Friday, October 27, 2006

A Cruelly Lost Game of Puerto Rico

When he walked into my house, I knew he was a gamer.

His hands traveled over the counter until they rested on my blue deck of plastic playing cards. Absentmindedly, he picked them up and shuffled them while he talked with us.

He was one of two friends of my daughter, Ariella, had brought home for the weekend. Their pre-army program is an exhausting mix of difficult studies, hours long hikes at night-time, and no sleep. Their plans were to go out to the local hangout street (Emek Refaim) after Ariella finished her shower.

They sat around, waiting. I asked them if they wanted to play a board game. The card shuffler's eyes lit up.

"A board game? What type?"

With Rachel around, the only choice of board game was Puerto Rico; it's not my usual first choice with new players, but I was hoping I could stir their interest. Besides, they looked like they were too tired to go out walking around.

They said, "Sure."

So I got out the boards.

I got out the colonists (count to 79).

I got out the victory points (count to 100).

I got out the roles.

I got out the buildings (find buildings and match with pairs).

I got out the doubloons and the goods and the plantations.

I took out 2 corns and indigos and shuffled the remaining plantations.

I looked up, ready to teach them the game. Ariella was glaring at me. The boys had fallen asleep on the couch.

Another game of Puerto Rico, cruelly lost.

Links:

Oklahoma's GOP candidate ran a political ad featuring his opponent, Democrat Jari Askins, as a playing piece on a Monopoly board. The Democratic party responds on their blog.

The world's highest score in a Scrabble game (830) was allegedly scored last week. (Thanks, Nadine)

The Catan world championships just ended. It was played in Essen. (via Mikko)

I'm a quarter way through the armed forces code. My son says that I should do the presidential election code as a break (it's only 65 verses for all of USC3, and it would be timely).

Yehuda

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