Session Report

Session report up here.

Games played: Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation, Yinsh, Amun Re, El Grande, Apples 2 Apples, Puerto Rico, Modern Art.

Earlier in the day I also played a two player Power Grid game with Saarya, home from school on a rare occasion. It's still good, but a bit mechanical with only two players. Possibly that just may be because we're not thinking more than a turn or two in advance.

Now that we both have some experience, the game ended pretty closely. In the last round, there was finally a 7 capacity plant available. If I got it, I would be able to both build and power 21 cities, but I could only bid up to 45. Saarya took it at 46, and he was only able to build and power 20 cities. I decided to end the game, anyway, by building my 21st city. We could both power 20, and we ended the game with him winning by $1. Probably, if I had waited one more round, we would have both ended the game at 21 cities but I would have had slightly more cash.

I went to my brother's for the Purim meal, and my whole family was there. Of course, I brought a few games in case we had some time afterwards. I ended up playing Lord of the Rings: the Confrontation with one of my nephews. The house was too chaotic to allow any further game playing.

And in other news: there really IS a branded version of Settlers of Catan, currently for sale on eBay (at a very high price). An exerpt from the description:

A promotional version of the original Settlers game. Produced by Kosmos for the French telecom company Alcatel. It's the same game but with a telecom theme. The traditional resources are replaced by telephones, cable tv, internet, mobile phone and multimedia. The longest road becomes the longest fibre line and the robber becomes Government regulation! The land types become: rural, residential, metropolitan, industrial and high tech.

On BGG: Communication in Catan, The

Also a Whisky themed version for the Glen Grant Distillery Company: Wasser des Lebens, Das

I managed to secure Kelly Clarkson tix for my daughter. Visiting superstars are usually very expensive for the average Israeli salary; these were cheaper tickets, only $15. Of course, they were snatched up very quickly. Then the date of the concert changed from Monday night to Saturday night, and some people who had Monday night tickets couldn't go on Saturday night. I managed to buy them from one such person. And she wasn't even scalping them.

This is a great once-in-a-lifetime birthday present for my daughter, who really likes KC's music. Kelly isn't exactly my musical style of choice, but I think she is pretty talented for her style, and considering the very few performers who make it to Israel, this is a great opportunity to see one. And her songs are relatively wholesome, too.

I'm actually impressed that she is including Israel on her first international tour, which also deserves support. Of course, one of her band members (guitarist?) is an Israeli, which may have something to do with it.

Now I just have to figure out how to get her to the concert in Tel Aviv on Sat night by 7:30, when shabbat ends in Jerusalem at 6:30.

Yehuda