Toxicor vs Megaclaw

Played Monsters Menace America with Al while listening to Velvet Underground.

I was Megaclaw. Al was Toxicor.

Toxicor is the now the King of the Giant Monsters. Megaclaw fell over, re-squashing New York and rolling into the sea from whence he came.

Al says, "I don't care what anyone says, this is a great game. squISH squISH STOMP!"

Package

ThoughtHammer package arrived this afternoon. That was super fast.

In it was:

Mission: Red Planet - this is one of Al's birthday gifts. He likes to play games that have themes that tie into what ever he is currently reading. He's been reading a lot of turn of the century - 1930's Sci-Fi recently, so I thought this would fit the bill. Last fall he was reading a lot of Arthurian stuff. I tried to find him an Arthurian type game and was surprised to discover that there is almost nothing in print with this theme.

Marvel Heroes - also one of Al's birthday gifts. This one will be from Z. When she saw the box she squealed "Spiderman!" She clutched the box to her chest and carried it around the house for awhile with a huge, blissful grin on her face. The only other super hero game that we have is Power Puff Girls, which means that this game has a lot to live up to. It is hard to beat shooting dice at figs to knock them down. I know Marvel Heroes has gotten mixed reviews, but other than no whipping dice at the figs, none of the flaws that people have found are deal breakers for me. It's not a bidding game. It's not an abstract puzzle game. So I'm in.

Cleopatra and the Society of Architects - this is an abstract puzzle game. Fortunately it is not for me. Francie ordered this one as a birthday gift to herself. I told her I would play with her, since as abstract puzzle games go this one is prettier than Torres *spit three times*. If I play something she likes, she'll play something I like. True, there is a whole list of my games that she won't play, but eventually I think I can get her to work her way up to kicking some vampire butt. Just the other day she mentioned that she might be willing to try Return of the Heroes. She saw the board set up at our house and liked the map. Maps, trains and 3D game elements are her weak point. Fury of Dracula does have a very nice map as well as train rules.

Kingdoms - also something Francie ordered. It's a gift for her daughter. She is going to put this away for her daughter's birthday or something, which isn't until November. She gives me heck for having under played games on my shelf, but it is okay to hide a game away until November. She could have just waited until I did my fall order. She still doesn't get that I will order more games before November. She told me that she doesn't understand why I will need new games in six months when I still have T&E sitting on my shelf and haven't played it with her yet. Mostly she just likes to yank my chain about T&E, because she really wants to try it and we keep putting it off. I bought T&E last year when Al was reading some ancient civ something or other. Dan told me that it was chess-like. Al plays chess, so I got it for him. We attempted to play it twice, and laughed our asses off, but not in a good way. So we shelved T&E and pulled out Age of Mythology and slugged it out with Medusa and the Mummy. Age of Mythology may be a deeply flawed game, but having that Medusa sitting on your card satisfies that ancient civilization itch so much better than inner, outer, exterior whatever conflict. So what was I saying? Oh yeah. Francie got S some math homework Kingdoms for a birthday gift. I threatened to teach S some math and some probability and statistics. Three letters. RPG baby. Francie just rolled her eyes.

Counter Trays - so I spent the rest of the afternoon punching and sorting Betrayal at House on the Hill into my new counter trays, while my mods compiled and my jobs ran.

Gammarauders

Al says he will play Gammarauders with me if I can remember how to play. Okay, I can't remember how to play, but I can read the rules. I remember this game had a problem with being a bit endless with only two people. I'll have to do some research to see if anyone has ever come up with a solution to that. I'm also thinking of pulling out the reverse combat results and the teleport cards. If I remember correctly, the reason we haven't played this game in a decade is that the last time we played, I threw down both of these on the same turn and won game, resulting in Al vowing that he would never play Gammarauders again.

CGC

Sat. CGC was meeting just a few miles from my house, so Francie and I decided to check it out. Our goal was to meet some gamers, and play some new games. Francie's birthday is in a few weeks and she wants a new game. We crossed our fingers and hoped it wouldn't be teenagers playing CCGs or scary old dudes pushing chits with tweezers.

There were about eight guys there, all very nice, playing Euros. Most were married and had kids, so they didn't mind that we brought the girls along. Z and S found a corner on the floor and played A Dog's Life Francie spotted a copy of Cleopatra and the Society of Architects which she has been wanting to try for awhile. The owner was happy to set up the game and teach us to play. Francie won, no surprise, and I got thrown to the crocodiles, also no surprise. It wasn't my kind of game, but it wasn't bad. I could tell that Francie loved it, so I told her that if she got it, I would play with her. I think it is a solid family game that S and Francie's parents could play.

Francie and S played a game of Wizard with a couple of the guys who wanted to play something light after finishing Power Grid. I thought it was really nice that they had no problem letting S play. Meanwhile, I played a game of Modern Art. I was surprised that I actually enjoyed this game and didn't do too poorly (came in second). I might be willing to play it again.

I left to take the girls to dinner. Francie stayed and played El Grande which she really liked. I told her that Al and I would play that with her too, but she felt she wouldn't get to play often enough to be worth owning. Other than Al and I, she mostly plays with her daughter and parents, so she she won't buy anything that they won't play. So it sounds like it will be CaSoA for her birthday gift.

I had an enjoyable enough time to be willing to make the longer drive to the club's regular meeting location. Al wants to come next time too.