Julie's Back

And for those of you who say, "Who cares?" remember that Julie is my blushing bride and main game playing partner. So, while I'm still about 12 games behind for the year, we managed to get caught up to 31 plays for the year. That means I should be able to catch up for the month of February soon.

With that said, what did we play?

Cartagena - For some reason, I find this game strangely addictive. Although it is a simple race game, I find it interesting to do some of the "two steps forward, three steps back" dancing you do in this game. And, as we all know, pirates just can't be beat! Arrrgh!

We split two game of this one and will have to save the county championship for another day. Now, I know my "Five's & Dime's" lists will remain off kilter until I unpack ALL my games from storage, but, this one is already closing in on a coveted "Five" spot. Of course, I think I'm already playing more games this year than last, but I digress...

Villa Paletti - After the second prison break, Julie surprised me by pulling out Villa Paletti. Now, I'm not much of one for dexterity games and was surprised, frankly, that she bid on it at the Game Night Auction at Westview Church (which is having another game nigh on the 18th of February). So we pulled it out and had a good time.

In the two player game, there is a fair amount of strategy (surprisingly enough). Although I won by Julie accidentally bumping the villa, it was a very tense game. This one play has made me rethink my opinion on this one as a light filler. Although it still has a great deal of physical skill, it also has a great deal of mental strategy. And that makes it a much better game in my book.