With Laura's parents on planes back to Texas and Kathleen sick, it was only us and Matt for game night tonight. I suggested The Queen's Necklace, since it's best for three players, and it also worked better now that Matt had played the game once. It's weird how some games you can pick right up and others take a time or two to appreciate how they work; also in the past few games, the Queen's Necklace card has been buried in the last few cards and never came into play, making for some weird games. I like this one, but I think you should play it twice in a row to balance out the bumps and randomness from just one game.

We followed up with Matt's pick of Settlers. This is a game that you can pick up on what's going on your first game, since there are so many rounds and the cards and actions fall into just a few categories, and you'll pick up what's going on as you go. It's not a text-heavy game, and is a classic for a reason. Laura and I competed for the longest road, while Matt charged forward, making good use of the robber early to steal resources, but karma caught him in the mid-game when the best place for the robber was always Matt's hexes. It was a squeaker, but Matt was victorious in the end, although feeling a little guilty about his Machavellian methods.