Gaming Updates

I'm coming off of a great weekend for gaming. Following up on my previous reports, Sunday similarly included a number of fun games with Kevin, Matt, and Perrianne. Matt and I arrived at the Art School in Mechanicsburg and started off the session with not 1, not 2, but THREE games of Meepile. Game 1 feature the simple meeples and no rocker, but game two fixed that. We then moved on to balancing trains with Kevin. This game is great fun when you need that 5 minute filler while waiting for a game to finish off.

Then, we played Small World. Kevin had played Vinci before, but Matt was new to the game. I had a good time, but was left with a somewhat emptry feeling. Days of Wonder games sometimes do this to me, but it was almost too much flash and no substance. Perhaps they boiled away everything that made Vinci great. Either way, I do want to try Vinci again, though I could give or take Small World.

Ah, Amun Re. This is the third time (I believe) that I have played this classic game, and it continues to impress. The length of time is just right and the decisions are constantly tough but fun.

Vegas Showdown: Back to back auction games, and this one could easily be some sort of weird sequal to Amun-Re. Hmmmmm. Egyptians meet Vegas for the ultimate showdown! Well, that the comment lacks in humour is made up for by the likely lack of relevance it has. Vegas Showdown is a good solid game and it is a shame it is now out of print. It is also a shame that the components are so shody.

Finally, I was able to teach everyone Sushizock Im Gockelwock. Did I mention I had sushi for lunch? I gotta tell you, I keep inviting people to sushi festivities and people are starting to take me up on it....but there is room for more. Matt really liked this game, and I don't blame him. It's a heck of alot of fun and it again does exactly what it wants to do. Dice rolling sushi collecting fun that Wasabi! can't come close to matching.

That's it for "live" gaming, but I wanted to comment really quickly about some online gaming I have been doing. Here's the rundown:

Wallenstein

I think Mike, Dan, and myself will finally start this one up. Mike has played Shogun twice and Wallenstein online just once. Shogun is a favorite of mine and I think that Dan will also enjoy it.

China

Michael Schacht just released this version of China using the mabiweb platform. Along with Spielbyweb, this is one of the best play be e-mail servers, and I think that I will keep playing China for some time.

Brass

Now, if you have played Brass, you know that it is a terribly rules intensive and fiddly game. So you have to give credit to the designers of this site for doing a brilliant job with the online implementation.