Game Night is here again! Five people are on the roster tonight, Chris, Jeff, John, me and Karl, a new person we contacted through the Internet. It was such a beautiful night, that we thought we'd try something a bit different…we played outside on the deck.

I just bought a few more games (when will the madness stop??) and was hoping to try them out tonight. The first is a game that plays best with three players (in my opinion) so when Chris, Jeff, and Karl arrived around the same time, I thought I would get them started on "Carolus Magnus". I was unable to watch their game for very long because John arrived shortly after they started and the two of us went off to play our own game. I can tell you that afterwards, they all told me that they loved the game. Apparently Jeff was closing in on a victory only to have it snatched away by Chris in the final moments of the game. The game ended when the board consolidated down to four islands (one of the end conditions of the game). Chris was victorious with 8 castles on the board, followed by Jeff with 6 and Karl with 2.

While the "Carolus Magnus" game was going on, John showed up and the two of us sat down to a game of "Battle Cry". Since it was a learning game we opted to play the first scenario "Battle of Bull Run". John took the Union and I commanded the Confederacy. I drew first blood quickly taking out one of John's infantry units. It was to be my last for a while, though, as John started to hack away at my troops. At one point John was ahead 5 flags to my 2. I staged a valiant comeback, but it proved to be too little too late. He ended up changing the history books when the Union won with 6 flags and the Rebs with only 4.

The "Carolus Magnus" game had finished shortly before John and I finished, so we now had 5 players. I brought out my latest infatuation, "Taj Mahal". Chris, Jeff, and I had played it before, so were familiar with the rules. I explained the rules to John and Karl and the game was afoot. Chris, once again, pursued the "multiple commodity" strategy somehow maintaining enough cards to purchase the ones he needed when they were available. He was definitely the player to beat. I couldn't get the commodities I needed so I thought I would try the "longest suit" method and garner as many points as I could at the end of the game for a run of cards in one suit. I found it to be a losing strategy (of course!) However, Jeff played an incredible game and ended up tying Chris for the win with 46 points. What made Jeff's win so amazing was that he didn't purchase a single commodity in the entire game! On the last turn of the game he ended up making a 9 city connection that somehow escaped our observation! Quite an awesome comeback! Karl ended up with 39 points; I had 36 and John 30.

It was getting late and we only had time for one more game. I chose a game that I really enjoy, "David & Goliath". It ended up being a poor choice, though, as no one in our group seems to enjoy trick taking games very much. So, we only played two hands. Karl won with 103 points. I had 92 points, Jeff 76, John 74 and Chris 68.

Another Game Night ends. In my opinion "Carolus Magnus" is one of the best 3 player games available, "Battle Cry" is just fun to play (with great bits too), "Taj Mahal" is creeping up on that magical "10" rating, and "David & Goliath" is a really fun trick taking game (regardless of what these guys think!) I'm just going to have to find myself some card playin' buddies!