Thu, Thu, Thursday for games! With the rescheduling, things were a little out of whack, but we evetually got up to four players. Laura and I started out with two games of Yinsh, spliting them one win, one loss. It's a game you can play quickly like Checkers, but there's much more under the surface if you're willing to look. I might have to scour the geek for some strategy tips. And share with Laura, of course... :)

Matt joined us next, and we pulled out The Queen's Necklace as it has a sweet spot for three players and goes quick while we wait for others to show up. This was the first game that the Queen's Necklace card has come out early, and was picked up by Laura. She and I were tied after the first sale, while Matt didn't enter any jewels, opting instead for a "late bloomer" strategy. On the second sale, Matt was very sneaky in his move of emeralds to favorite, causing Laura to play her King there and letting his diamonds ride, while I was shut out of all sales. And again in the third sale, Matt came on strong with a King, but so did Laura, staying only 30 points up for the win.

We then moved on to Citadels, our second Bruno Faidutti game for the evening. We were all for mixing it up, so we subbed in the Abbot (1 gold from richest player), the Tax Collector (1 gold when others build a district) and the Alchemist (build for free as long as you could pay if you had to). Both the Abbot and the Tax Collector led us to be very efficient in our spending, and the Alchemist freed us from the Assassin's tendency to kill the Merchant every turn (instead, it was aimed at the Tax Collector more often than not, going against the progressive tendencies of our group). We were joined by Mike half-way through, and rather than have him sit out for 30 minutes, we dealt him in with three random built districts, three cards to his hand, and two gold. It worked out well, and he had a fighting chance for the end-game scoring. Ultimately, we bowed once again to Laura, the master Citadel builder, and plotted our revenge for next time.. ;)

Matt had to head out and work on some "research" about Einstein, and Laura was off to sleep for an early class, so Mike and I ended the night with a game of Lost Cities, a quick game great for new players as it feels more like a traditional card game. We both experienced the burn of unfinished expeditions, and Mike managed to make an eight-long visit for an extra 20 points. It's a weird game, because at the beginning, almost every hand looks horrible, but most turn out well in the end if you're paying attention. Next week it's back to Tuesday for the first of February.