"This Girl is On Fire!"

As is becoming a regular occurrence lately, Logan and his wife Jenn came over for a games night.  My wife, Sharayah, has been enjoying and asking for these nights more and more.  It's great to spend so much time with her brother and plus she's really starting to enjoy the gaming side of things too (I think she's more of a Eurogamer than I am...).  Last night we played Kingdomino, Barenpark, and The Pursuit of Happiness.  And Sharayah, she was a game-wrecking machine!

First up - Kingdomino.  I've posted about this game before.  It's a short game, about 15 minutes, where you draft different tiles to build your kingdom.  Matching tiles that are connected multiply your points.  The more star tiles you have also multiply your points.

I chose this game to play because it's short and sweet and I know Sharayah likes it.  The fact that I had won two games of it last week had nothing to do with it...  Anyway, things seemed to be going well.  

Yes, Bugles were consumed this night.  And copious amounts of cinnamon bun Oreos.

I feel pretty confident in my ability to plan things out visually/spatially and so I had filled in my board completely.  Counted up my points, a solid 45 score!  Leading the pack.  Oh wait, what's that?  Sharayah scored 36 points on her water tiles alone???  All she needed was 10 points from the rest of her board to edge me out.  

Game two.  Again, pulled off a perfect square with no gaps.  Scored another 45!  Mr. Consistency or what?  Unfortunately, Logan managed to pull off a 48 and so I came up second again.  Better than last, which is what I usually get when I play Euros.

Time for a game change.  We pulled out Barenkpark.  This one is sort of like slow motion Tetris.  You are building a park for bears (the literal translation of Barenpark from German to English is "bear park).  Your park needs different exhibits and thes exhibits take of certain amounts of space.  You add more space to your park and then fill that space up to.  The exhibits you include score different amount of points.  Also, when you completely fill up a tile, you get to build a little bear statute, which adds a nice chunk of points.  There are few different ways to score achievement points (e.g. having three polar bear exhibits).

Logan finished his park just before me and completing his last tile signaled the final round.  Luckily, I only had more piece to play so I was able to finish my last tile as well.  Final score for me: 102.  Took Logan down by ??? points.  I feel very happy about this because usually Logan tunes me at these sorts of games.  I tried my best not to boast (but I did go into the bathroom and squeal like a little child for a moment).

My final board, scoring me 102 points.  Sweet.

Last game for the night: The Pursuit of Happiness.  Due to early available cards, I decided to go a healthy and working route.  I became an avid jogger which gave me more hourglasses (workers) to place out.  I also retired from my high paying job so I could get money for not doing anything (the American dream).  But, it didn't matter what I did.  It didn't matter what Logan and Jenn did either.  Sharayah ran away with this game.  She completed project after project after project and died well before the rest of us (earning her one of the life goals).  And ended up with 79 points.  I was second with 59.

Notice the scores on the outside of the board.  This game was a race for second place. 

All in all, a great game night.  Sharayah was on fire.  I pulled out a victory and some second place finishes (Logan and Jenn aren't going easy on me, are they...?)