After putting in extra hours at work on Saturday, I was ready for some games that night. Louis was the first to show up, and we weren’t sure if anyone else was going to join us, so we started to setup Settlers of America. Just as we were getting ready to start, though, Ryan, Kevin, Joe and Phil joined us. Joe, Kevin and Ryan volunteered to watch.
Settlers combines the basic Catan gameplay of rolling for goods and trading with other players, and Railways of the World’s need to deliver goods from one place to another. The interesting thing, is that the player’s available goods are limited by the number of settlements they control. The game starts everyone off in the Eastern US, and we needed to travel West to create new settlements. I started off between Phil and Gina and I was able to quickly ship goods to both of them before needing to expand much further. Louis had delivered to most of the Southeast before expanding to the Montana region. I followed Louis up there, and I was able to expand onto some good numbers. I was getting quite a few materials each round and I was able to easily deliver to Louis’ settlements. At the end, Phil had started to resettle some available locations in the East, so I was able to make tracks to them and finish the game by delivering my last goods to them.
Overall, it’s a pretty neat game. There’s a lot more game to it than the basic Catan without losing a lot of what makes Catan great. My only worry is that the static board would get a bit dull after a while compared to the ever changing board in standard Catan.
We followed that up with Princes of Florence with Gina, Phil, Joe, Louis and I playing. Nothing really of note happened in the game. I was having a tough time getting a Lake due to Joe monopolizing them. I also couldn’t get a Recruiting card when I needed on because of Phil. The game ended with Phil pulling off the most Works and seizing the game by a few points.
It was getting late, so we decided to play a quick game of Zombie Dice. Gina was able to get a big run after a couple rounds and got to 18 brains. I was the next closest with 11 and no one was able to get anything going, so she won with ease.
Following that, Kevin, Louis, and Ryan called it a night, but Phil and Joe were interested in playing another game. Since I don’t get to play it often enough, I broke out Revolution! The game started off well with Joe taking up a strong position in the Fortress, while I took the Harbor. Gina and Phil were sharing the Cathedral. Phil was picking up a strong lead with the Printer, but it wouldn’t be enough. The game came down to what I thought would be the last turn, as there was only one spot left in the Cathedral. Sadly for me, Joe was able to force a tie for the Priest with Phil, and the Cathedral was left empty. In doing this, Joe had left himself prepared with more Blackmail and Force than anyone. He was easily able to take the Spy and Apothecary on the last turn. He moved some of my cubes around causing me to lose the Market and Town Hall. This was a 80+ point swing in his favor and gave him the game. It was definitely one of the more exciting games we’ve played and good end to the evening.
Until next time, happy gaming!
Meandering the Dune Sea 
Cool. I’ve never heard of Revolution before. I do want to try out both Settlers of America and Florence though.
I had gaming every night this weekend, including Small World, Small World Underground, Scene It, Red Dragon Inn, The Adventurers, 7 Wonders, and of course Cosmic Encounter.