My wife and I celebrated our anniversary over the weekend, and our friends were in town for the occasion. On Friday, Nick, Laura, Gina, and I played a game of Castles of Mad King Ludwig. It was a tight game throughout, with plenty of competition for the bonus card and basement rooms that were fairly plentiful. I had managed to take a commanding lead on the first goal for most square footage of activity rooms. I was was also in the running for most basement rooms, but Laura overtook me late in the game. The surprising one for me was the number of external exits that I wasn’t really focusing on. My bonus cards fit well with my game plan and ended up leading to a victory.
On Saturday, the four of us started the evening with Flash Point: Fire Rescue using the expansion laboratory board. Things started off well, clearing out a couple hazmat items and rescuing one victim. Then things devolved quickly. We weren’t able to extinguish the fire on the upper level quickly enough and it started a series of explosions, quickly reducing the structural integrity of the building to the point of collapse.
Joe joined us at that point for The Manhattan Project. I had decided to use espionage as much as possible, mostly focusing on Joe’s strong mines. I had picked up a nice university that provided either engineers or scientists, so I quickly expanded my workforce and picked up some decent uranium bombs. Joe was expanding his airforce and bombed my buildings, but not before I was able to quickly build and load a small bomb. I was still spying regularly, though, and was able to get close to building the bomb I needed to win. Joe sensed I was close and bombed everyone’s uranium plants, making it difficult for me to finish. He didn’t count on me having a backup bomb that I was able to build and then load into a hastily built bomber to grab the win. Laura revealed her hand and was only about one turn away from building two bombs and taking the victory as well.
We finished the night with Hawaii. After teaching Nick and Laura we were off and running. Joe started off by buying the boat and surfer bonus point god, but I got to the actual boats first, buying two. Gina grabbed a spear hut, while Laura focused on fruit. Nick was running all over the island building small villages for his kahunas. With my boats and a few extra fruit and foot resources, I was able to concentrate primarily on visiting the islands. I did get the god that increased the end of round bonuses along with a couple surfers, so I was pulling in points that way as well. The final scores were fairly close between Gina and I, but my large village provided more bonus points to hold the lead. Joe pulled in second.
Until next time, happy gaming!
