DATE:       Thursday, January 30

PLACE:     DaveO's

Attendees: DaveO, Rick, Tim, Linda

In what might be The Last Waltz an Dana Point, DaveO hosted a Thursday night gaming event - made into even more of an event by the appearance of Linda from San Diego. This was the true test for Linda...yes, she had seen "the Games", the CD's, the Books, but could she hang on an actual game night and still want another date with DaveO???? Well, she did, and with flying colors (at least by appearances.....time will tell...).

We broke the newbie in with a little Knizia. Very little, in fact - the card game Zero. This is a new one to the group, but in typical Reiner fashion, has a few twists. The O'Connor advantage was of no use hear, as Linda and Rick battled it out 'til the last round...with Linda picking up the victory in her first game!

Linda    38

Rick     39

Tim      65

DaveO  90

Next up was a new game by Michael Schacht, Mogul. This is an auction game which invoves buying and sellind stock, where timing is everything. Suffice to say, we were all pretty much blown away by the game - it is a winner. In fact, we liked it so much, we played it again, which happens about as often as Halley's comet in OCBG. This was actually due to Linda ragging DaveO about never playing a game more than once....could this woman be exerting influence where others had feared to tread? Or was it just the fact that DaveO smoked us in both games....

Game 1          Game 2

DaveO    50    DaveO    39

Linda     36     Rick       35

Tim       25     Tim        26

Rick      23     Linda      25 

Stimmt So was next, a quirky game with that irritating Aunt Emma from Dirk Henn. For some reason, this game didn't grab me as much as it did a couple of months back when we played it for the first time...maybe it was the fact that DaveO got the exact card he needed every round! Well, it was another whooping...Interesting note: Rick and Tim seemed to tie in every stock category!

DaveO    101

Rick        64

Tim        64

Linda      56

Begin with Knizia, end with Knizia, I always say. And what better game then the always befuddling High Society. Tim had never played, and try as he might his mathematical/accounting mind could not figure the game out! In the first game (yes, we played this one twice, also!) Linda accomplished the near-impossible feat of garnering two "2X" cards while scoring 0! This was due to the Thief stealing her only point card...a rule which Rick disputed, but was later shut down by the GaMeMaster^TM (yes, He was right...). In a weird twist of fate, Rick beat out DaveO by one for the win. In game number two, Tim, who had shot his wad in Game 1, could not muster a comeback against Rick's two card 20.

Game 1                    Game 2

Rick    11                  Rick     20

DaveO 10                 Tim      16

Linda    0                  DaveO 13

Tim     20 (least)       Linda   12 (least)

Welcome to the sickness, Linda!