Last night's game night consisted of the following games: A 2-player game of godless Santorini, a 5-player game of Red Dragon Inn, a 6-player game of Xia, and a 3-player game of King of Tokyo.
The game of Santorini was played while waiting for people to show up. My opponent was really tough and the game last maybe 15 minutes or so. Before it started, I was asked how long it took to play. I said it was quick to explain, quick to set up, and quick to play, and then I told him that I can usually get three or so games played in ten minutes. I guess my competition has just been lousy up to now because it wasn't an easy win. He kept me in my toes throughout.
I thought Red Dragon Inn was pretty fun. I played the female fighter/warrior character. There were a couple harrowing moments early in the game where I was low on funds; gambling actually kicked off in the first person's turned and I lost a good amount of coin while still trying to understand how the gambling sub-phase worked. Eventually I worked out the rules in my head but I was still low on money for a while. I was the first person to knock someone out of the game and that person had the most money by far, so another player and I who didn't have much then got a good amount back. The next time it came around to me I knocked that other player who didn't have much money before out; they used all theirs up with gambling on turns that I was able to get out of and then I forced them into gambling to take their last coin. I eventually won it. It took a bit to figure out, mainly the gambling phase, but it's light and fun, a good filler.
Xia went well. We had to call the game after a couple hours when people started getting tired. I was doing pretty well for myself and I liked the sandbox nature of it. I was doing taxi jobs, ferrying people around, but I had some missiles ready for when someone wanted to pop off at me. I want to play a complete game at some point down the line and may pick it up to own it anyway. It did make me really want to play Firefly though.
King of Tokyo is King of Tokyo, I don't need to say anything about that other than I haven't decided recently that I dislike it or anything. It's still a fun game.
That took us to midnight, so yet again we couldn't get any BattleCON in. Maybe next week though. No Super Motherload either, though one person did seem interested in it (the others didn't really, which sucked).
The end of the night was a real bummer when I got home and it was raining. There were no open parking spaces anywhere near my apartment building so I had to park elsewhere in the complex and walk a good distance. The boxes for Codenames, BattleCON, and Super Motherload were okay with a few raindrops hitting them. Santorini looked to be in rough shape when I got upstairs though. There were standing water spots on the box, so I took my shirt off and dabbed it all up without scrubbing at it. The box had spots all over the top though where the cardboard slightly bubbled up a bit. I took the cover off and applied pressure to the spots with my shirt while applying pressure against the inside and then let it sit out for a while. The bubbles didn't seem like they would go away though, which upset me a good deal (I got really heated about the parking lot situation and went and asked the apartment managers if they had ever thought of assigned parking spaces for each apartment, there are enough for each apartment number to have a numbered space in the front row with open free-for-all parking elsewhere. I was like "It's gonna rain all spring and I've got a baby that I can't be carrying all across the apartment complex because someone stores their motorcycle trailer full-time in a space while the bike itself is stored in his garage, and so on..."). I checked the box an hour or so ago though and the bubbles have gone down and are not really visible anymore. There is a rough texture now if you slide your fingers over the affected area. I mean, I don't ever plan to sell it or trade it; I love it. And because I love it, I would prefer it stay in great condition.
I don't have a tracking number yet but Fugitive has begun shipping to people. I just looked up the rulebook for Paperback, which I am receiving as an add-on. Man, that game seems great. And it just looks so pleasant and quaint. I haven't tried to introduce a deckbuilding game to my wife yet, so I don't know how easily she'll grasp deckbuilding mechanics. Her favorite of any board game is Scrabble though, so I am hoping she digs it. I am eager to play it.