Analog Game Night – December 2007

I finally got to play my copy of Union Pacific. We chose UP over Elfenland and had a great time. Initially, I had concerns about the downtime between turns but as it turns out, it proved to be a relaxing game with all of us chatting inbetween turns. The added downtime gave us some time to just “chill” as a group. We’ve been struggling a bit with the intensity level being a little to high for some of the members and this was an enjoyable change. I look forward to more game nights like it. This is a great group of guys and I look forward to game night each month.

With six, one player is going to get shut out of the five Union Pacific shareholder levels and of course that was me for all three payouts. I was, however, able to do respectably well with the investments I did make in the non-UP lines. I’d be curious to know what others have experienced as it relates to the importance of the UP shares. How important are they really?

After finishing UP (the final dividend was the next to last card in the deck!), we lost two players but four of us stuck around to play a round of For Sale. After two turns, I remembered what I don’t like about the game; I suck at it. It is, however, a game that I’m still willing to play and to lose gracefully. Well, at least I’m willing to lose with much grumbling about how badly I play. I always bid just enough to cause the bid to circle back to me when the pot is just too rich. Because of that I routinely end up on the short end of the stick. For such a simple game…I don’t get the zen of it.

Paul, thanks for hosting and I hope to see everybody again next month. Have a good holiday break everybody.