Good Games and Sad News

Well, we finally did get a game of Battlelore in although it took two weeks of having the game set up and ready to go on a table in our living room. (Yes, we keep a big, ugly, plastic folding table smack-dab in the middle of our living room) We played the second scenario in the book. What a nail-biter! Ed beat me by one flag. I only needed one more turn to take him out. I love these Command & Color games. They don't overwhelm me with too many picky details or units to maneuver on any given turn. Battlelore will probably end up being my favorite due to the fantasy theme and the Days of Wondrous components. I can't wait to try a scenario with creatures and lore. That badass spider wants out of the box!

I also finally got to play Arkadia which I surprisingly loved. I knew it was a good game, having been nominated for the Spiel des Jahres and garnering many compliments by fellow gamers. However, many of the newer eurogames have been falling flat and feeling same-y to me lately. I mistakenly thought Arkadia was yet another majority control game when in fact, it's not. It's more about set collecting and timing when to sell your sets for the maximum profit. It has a nice spatial element that is card driven and the game allows for a little looking ahead to try to set up clever plays. It has that puzzle-y feel I enjoy and I like it a whole lot better than Zooloretto, the game that did take home the SdJ. I guess it's hard to compete against baby pandas for a family game award.

Lastly, I got to play the new 10 Days is Asia, a fine addition to this series of games. The trains add a nice new twist and once again my poor geography skills were challenged. I was rather disappointed in the quality of some of the components, though. I'm not sure I like the new larger map with its valleys and some of the tiles came already marked while still in shrink. At least that is an improvement over our 10 Days in Europe copy which came with many of the tiles stuck together.

I'm going to end this blog entry on a sad note. Last week, Ed and I, and a few others, attended the memorial services for Helen Dunsmoir, an off and on member of our gaming group for many years. Helen was challenged by a myriad of health problems that finally became too much for her body to take. She was unusually upbeat these past few months and seemed to enjoy our game days. We recently spent a very pleasant afternoon playing Empire Builder. She was only 40 years old :-(

Here's a picture from earlier in the year of Helen (on the right) and me playing To Court the King. Helen loved this game and nearly always requested it as a closer on our game days.

Posted by Susan Rozmiarek at October 11, 2007 12:49 PM