PowerGrid

Mom bought me PowerGrid for my birthday. So far this seems like a good addition to the collection. The best way of categorizing this would be as a return on investment game. You purchase powerplant in auctions -- more expensive plants can generate more power with less fuel. Each plant needs fuel units (coal, oil, garbage, nukes) or no fuel for wind power. The fuel is then bought on a market where the price increases as more are bought. Players then "buy" cities to power. Finally, you use your plants (and the fuel) to power a city and get paid for each city powered. Player turn is determined by who is (more or less) in last place and the last players do have a decided advantage in each round.

We have completed a full game. Brenna won this one going away. I waited too long to start acquiring large powerplants and couldn't fuel as many cities as her.

Wallenstein

Played one year of Wallenstein (out of the normal two). Kaitlin won by a wide margin. Kaitlin would be willing to play a full two years, but we would want to start a bit earlier in the evening (before everyone's brain shuts off).

Medina

Played a game of Medina. It really doesn't take that long with 3 players. Faster than I remembered. Everyone (kaitlin, jason, stewart) enjoyed the game.

Memoir 44

Jason introduced Kaitlin to Memoir 44 this morning playing the Sword Beach scenario. Kaitlin played the Allies and did quite well (had a major offensive going on the left flank), but it wasn't enough to pull out a win.

Who Stole Ed's Pants

Finished the evening off with a three player (Stewart, Margot and Jason) game of Who Stole Ed's Pants. Jason won. Stewart started off in a bad position (all 3 witnesses were the same and of a low ranking group). He never really got out of that hole (finishing the first round with 3 points). Jason really dominated this one from start to finish and never took a single point.

It should be pointed out, that Stewart was wearing the snazziest pants.

Hera and Zeus

Three games of Hera and Zeus happened. Kaitlin beat Jason (when he attacked Pandora in the same row as his Argus card), Jason beat Stewart when he discovered the location of Io using Pythia and then attacked down the column until he got Io, and Stewart beat Jason when he attacked Pandora in the same row as his Argus card.

Hera and Zeus is a bit of an odd game in that the majority of games are lost rather than won. What I mean by this is that your strategy is generally to play not to lose as opposed to play to win. In so many games this would be a problem, but because Hera and Zeus marches forward to a conclusion, no sort of paralysis in the game results. I still like this one after playing it for three years.

Memoir 44

Jason and Monica are visiting and brought a few games with them (including Memoir 44). Jason and Stewart played Memoir 44 today. We tried the Sword Beach scenario with Jason taking the Allied position. The Allies had trouble getting their units out of the ocean and the Axis had problems using the units on his right flank. The allies did a lot of damage on both left and right flanks, but the Axis artillary in the centre was untouched and caused damage. In addition, the Axis almost managed to pin down two Allied unit in the ocean. The game came down to a turn where the allied close assault failed because the axis had an ambush card and forced the allies to retreat. The axis then push forward an assault and finished the game.

I (stewart) still really like this game. Not having cards that would allow your most useful or at risk units to move is one of the frustrations that you need to work around to become good at this game. Also, I suspect that it must be possible to notice that your opponent has the same problem and take advantage of that. It will take subsequent plays to see if this is possible.