PGWJ, April Fool's Week edition

This week was a PlayGamesWithJosh session that I think is worthy of a brief report...

We had our usual core of 3 players. Myself, "Uncle" Max, and "KatⒶstrophe" Kevin.

Good Recruiter Kevin almost got us another 4th (like he did last week) but unfortunately she bailed.

Nonetheless, we got some serious gaming done with 3 people.

It started with 2 rounds of 7 Wonders, which was originally a way to pass time until the 4th arrived.

The jury is still out on Leaders, and we didn't use them for either game.

The games passed quickly.. the first game ended in a tie which I won on money, and I somehow managed to win the second game as well. This is also notably the first time I've ever seen Max end a game with a negative (or even low) Military score.

Next. thanks to the first episode of Wil Wheaton's new TableTop web-series, we got out my gigantic box of boxes of Small World.

(I should post a picture of that ridiculously over-organized setup)

I have all the expansion stuff of SW from before Underground came out. Again, coincidentally, we played without the Leaders expansion for a game, and we also didn't use the Tales & Legends "Event Deck" (which I have never used).

I don't remember the entire progression of race/power combos, but one notable appearance was Kevin's Seafaring Priestesses, with the power to build a literally indestructible (until you go into decline with your second race) tower in decline. One of my favorite combos, but it turns you into a big target. The tower ended up with only a value of 3, after planned attacks against it.

In the end, Max won by a single coin.

And cleanup was a breeze! Thanks, Really Useful Boxes!

Finally, we played Power Grid.

We used the Korea map, which I had bought but never tried before (and no, Matt, we didn't use your house rules on this; we used the rules as printed).

The 2 markets really made it interesting, especially after I made a relatively early nuclear plant grab.

Somehow, despite my constant math errors (which all got corrected), I managed to pull a win out..

Also minorly notable: We were somehow missing the entirety of the coal cubes, so we used blue houses instead. Luckily, I was able to find them in the back seat of my car in a hidden Really Useful Box (transportation incident from last time I brought the game somewhere).

Next week, despite dietary restrictions, I think we might have an even better turnout. Can't wait!