This past Saturday, I met up with some friends to play games. There was another guy at the game store looking to play, so he joined us as well.
We started off playing Stock Pile because we thought another guy might be playing as well, but he couldn’t make it. Stock Pile continues to be one of my favorite games and one of the few that I tend to win more than lose.
After that, we played Thunder Alley, a game that I’ve been learning over the last week or so. The mechanics of the game are relatively simple, but the other players struggled with the rules. It took them awhile to wrap their heads around the concept. I think the biggest problem was that the mechanics of the game were just so different than anything else we’ve played. Close to the end of the game, I could see light bulbs going off in their heads when they were having those “Ah-ha” moments when they understood what was going on. At the end, they seemed to start enjoying it (right about the time the game was over). For me, I liked it the whole time, but was concerned they weren’t having fun, which makes it more difficult to relax and enjoy the game.
The last game we played was Istanbul. I like this game, but not as much as other people seemed to like it. Some people absolutely love it, but to me, it’s just an above average game, but not one of my favorites. Partly the reason I don’t like it as much as others is that you can be limited on your moves if other people are in a place you need to go (only one player can be in most places at one time unless you pay extra money, which I never seem to have). A lot of times, I find myself just circling, wasting moves until people move out of spaces. This can happen in other games, but it bothers me more in this game than most, for some reason (but I seem to be in the minority on this issue).
All in all, a really fun Saturday of game playing.