Thanks to Dave Adams, Ron Hale-Evans (me), Mark Purtill, and Paul Unwin for coming last Friday night. Marty Hale-Evans cancelled at the last minute due to a bad cold (which she later gave to me -- it was a stinker).

It was the bottom of the ninth and bases were loaded -- at least Paul's central base was, with 36 points worth of tokens on it. Paul was the Macron-Worm, so not only were his tokens each worth 4, but he piled most of them onto his central planet and redirected the Cone there with his Worm power as defender. He had enormous defensive capability; I don't think any of us ever got a base in his system.

I was the Insect-Mesmer. As Insect, I had copied Paul's Worm power and was redirecting the Cone at a planet with one token on it, worth 4. Mark was Paul's ally, and they could beat me unless I Cosmic Zapped Paul so that his token was worth only 1. As Mesmer, I could play any Edict as any other, so I played a random Edict as a Cosmic Zap on Paul. Mark played an Edict Zap on me, negating my Cosmic Zap. (Or was it a Cosmic Zap on me, negating my Edict?) I played another random Edict as an Edict Zap on Mark's Zap. But Mark, being the Mind (as one of his Pentaform powers), was a step ahead of me, knew I had a second Edict up my sleeve, and just happened to have another Zap (Cosmic or Edict, I don't recall -- either sufficed) and Zapped me again. Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Four Zaps in rapid succession, and the challenge was over, with Paul and Mark the victors. (In retrospect, Mark's pulling out a surprise Zap was made more plausible by the fact that as Pentaform, he had two hands of cards, IIRC.)

Paul remarked that it was one of the funnest games of Cosmic he had ever played. The action was furious, and there was good reason: we had replaced some of the factory CE cards with homemade Internet ones, to camouflage the homemade flares we were inserting, and I later realised we had mistakenly replaced 28 factory compromise cards with only 10 homemade ones. We were playing with about a third of the usual number of Compromise cards! As Mark said to me later in email,

I wondered why I was getting so many attack cards; that would certainly explain it. It did give the game an interesting flavor. (It occurs to me that compromise cards could be considered an optional type of card, like reinforcements or kickers, since they aren't actually required to play the game, aside from a few powers.)

Paul eventually won the game. I had promised prizes for winners, so since it was close to Valentine's Day, Paul won a heart-shaped sponge from Archie McPhee. (No, I mean shaped like a real heart. It was gross.) Other body parts may show up in future games. But make no mistake: there will be prizes.

After our one game of Cosmic, we played a quick three-player game of Icehouse (Paul left early). I won with 27 points. I did not award myself a body part. I am still looking forward to a four-player game of Icehouse, which is supposed to be the best; see the Icehouse page for details. Marty and I are very fond of an Icehouse "variant" called Zarcana (same URL), which is played on an extensible board of Tarot cards and involves powers in a way similar to Cosmic. We've only played two-player games of it so far -- sound interesting?

So, the four people at the game last week decided that we should have a regular weekly gaming session, and that it will be

I am not asking everyone to commit to weekly meetings (though if you can make it every week, so much the better). I've just been reading rec.games.board on gaming groups, and everyone agrees it's a lot simpler if you meet every week at the same time. So, Saturdays at 8:00 PM in Kent it is; come when you can.

One exception: On Saturday, March 18th, Karl Erickson (who occasionally games with us) is having a Diplomacy game from noon to 7:00 PM at his house in Auburn. You are all welcome. Given the involved nature of Diplomacy, I don't think anyone is going to want to play it for seven hours, then drive over to my house and play Cosmic till midnight. So Diplomacy will be a sort of Special Executive Gaming Session, and we'll resume the following Saturday at the regular time. Got it?

Ron

NEXT MEETING:

Saturday, 4 March 2000, 8:00 PM at Ron and Marty's in Kent.

Remember, game nights at Ron and Marty's are every Saturday at 8:00 PM. Come play for fun and FABULOUS PRIZES! Please bring a snack or drink (cookies, chips, soda, juice, etc.).

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