AM walked away with the victory and beginners luck was on T's side. He was really getting into it - might be an exciting guy to play Risk with. Good times, good times.

Note to self: Invite Mr. MA (emphasize the Mr. because there is a Mrs. MA too).

As with all my Talisman games, despite additional starting craft and a reduced craft/strength modifier, the game was slow in the beginning but then after a couple upsetting character deaths (like mine *grin*) it became interesting and ended in a glorious dash to the finish.

AM, BL, LI, and I were in attendance. LI suspended his character half-way through and BL swooped in the for the close win.

Getting back to the game, it is a cross between The Settlers of Catan and Drakon. The board unfolds with each players turn to generate scoring opportunities. You have a chance to subtly coerce your fellow players and interact with them to make the game more interesting.

We played at the T's place, RT, CT, and AM where there.

It is a fun game that I'd like to bring home during the holidays to play with my family. Not as intense as Risk or Monopoly but yet has a fun edge so even if you don't try to over analyze each move you still feel like something was accomplished after each rotation.

Alhambra is a board game with the goal of building the best palace. Game play is fairly straight forward, the primary actions are; pickup coin, buy palace piece, or re-arrange existing palace piece. Each player has their own palace and the goal is to score the most points by having the most palace pieces of a specific designation. There are various rules about how the palace can be constructed which increase the level of complexity. The game is broke up into 2 scoring rounds with a final scoring round when all the palace pieces are in play.

Within 90 minutes we were taught the rules and had a very fulfilling first game.  By chance I did win but I assure you that has no bearing on my appreciation for the game *wink*. My only complaint is that it was perhaps too isolated between players. The only direct interaction between players in the game is when players are deciding what palace pieces to buy.

The game reminds me of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects but with less confusion.

In attendance was AM (game leader), RT, CT, and me.  It didn't take long to grasp the finer points of palace construction but unfortunately the first game resulted in several gee-I-won't-build-like-that-again moments. CT scored big in the end with a wicked long wall. RT was well rounded but stuck with several unusable pieces at the end of the game. AM had a fierce palace with some intricate but useless internal palace walls that tripped him up.  My green pieces and modest outside wall were decent scoring each round.

It lacks the fierce competition of a game like risk or the fun frivolous player interactions between turns but it is a decent family game worth playing.

Have my friends warmed up to Drakon? I'm not sure, it will take another game to find out. LI, BL, VG and I were in attendance. The victory was almost mine until BL tripped me up which paved a way for LI to sneak in with the win. Beginners luck, this time

The Settlers of Catan is great clean fun, unless of course you happen to be a little to over zealous with the robber when a 7 is rolled! The game was fast moving in the beginning and started to slow near the end as everyone tried to make the most of every opportunity. Even as it slowed the turn based trading and building helped to keep the interaction frequent and interesting.

BE was AWOL. It was WO, JK, JZ, CF and I that played the first game. MR joined us for the second. JK won the first game because he was sneaky and drove his robot into a pit so it could respawn closer to the final goal. The second game I took the prize with a lucky bump onto the final flag from JZ. What luck!

JK had a great idea, swimming at the verona open pit. Yaw! MR tagged along but wouldn't put a suit on. We appreciated his company none-the-less and he was able to snap a few pictures.

The water was cold after the first jump, cool after the second jump, and swimable after the third. Perhaps it was because our skin was de-sensitized from hitting the water (or maybe our brains were a bit mixed up from the fall).

The evening was beautiful as the trees hinted of the fall colors that were about to abound. To my dismay the exotic teal green color of the clear water was gone and everything seemed so much darker as the sun poked in and out of the evening autumn clouds.