Games Pilgrimage

I planned on playing games at Carl and Becky's, but I didn't have a car since Liz was using it. I got to walk there. Not that bad of a walk really.

Once there, Carl and I marveled over some new games he got at a Goodwill. He found some gems. We didn't play any of them though. We weren't keen on reading any rules today.
We started with a game of Star Realms. Carl had the upper hand most of the game. I just didn't have anything good going for me.

After getting pizza, Becky joined in and we played...

Splendor 2-4 players

This a great little engine building game. There isn't much to it, but that's part of what makes it great. The game has you mining for gems of all sorts or owning mines. At least that's the theme. You all start with nothing and on your turn you can either grab 3 different colored gems (actually poker chips), grab 2 same color gems (if there is enough in the pile), reserve a card (and get a wild chip), or pay for a card (on display or in your reserve). The cards you've purchased count as the mines you own, meaning you can use them as a permanent gem. The more mines you own, the fewer chips you have to grab. Some of the more expensive mines have points on them. If you get the right combinations of mines, you win the favor of certain nobles in the form of bonus points. Once a player gets to 15 or more points the game comes to a close. It seems quite splendid to me. It was a nominee for a Spiel des Jahres which is why I caught wind of it. Not much comes in the box, which made a few people complain. I always see this as an opportunity. I sleeved my cards so I needed to make an insert that would let the thicker cards fit. I actually had the forethought to put the chips down the middle so that the weight distribution wouldn't be all wonky.

This was a new one for both Becky and Carl. They enjoyed it a lot. Carl had a strong lead for a while and Becky was close behind him. After refocusing on my goals, I was able to get back in the game and take the win.

We followed this up with a game of Fauna, also new to them. They thought it was pretty cool and mentioned that Carl's dad (biologist) would kill at this game. I won this game too.
Becky was tired by now so she headed up. Carl and I followed up with another two games of Star Realms. I exhaustively won the first game and disastrously lost the second.

Tally: 97/166  Bonus: 24/50