The small but dedicated group of gamers in the Northern Indiana area met last Friday and Saturday at my mom’s house in Elkhart, Indiana. Unfortunately, Erik Light’s impending wedding (among other business) kept him from attending. Marc Ammerlaan was expected, but couldn’t make it at the last minute. First arriving was Paul Seegers, followed by Father James McNeely, both of whom went to high school with Carol and me. Paul usually comes by our summer and Christmas gaming sessions, but doesn’t always have time to play. James, on an infrequent visit to Elkhart for our 20^th high school reunion, hasn’t played with our group in years.

We started out with four player Dragonland. Despite a hard fought game, James and Carol neglected to get one of their rings, each losing some gems and putting them far behind. Paul had the edge in sets over me and won the game.

Then came Web of Power. James shot out to an early lead in cloisters after the Interim scoring. On final scoring, I leapt up the pack with a solid showing in advisors. Unfortunately for me, Carol had enough of a lead that her equally impressive set of advisors kept her ahead for a tight win.

During Web of Power, Jeff, Zoe and 5 year old Ally Spencer arrived. James left, and the remaining adults played Jeff’s new game, Zombies!!! Zombies!!! is a beer and pretzels game where players move through a town trying to make it to the heliport while hordes of zombies move in from every direction. There is a good deal of luck involved in the drawing of cards, placement of building tiles, and combat roles. Turns out, the basic rules need quite a bit of tweaking. The movement rules are completely horrible and the game tends to run on and on as legions of zombies materialize between the players and the heliport. At one point, almost everyone had a chance to win, but poor die rolls ended their chances. Finally, Jeff made it to the heliport and zoomed away, leaving us to our doom. However, the atmosphere of the game is pretty fun. With suggested rules fixes from the web, gameplay might be shorter and a little less luck dependent.

During Zombies!!!, Paul Czarnota arrived. Afterwards, Paul Seegers had to leave so we swapped out Paul for Paul. Meanwhile, Zoe, Rachel and Ally played a game of Vampire Hunter. Zoe won.

Paul, Carol, Jeff and I played Vino, the winemaking and selling game. Paul took an early lead in vineyards in a couple of varieties and managed to use his economic muscle the entire game for a solid win. Then, Rachel and Zoe joined us for 6 player TransAmerica. It’s a fun game but there appears to be no discernible strategy and a large amount of luck. I won the first two rounds and did well enough in the third round for a quick victory. Rachel dropped out and two five player games of Coloretto followed, with Zoe winning the first and Jeff winning the second.

The same five players played a great game of Chinatown. Early on, it looked like Paul and Zoe were the ones to beat. But a strong mid-game by both Jeff and me put the game up for grabs. In the end, Jeff and I tied with $114,000 each!

Finally, at 4:30 AM, Paul retired and we played a four player game of Dragonland. Carol crushed us.

And the next night, Carol, Paul, James and I attended our 20^th high school reunion. It was fun. We are old.

The tote board is as follows (winner listed in bold):