GameNight - Louis XIV

Made it back to the CalTech game group for a meeting last night, I think it's been about a month since my last visit. Hopefully with the wedding planning done I will be able to make it more regularly, although honestly the real difficulty is in getting there after a normal day of work!

First up was Louis XIV, Rüdiger Dorn's entry into Alea's new medium-box line. I've tried to play this the last few times I made it to game night, but it just hasn't worked out until this week. Seems fitting that this it the week it worked out, since the game just won the Deutscher Spiele Preis for 2005. The DSP tends to give it's award to the more "gamer's game" type entries, as opposed to the more family-oriented Spiel des Jahres. Anyway I played against Ted and Peter and despite a horrendous first round I managed to finish a close third, 42-39-37 were the final scores. I liked the game better than many other influence/area-control games, and I'd gladly play it again, but there was nothing in there that really grabbed me. Everything felt kind of arbitrary and generic if that makes sense, the theme and the mechanics were a total disconnect for me, and that is usually not my kind of game.

After that I played games of Fist of Dragonstones and Dragon's Gold with Ted, Dan, and a friend of Dan's whose name escapes me. I won Dragonstones, I overbid a lot but it's better than underbidding in that game. I came in third in Dragon's Gold. Dragon's Gold is the only negotiation game I really enjoy with the game night crowd, the timer ensures that it will move along quickly. Although I realized I think I have just as much fun watching this game as I do playing it, and that's not a good sign. My main enjoyment comes from egging others on!