Second Place

Had a night of second place finishes at the CalTech game club. First up was a game of Ticket to Ride Europe with Mladen while we waited for another group to finish up Bohnanza. We played very fast. For the most part we were playing in separate areas of the board so not a whole lot of interaction but towards the end of the game we fought over some areas. I think I prefer Europe to the original game, but the original does have somewhat better player interaction in terms of cutting off routes. That tension is greatly lessened in the sequel. Still a great game though and it does fix most of the perceived issues with the original game. Anyway Mladen won the game 108-107.

Next up was Hansa, this time a four player game with Mladen, Jimmy, and Rebecca. Jimmy wound up winning, I took second, Rebecca took third...final scores were 40-39-38-37! Doesn't get much closer than that. I was very happy to come in fourth, I made some boneheaded moves early but came on strong. I don't play a lot of Hansa with my copy since Lauren is not a big fan and I own enough games that we can generally play stuff we both really like, but I do like the game. It has a smattering of luck, good mix of strategy and tactics, and a very elegant ruleset with no fluff to speak of - it's the quintessential German game. It is a bit on the dry side however.