Last Game Played

Monday night, March 15.

Place - Via Cappuccino's, Rocky Mount, NC

Game - Catan: Germany.

Players - Ryan (Davis), Jeff (Diedrich), Frank (Hamrick)

Jeff had not played this Settlers iteration, so we used the "prescribed" set-up. Early on Jeff was drawing 2 cards about 2 of every 3 dr's. Ryan and I were consistently getting only 1. Then Ryan begin to get 2 and Jeff 3 resources every 2 or 3 rolls. I was still getting only one. Needless to say, I was struggling. However, I managed to get the longest road and for a while the game seemed to be a dead heat. By mid-game I was still operating with 5-7 cards while Ryan and Jeff were often holding 10-14! The robber just did NOT get rolled. "9" was the big roll and Jeff had that wrapped up. Still, we all kept fairly close and I even took the lead at 10-9-8. But then Jeff laid down 11 cards and took the longest road, the largest army and moved to 11 points to my 9. It took him two more turns to get the 12th and the win, and I picked up 2 more points on my last turn to finish second with 11 to Ryan's 10. Despite the card difference, it was an agonizingly close game. We all three like "Germany." I think it is the best of the Settler games.

Beautiful board. Nice 3-D monuments. Clean game play.

2010 Games/Gaming State

As of the first quarter of 2010, my current "hot games to play" list includes the following:

* Carson City (pictured above)

* Cosmic Encounter

* Homesteaders

* Small World

* Wars of the Roses

* Washington's War

Over the past 10 months of 2009, the following games had their hour of fame:

* Dominion & its expansions

* Agricola

* Le Havre

* Race for the Galaxy

* Small World

* Endeavor

* Steam

* Automobile

* Catan: Germany

Strange how quickly games come to the fore, burn brightly like a meteor for a few weeks or months, and then fade - some fade into oblivion, while others hang around, offering little more than a golden glow to remind of good days past and to occasionally still be enjoyed.

I suspect that most of those in the two lists above will be "glowers" once they fade. Only time will tell.

The past 3 months have also seen the sale of a good number of my older games who had even lost the glow - making room for the new meteors. Among those were Serenissima, Wildlife, Red Badge of Courage, the old AH version of Cosmic Encounter, Condottiere, Thurn und Taxis, Fist of Dragonstones, 1503 Pirates, Tide of Iron, Dragon's Gold, Alhambra, Hansa, Settlers of the Stone Age, and In The Year of the Dragon.

Games I am anxious to play for the first time, as of the middle of March: Imperial 2030, Wars of the Roses, and Washington's War. Perhaps soon.