Game Night at the Condo

A 6-hour game night with pizza, chit-chat, and Guitar Hero II in the background allows for exactly 2 medium games to be taught and played. We had 11 people show up, but since there was at least 1 non-gamer, they played a bunch of lighter games at the B table (Wits & Wagers, Catch Phrase, and Ra). 4 of us sat at the A table...

Inkognito
I was hot to play this again. 2 players were new to it. After only 3 rounds, I knew who my partner was. But since many of our possible missions involved knowing the other players' identities and attributes, I needed a lot more information. It wasn't until the 7th round that I was able to inform my partner of my mission (D), and not until the 9th round that I was able to query him for his mission (C). In previous rounds, I was positioning my pieces and the Ambassador to be as close as possible to the various objectives. Once I knew our mission was C/D, I knew I had already completed our mission. I claimed! My partner was dead quiet. Had I made am incorrect deduction? No. He was my partner. His mission was C, and mine was D, and the C/D mission was "Move the Ambassador to the Embassy". Wait!... Oh my god! I'm Fiddlebottom! It's not C/D! It's D/C! We have to get the Ambassador to location 8! The good guys loose in a fit of dyslexia, and I hang my head in shame.

Amun-Re
My second play offline, this time with only 1 new player. It's tough to give good advice to a new player. There are so many ways to play, and some of your choices hinge on which bonus cards you have. After the first scoring, the new player had 7, and I had the most with 18. The auctions in the New Kingdom were brutal since some provinces had 2 pyramids and some had none. The player in last place managed to acquire 3 temples and push the sacrifice up to level 3, netting him 9 points. He won by 2 points.


Inkognito image by juan-agustin