Game night

There was probably only going to be time for 1 or 2 games. With me I brought Power Grid, Modern Art, and Nobody But Us Chickens. My opponents had not played any of them before, and after a quick overview of each game, they opted for Modern Art. This was the only one of the three which I had never played myself. I knew the rules pretty well. A few minutes of instruction and we were underway...

I had read quite a few posts on Modern Art before even buying the game, but I still had no idea what to expect for Game Think(+). Once Around auctions seemed best for the auctioneer. Double Auctions were best to end the round quickly. One thing of note that occured in our game was that almost no paintings were auctioned for more than their final sale value. I believe this is simply because we were new to the game and were bidding conservatively. However, the effect of this is that players who didn't buy paintings got screwed. I imagine in a fiercely competitive game among experienced players that you could win even if you didn't buy many paintings.

I had no idea how well I was doing until it was all over. Final results:

me - 590
K - 596
C - 261

We had little time left after this, so we opted for Nobody But Us Chickens. I had good success introducing this game to others a few days before. Having played with 5 originally, I found the 3-player game to be somewhat lacking in "fun factor". There are too few cards coming down each turn, and it's over too quickly. We immediately played a second game. I think with 3 players that you should play 6 days. Final results:

me - 24
K - 15
C - 31

me - 33
K - 14
C - 18

Unfortunately Power Grid never hit the table. I was looking forward to my first face-to-face game with more than 2 players. I explained the game basics, and I think we will play it soon. I am likely to do a detailed analysis of Power Grid design at some point in the future.


(+) Game Think is what I call that place your brain falls into when playing a game. What decisions are you trying to make? How many variables do you have to juggle? Do you need to figure out what others are likely to do? Do you need to watch resources carefully? Who is in the lead? How much do you bid? Do you bluff? If you play there, will you get crushed? Arggghhh!!...You get the idea.