gaming in photos

29 May 2009. Race for the Galaxy (with Gathering Storm expansion). The alien strategy worked out surprisingly well for me. I scored 45pts. I had the Alien Rosetta Stone World in my starting hand, and two peaceful but expensive Alien worlds. I decided to try an Alien strategy. I drew the Alien Tech Institute after mid game, and Terraforming Guild even later. They both sure scored big-time for me.

31 May 2009. I don't remember taking a full overview shot of Through the Ages before, so here's one. This is how we like to lay out our game. Discard decks near the head of the card row, for convenience. Government card always on the left, followed by urban buildings, then farms & mines, then military units, tactics card, and then wonders, blue techs and colonies on the right. Leaders tend to be on the right of the token bank. Wonders under construction is also always there (and the leader gets shifted slightly to the right), to remind ourselves. Retired leaders are put to the side and not discarded. We respect our elders.

My wife Michelle is a little addicted to Through the Ages. She quite often requests for this game, and we usually take 2 hours to play. I never imagined this, and especially not with a 2-hour game. She doesn't often request games. Past games she has requested include Ticket to Ride (and siblings), Carcassonne, Mystery Rummy: Jack the Ripper.

1 Jun 2009. Through the Ages. I don't remember how I had so much stone. Probably partly due to an event card. Maybe they breed...

14 Jun 2009. Han was in town and came to play. Over the weekend we played A Game of Thrones LCG, Manoeuvre, Metropolys, Le Havre and Wasabi (this photo).

My daughter Shee Yun, Michelle and Han. Shee Yun watched us play without giving much trouble. I have "played" Wasabi with her before. We each took one recipe (which was not secret) and then took turns to pick and play ingredients directly onto the board to try to complete the recipes, and they must be "with style" (in the exact order). Just an exercise in pattern matching. But for a 4-year-old that seemed to be interesting enough.

Nasty chefs threw down ugly patches of wasabi making much of the board unusable.