With Memorial Day came the tradition of me running a board games night at my place since many of us were able to secure a free evening to sit back and play. On this occasion, it might be the penultimate time that I host board games with the work crew in this particular apartment, so I wanted to get as much game time in as possible before I left for Memorial Day festivities down south.

Appetizer Game: Sushi Go

As is usual, we started off the night with Sushi Go as our warmup, appetizer game. I’m not really sure why, but my win record at Sushi Go! has been fairly inconsistent. Part of it might be because my attempts at pulling in sashimi or dumpling sets never quite works out or I mis-read what people might be drafting in each hand based on their board. It ain’t easy, that’s for sure!

However, this evening proved to be different in that I was able to secure a win, albeit with a very slim margin of victory. I ended the game with 43 points while AL stood close by with 42 points and JH with 41 points. Part of the reason why things even got close was because JH lost the 6 points from pudding while AL got the 6 points.

Big takeaway: ignore the puddings at your peril! They really can swing a match.

Tigris and Euphrates is Fun and Frustrating!

By the time we finished, my roommate, JHan came back, yielding an optimal number of players for a heavy game. Although there was some pressure to bring out the almighty Food Chain Magnate, we settled on an equally heavy, but shorter game: Tigris and Euphrates.

Tigris and Euphrates as continually confounded me since I still don’t have a good sense for tile and leader placement and I’ve not figured out the game’s flow to where I can pinpoint opportune moments to start wars or engage in revolts. Nevertheless, we dove right in after I gave JHan and AL a runthrough on how to play.

The game started off on a pretty fierce note. Right away, JHan and I got into conflict, which began when JHan decided to build a ziggurat out of red squares. Me, being the greedy person I am, decided that I had to grab those squares so that the ziggurats would start pumping points for my benefit. The ensuing showdown allowed JH and AL to expand, making them threats that would slowly overwhelm the rest of us.

Later in the game, I did try to make headway into the point race by going to War with AL, but the way in which I proceeded proved to be inept. When I sprang a tile that triggered the war, I wound up not committing all of the remaining tiles behind my shield – I only went for a portion of them. As a result, I lost the war, my black piece was removed from the board and with him, my remaining black tiles.

In the end, the battles I fought resulted in me using my catastrophe tiles too early, leaving me drained of options when it came to future conflicts. JH and AL tied on all counts and I wound up with the lowest score I’ve ever had in Tigris and Euphrates.

My biggest regret is not going all in when starting the war against AL. After all, it’s better to get points even if you have to sacrifice an inordinate number of tiles than to get nothing.

Sushi Go is the Dessert’s Delight

We ended the night with Sushi Go, a game that JHan had not played. After going through the simple how-to-play rules explanation, we started. Like earlier in the evening, I managed to score pretty decently, but JH was able to beat me with a 1-point victory margin, 46 to 45. That was just a tad aggravating, though it was one of my better performances.

And so it ended. Food Chain Magnate would have to wait, but it wouldn’t be waiting for long. I’d be heading down to San Diego after that, and that’s when that game would get its chance to shine.