Tonight for game night we had Matt L and Matt A, quickly becoming the two regulars. We started with Samurai, a game about balancing influence set on the island of japan. Your goal is to end the game with the most of one category, but enough of the rest to ensure a win. It was our first time playing the game with four people. We decided to play with open holdings, and this caused the game to bog down at the end once we noticed Matt A had won and there was nothing we could do about it. He struck first getting all three categories at once with his samurai and never let up. Next time, definitely use closed holdings to cut down on analysis paralysis.

Next we played Matt A's, Ticket to Ride, a new game for all of us, and the winner of the Spiel des Jahres (German Game of the Year). The goal is to make connections between cities, with more points awarded for connecting longer routes. Everyone was very tense throughout, always worried if they would be able to complete their connections or be left with losing tickets. I played it safe with no blocking of train routes and purchased more tickets, satisfying all five. Yet Matt A still won with longest route ever, all 45 trains in a row. Next time, I am planning on blocking other people and going for the paths with 6s. Both of the games worked well and everyone had a great time; I can see why Ticket to Ride is a big hit.