South Tuesday Session, 2/28/06

Six of us (although George was pretty late and didn't end up gaming) showed up at Mike's for our weekly session. Since we were waiting for George, we played 6 Nimmt, which is a fun little light card game. It hasn't seen much table action at my place since I got Hornochsen, although to be honest that doesn't get out much either. This is a very simply game where everyone plays a card face down, then when they are revealed they go onto one of four piles if they are above the topmost number on that pile but below the next pile's topmost number. Cards are played in numeric order, and once a pile hits six cards, the person who played the card is stuck with all of the points on all of the previous cards. It's wacky fun, and a good "waiting for George" game.

In our game, Mike was doing great, with only six points garnered over several hands. While no one really was trying to screw him (and in this game it's really not something you can actively do), he ended up taking pile after pile in the final hand. I was all set to win the game, but on the very last card I ended up with around 8 points to come in third. Mike tied for the win with Carey even after garnering something like 30 points. A good filler, I'll have to bring Hornochsen so that we can compare the different versions.

George was still not there (he'd left a message with Mike's teenage sons, never a reliable method with almost any family), so the five of us pulled out El Grande. This doesn't see enough table time in our group, but that can be said about so many games. Tim has been playing this game for, I kid you not, 12 years, so he got off to an amazing lead. Partly because no one had tried the old 2-1-13 power card sequence in the first round, so he just played his 13 on turn 3 when his turn came up. When I tried to play my 2-1-13 combo, he screwed me by playing his 1 under my 2, and it went downhill from there. Well, not entirely...

By the last turn, Tim was a good 20 points in the lead, but a fortuitous group of action cards gave me quite a few points for scoring various regions, and I made a good run of it, but in the end Tim still won by 11 points.

Astonishingly, this was the first time Mike's copy had seen play, and this was one of the first Euros he had bought way back when. So old, that the scoring track was one that didn't have any reference numbers on it. Wow.

Thanks for hosting, Mike!