I’ve been playing some games with Johanna during the holidays.

I wanted to introduce Attika to Johanna. I thought she might like it, the whole constructive attitude of the game. In the other hand, I thought it might be a bit too complicated. It turned out well. We both played a good game (I suspect the tiles weren’t mixed well enough, as we both completed all our groups and got every amphora possible!), but Johanna won. She thought the game was a bit complicated (and I very much agree — for the first few games everyone should be a bit confused), but I think she enjoyed it enough.

We also played Finstere Flure, which I like a lot and Johanna too. This time we played real two-player game with just one team for each player. We also introduced crystal boulders, which are the simplest of the special objects. It was fun and as the general theme of these games go, Johanna won. Speaking of Finstere Flure, check out this Geek article about alternate seven-player scoring. Interesting!

Our Christmas eve game this year was Pirate’s Cove. Johanna wanted to try the game, mostly because it looks so cool. Can’t blame her, as I most certainly agree. The game looks great. It turned out to be a pretty ok two-player game, too. Well, I probably wouldn’t play it with anyone else than Johanna, as all games get an enjoyment boost when played with Johanna — I don’t think Pirate’s Cove is a good two-player game unless played with someone special. We did have fun, though. Johanna won the game. We had only one fight against each other (I fought against a Legendary Pirate twice), during which Johanna sunk my ship. What a bummer.

Our last game this Christmas was a game of Queen’s Necklace we played yesterday. It was Johanna’s request and I’m always quick to fulfill those. And boy did she crush me! After first sale, the scores were 100-80 for Johanna. After the second, she led 230-100. The final sale didn’t exactly improve my position and the game ended 360-170. Ouch. I usually avoid dirtiest tactics and sneakiest moves when playing against Johanna (for example nasty blocking moves in Attika) because that simply isn’t very much fun, but for this game I can assure you I played 100% for real. My feeble attempts just weren’t enough against her might.

That’s for Christmas games. I’ll start preparing the year stats overview, which I should post during the very first days of January. Try to cope until that!