November 5, 2000

The first game up was Formula Dé. We ran a two-lap race, running on the Portugal Estoril track for the first time. Eric took the lead near the end of the first lap. Eric still had most of his tire points left, so he chose not to make a pit stop. Glenn also decided not to make a pit stop. Bob and Carol both stopped. Bob went into the second lap with no break points left. Throughout the second lap, Eric’s lead increased, while Bob and Glenn fought each other for second place. Two die rolls before the finish line, Eric rolled a 30 on the 6th gear die, lost his last engine point, and did not finish the race. Bob crossed the finish line first, followed by Glenn. Carol finished third.

Next up was Chrononauts. This was the first time any of us had played this game. It reminded everyone a little of Fluxx (both games are by the same designer). A timeline consisting of 32 cards is laid out. Each card represents some important historical event. Players each have an ID card (listing a certain sequence of historic events) and a mission card (listing three artifacts). Players play cards to alter the timeline (for instance, flipping the “1865 - Lincoln Assassinated” card over to “1865' - Lincoln Wounded”) or collect historic artifacts. The first person to match the timeline on his ID or collect the three artifacts on his mission card wins. Eric won on his ID (Werner). The game received good reviews from all four of us.

Then we played Lord of the Fries. We only played one round, using the Long Wok menu. Eric was the only one who had played this game previously. At the end of the round, Bob had the high score of 38. This game seemed a little lack-luster but, that may have been because we were playing with too many cards for the small number of people. If each player has too many cards, menu items are created too easily, eliminating much of the strategy in picking them (not that there’s all that much strategy to begin with).

After Lord of the Fries, came Hare and Tortoise. This was the second time for this game for Bob and Carol but, the first for Eric and Glenn. For most of this game, we were all fairly even. Near the end, Eric pulled out ahead. Then Bob passed him and, stopped just short of the finish line. Eric didn’t have enough carrots to reach the finish line in one move, and it looked like Bob was going to win. However, Eric landed on a rabbit space, rolled a 6, and got a second move and crossed the finish line first. Bob came in second.

Last up was Frank’s Zoo. This game bears a strong resemblance to The Great Dalmuti and Corporate Shuffle. One player leads with any number of cards of a certain animal. The next player can either play the same number of a higher ranking animal or, one more of the same animal (for example, if the lead is two fish, the next player can either play two whales or three fish). One significant difference between this game and Great Dalumti is, certain high ranking animals can be out-ranked by certain low ranking animals (for example, elephants can be out-ranked by lowly mice). Another difference is, while you get points for playing all of your cards first, you also get points for having collected certain cards. Eric won this game by a narrow margin.