Players: TJ (n), Fenwick (p), Ashlei (p), Gordon (n) This is a dexterity game where you flick 'stones' to allow your moose to get across a 'river'. It is definitely reminiscent of high school cafeteria tabletop games involving quarters and paper footballs.
The bits are remarkable. The gameplay is OBVIOUS -- just one look at the bits, and you know how to play. The laughter is non-stop. It's amazing how much you have to adapt to how your opponent plays. I hate to attribute any kind of strategy to a game based on FLICKING, but it sneaks in.
If you want just plain fun... join the Elk Fest. Best moose party in town.
Fenwick played Ashlei. ASHLEI won.
Fenwick played TJ. TJ won.
TJ played Gordon. TJ won.
TJ played a bunch of other people, too, I think. I remember seeing games going on which we failed to record. TJ WON THEM ALL.
TJ said, "I am pretty sure I will never play any other game. EVER." (I think he liked it.)
[5:30 pm] Ave Caesar
Players: Sam (n), Paul (n), Fenwick (p), Cathy W. (p), Chrissy (p), TJ (n)/(replaced by Sean (p) after Race 1) 
Another new game! OUR FIFTH one this game day. O, glorious day!
This is a crazy chariot race. Another simple, almost obvious game play -- we each have a deck of cards with numbers (1 to 6). Play a card, move than many spaces. The track expands and contracts, and bottleneck points can cause congestion. Knowing when to hang back and then burst forward is key. VERY fun. Playing with all six players is just amazing. The bits are wonderful. I wish the smallest spaces on the track were big enough to fit the chariots; some are not. I know the ones in front of Caesar are there to pay tribute, so we turn the chariot sideways and wave to him, but some on the track are too small to fit the bits. BESIDES THAT (and that is a TINY little criticism) the game has basically no flaws. Quick to learn, quick to play, often painful, lots of screwage. Perfect.
A full game is 4 races, each one running about 15 minutes...
The race results were (listed in order from winner to loser)...
Race one: Sam, TJ, Chrissy, Cathy, Paul, Fenwick
Race two: Cathy, Chrissy, Sean, Sam, Paul, Fenwick
Race three: Sean, Sam, Fenwick, Cathy, Chrissy, Paul
Race four: Paul, Fenwick, Sean, Cathy. Both Sam and Chrissy were blocked from Caesar's Tribute, and were disqualified.
Final scores...
TJ/Sean: 16
Cathy: 12
Sam: 12
Chrissy: 8
Paul: 8
Fenwick: 7
Hmmm. We've been trying to think of good life-sized games for the Welcome Back Bash next week... Ave Caesar, perhaps?!?! Man, that looks so awesome.
[6:18 pm] Incan Gold
Players: Victoria (n), Joe (p), Mitesh (p), Faith (n), Gordon (n), Mike (p), Tim (v) Incan Gold has been played nearly every game club since being introduced! It's a fun simple one, and a great one to finish off game day. Lots of laughs, and a cool Indiana Jones-style theme of tomb raiding...
They played 3 games...
Game one: Victoria wins!
Game two: Victoria wins!
Game three: Mitesh wins with ONE HUNDRED AND TWELVE gems! (I didn't even know that was POSSIBLE!)
Bunches of new games, and bunches of new people. It was a good, good day as usual.
WEDNESDAY IS TALK LIKE A PIRATE DAY!! All Pirate games ALL AFTERNOON and EVENING!! (ARG!)
Pirates rule.
Another new game! OUR FIFTH one this game day. O, glorious day!
