September 27, 1998

Bob, Carol, Eric and Glenn were there. We played a game Bob picked up this weekend, Medici, Air Baron, which Glenn finally bought, and Euphrates & Tigris.

Medici was designed by the same guy who did Modern Art and Euphrates & Tigris. It’s a quick, fun, little bidding game for up to six players with simple rules and a lot of complexity. Definitely a keeper.

Air Baron was a good game save for the curse of bad luck which hit Eric early. If you get burned early by bad draws, it can be very difficult to recover. He never really did. (See 11/8/98.)

As usual, Euphrates & Tigris was complex and challenging. It looked like it might go quickly but some desperate end-game strategies drew out the conclusion.

We’re looking forward to our next session.

September 7, 1998

We played Advanced Third Reich. Bob was Germany, Steve was Italy, Glenn was Great Britain, Dan was France and Eric was Russia. The Reich did so-so. When we ended, they were ahead economically (big deal, they start there) and would’ve taken France within the year, but were getting slowly creamed on the Russian front.

We drew options at the start of play. France drew the “Maginot line becomes armored units” option which makes it harder for Germany to break through. Then England drew the “French and English cooperate” option which means that England can land troops in France with impunity to defend against German aggression. Germany drew the “better armored units in 1942” option which, of course, we never reached. This combined with German inexperience, resulted in a tough time for Germany. (Translation: Germany was almost defeated by Poland!)

It was fun and, hopefully we will play again, now that we all know most of the rules.