10-game gaming marathon

S and I hosted our monthly game night again last Friday, and this time we had an initial four, with one person showing up late and two more arriving about ten o’clock. (We didn’t mind T was late, as she brought these tiny little pancakes with pumpkin frosting, and they were delicious.)

We decided to play a quick game of Euronimoes with four before she got there, and, though I’m ashamed to admit it, it was the first time I had actually played the game with more than two real players. Often, when S and I are testing out a game, we play against Stone Elephant and Ceramic Chicken. Ceramic Chicken is very fierce, but he often plays too aggressively. Stone Elephant, on the other hand, tends to be fairly laid back (as you might expect from a gaming elephant).

So we had played it with “four” before, enough to know that it worked, but we had never actually sat down with friends to give it a proper go. It went really well. People had a little trouble with the scoring of the first game, but that was the only minor hitch. M explained the game to T (after she arrived with her mini pancakes) and in the second game everyone was playing like an old pro (T picked it up really quickly).

We moved on to Incan Gold and played that four times. It was, as expected, a big hit – people got the concept and the scoring right off, and everyone had a blast. Incan Gold has become my go-to game for parties, and it has never failed me yet. It is, in a word, brilliant.

K showed up and we rolled out TransEuropa. It was the first time S and I had played with friends, and I thought it worked very well with 6. It’s a very different game with more players, though, as other people do so much of your work for you. I had an unfortunate selection of cities the first three hands, but I cleaned up on the fourth and missed winning it by just one point. Not a deep game by any means, it’s still a lot of fun. I wouldn’t hesitate to bring it out again.

After M2 showed up and we had our full complement of 7, we moved on to EPYC (Eat Poop You Cat). This was the first time K had played with us, and we knew she was going to love it. She did. At one point she started laughing so hard I was afraid she was going to pass out. =^..^=

I was really beginning to fade by the time we started our second game of EPYC, even though it was only about 10:30, as I’ve had a lingering cold for the past two-and-a-half weeks. I didn’t want to call it a night, though, as everyone (including myself) was having so much fun. I was afraid folks would leave if I said I was headed off to bed.

When we finished our second game of EPYC, I was really ready to crash. Someone asked what we should play next, and I looked at S with bleary eyes. She said, “how about something short?” Short is good.

I pulled out No Thanks and we had a go with that. In order to make it work with seven players, I added another chip (so we’d all get 8) and left all 33 cards in. K took the 34 early (along with a ton of chips), then managed to get the 35, 33, 32, 31, and 30 (each with quite a few chips). Her final score was 5, and I think second place scored 16. Fun game, even though I was blotto.

So … 10 games total, and a grand time was had by all. It was nice playing again with a somewhat smaller group, as we were all able to play at just one table.

We brought out a wide range of games, but they all worked really well. I can’t wait to do it again next month. :-)