Perudo (Liar's Dice)

I played this game with Brandon and Kris and really liked it, as did Brandon.  Kris had problems trying to understand it at first, and by the time she caught on it was too late for her to win.  I have found that when we play new games, if she doesn't win, there is little chance of getting her to try it again, however, on this game she said she would maybe give it one more shot.

I won this particular session because at the last move, Brandon made a bid that was impossible for him to win.

Dust

After a horrible game of Munchkin, we were saved when Chris arrived and our game of Dust was the center of attention. The players were Chris, Wil, Ricky and Myself (it was getting late and Brandon decided not to play and instead did some WoW gaming with Wil's son).

Dust was a lot of fun and had a good mechanic with the cards, although it was almost like every rule we had done was wrong which later Wil admitted to us when he read the rules a few days before he was completely drunk - thanks Wil.

The game was probably won by Chris, but we didn't get a chance to play through until the end. The hilight of this game was Chris' melted tank. Apparenlty one of the pieces was defective, and the front was all melted. Ricky shot at one of Chris' tanks and then made some off handed comment like "hey, look, it is really melted!" and it was a good laugh (but one I think you had to be there for).

Munchkin

Ok, I know there are a lot of people that really enjoy this game, but I really didn't. Wil came over and we had some time to kill, so Ricky, Brandon, Wil and myself decided to give this a while while waiting on Chris to show up so we could play the new FFG relase "Dust".

Munckin is a goffy and light RPG Card Game, but I personally thought it was pointless and a waste of time. I can see how there could be an appeal by some people, but I just wasn't seeing it. I can't say this is a horrible game, because I did see how Wil and Brandon had fun, but Ricky and I just didn't get it.

Before you spend money to buy this game, I'd recommend trying to play a game with somoene who already owns it first to see if you enjoy it enough to make the purchase.

Conquest of the Empire (Final Game)

This is the last game of Conquest of the Empire I will play with my regular gaming group. The players were myself, Brandon, Wil, Ricky and Chris. We wanted to do the advanced rules because they were so much fun, but with an odd number of players this time that wasn't going to work out, so we played the traditional rules for a standard game.

I enjoy the standard game and always have a lot of fun, but having played the advanced version the last time we played this game, I really feel that the advanced rules with six players is where this game really shines.

The Conflict started in the start of the 2nd Turn as Ricky (playing Italy) launched an attack on me (next to him), pissed by this I launced an all out offensive against Ricky. I lost all of my generals by turn 4, but had crippled Ricky enough to ensure he would not be able to win the game.

Wil spent the game so far claiming land and building a sizable army, as did Chris... Brandon kept to himself down in Africa, afraid to engage into to much conflict, he had a small battle with Chris over the territory just over his land bridge, which Chris withdrew from, not wanting to put too many resources into Brandon with all of the Derek/Ricky conflict happening.

Then Chris made his move, and boated over to my capital and grabbed my Ceasar, taking control of my army in addition to his.

Thats when Brandon made the game winning move, having bided his time in Africa, waiting and waiting, Brandon did a back door move, taking Chris' Ceasar without a single casualty.

Brandon now had control of his army, Chris' army and Derek's army... Ricky was crused in the next turn as Brandon wiped him out (leaving him with only his capital between his troops and Ricky's Troops - apparently some of my remainging survivors must have filled Brandon's army in on Ricky's initial move - haha).

With Ricky gone, and Wil the only one left... he decided to call the game, he figured he could hold out against Brandon, and stretch the game on for a couple more hours, but there would be no way to win with Brandon in control of the rest of the world (Wil was in Spain), also with Brandon alreay in triple inflation, it wasn't going to work. 

Winner: Brandon (in the BEST move I have ever seen in any game anywhere, ever, period!) I have some photos I took of the move he made and will eventually post them here.

Dungeons and Dragons - 4e Test Game

Wil had the advance copy of the new 4e Starter Set rules, and although I am not to keen on going into another edition of D&D, I agreed to give it a shot. I will write a longer report on a later date about my views and opionions on D&D, but for now I'll keep this to a short and sweet report of our test game. The players were Myself, Brandon, Ricky and John. Wil was the DM.

The initial conflict was a quick dungeon adventure that had our group go up against some Kobolds, and the second was out group going up against a level 4 black dragon. The Kobolds were pretty easy to take out, but the Dragon was near impossible. Wil later admitted he figured out the encounter level and we were outmatched from the start.

Overall I liked the game, the system seemed easy and streamlined, and the combat was an improvement over the other editions, especially for the magic users (which I hated playing in previous versions of the game), now I had a good time playing them as they had something to do every turn.

I did feel as though the game was basically WoW on paper, with some elements from Descent thrown into it. With that being said, if Wil had come over with a "new game" to try out, I would have enjoyed it much more than I did with trying out a new "Dungeons & Dragons" since this did not feel anything like D&D to me (and remember, I started playing in the mid 80's, so I have had a lot of experience playing the game!).

I think this game will go over well though, and look for my future thoughts on this subject in later postings.