December 5, 1998

Tonight we tried three new games, plus played a few old favorites. First up, we played Mag-Blast. Carol’s special ability allowed her to draw two reinforcement ships at any time during the game. This turned out to be critical as she was able to keep her flagship protected the entire game. Eric’s special ability was that each of his fighters was worth three instead of the normal two; unfortunately he never drew a carrier, which is necessary to use fighters. Glenn’s special ability allowed him to draw two ship cards and take the best one, whenever he was allowed to draw a ship. Bob’s special ability allowed any of his scout ships to fire a mag-blast (usually only dreadnoughts can fire mag-blasts) but, at the cost of discarding the scout ship.

Eric, Bob and Glenn had trouble getting enough reinforcements. Carol was able to eliminate both Bob and Eric on the same turn. A few turns later, she eliminated Glenn with a Direct Hit/Catastrophic Damage combo.

Next we tried Mississippi Queen. The game was fairly close. Glenn picked up both of his passengers early which gave him an advantage but, despite that, only won by one hex. Eric finished in second. Bob finished in third and, Carol in fourth, each only a turn behind the person in front.

After that came Monsters Ravage America. During the game, Carol, playing the Swamp-Lasher and the Army, managed to take a huge lead in health (over 40 while everyone else was in the 20 to 30 range). Combined military attacks by Eric (the Snake God and the Marines), Bob (Konk, the Great Ape and the Air Force) and Glenn (the Carnosaur and the Navy) managed to knock her down a little but, she still had a lead going into the final battle. She chose to fight Bob first, as he had the least health. She won but, because of Bob’s mutation, which allowed him to hit more often than normal and, some unlucky dice rolling, she came out in a weakened condition. Next she fought Eric, but Eric’s mutation allowed him to do more damage per hit, and he won, but just barely. Then Eric fought Glenn; unfortunately for Glenn, neither of his mutations were useful in the final battle. Eric won.

Honor of the Samurai: Eric declared himself Shogun very early in the game and managed to keep it for a whole round. However, Bob then took it from Eric and, because of a lack of ki, Eric was never able to recover. Bob was able to hold the Shogunate for two rounds before Glenn took it away. Glenn developed a very respectable lead in military strength and held on to the Shogunate until he won the game.

Silent Death: At this point, Carol went to bed leaving just Bob, Eric and Glenn to play. We decided to have a three-way battle with each side having 100 points worth of ships. Glenn chose a Sorenson and two Kosmos, with 5s for his gunners. Eric chose two Lance Electras, with 5s and 6s for gunners. Bob took a Pharsi, with 10s for his gunners. Bob’s 10s proved decisive as neither Eric nor Glenn were able to roll high enough to do much damage to Bob. Glenn was also hurt by the fact that the Sorenson has no point defense against missiles.

Titan: the Arena - Eric was able to make three bets and a secret bet in the first round. He was able to keep his secret bet and two of his three first round bets alive, winning him the game.