If you live in the DC area, there's a quiant little group called the DCGamers. I met up with them on Saturday night to expand my boardgaming groups to TWO. ;)
I finally met Ben and Marcia Baldanza... the husband/wife gamer duo recently reviewed on the GeekSpeak podcast. Very nice people! Just the kind of gamers I want to game with... many other great people (though I'm bad with names): Marc (webdev, PHP/java-type), Kim (software developer?), Christian (token conservative.. heh ;), Justin... and many others whose names I don't remember but were really great to hang out with. Definitely a fun filled night! Essentially gaming started at 3pm... went to about 6:30p, then we adjourned to Fuddruckers. Back to gaming by 8p... leading up to 2am.
The Games I Played (in order of interest)
Einfach Genial: (F) This game simply bored me out of my skull. This one doesn't even warrant a description.
Old Town: (D) There were very few redeeming qualities to this game, but it wasn't a total waste. Essentially you have a ghost town, and based on the cards that you play... gradually the location of the buildings in an old western ghost town are determined.
Heimlich & Co.: (C) Having already played Top Secret Spies, it was by that experience that this game was judged. Essentially, it was a bit more basic. No guessing who is who... and I think there were cards that spiced up Top Secret Spies - none of that here. Just roll and move. At the end you score everyone... and reveal who you are. Done. I think Top Secret Spies is better (C+), but only by a small margin.
Industria: (B-) This is a decent game whose mechanics were a bit tricky to get the hang of... it was only near the end that I began to understand how to obtain resources effectively so that I could be marginally effective at continuing to be a player. The biggest difficulty of this game (other than obtaining money) is once you buy something (which is often expensive) you have to build it which costs yet more money. If you can't build it during the given age... you get no victory points. This game was essentially so hard, it wasn't very much fun to play.
Goldbräu: (B) This is a great game, despite the fact that I lost. It also was reviewed in GeekSpeak: Episode 9, Pt 2 (which I heard after playing it). I enjoyed the simplicity of this game... and even the frustration of ensuring that I maintained share-control in both my breweries and my beer gardens.
Puerto Rico: (A+) I absolutely enjoyed this game, despite the fact that I lost. The mechanic of this game is different enough to take note. Essentially the governor (which changes each round, clockwise) get's to select the first action that everyone must do, then the second person selects the action that everyone must do, etc. Actions include: Mayor, Prospector, Craftsman, Captain, Settler, Trader, and Builder. I had a pretty good strategy going with my Hacienda, University, etc. Each time I could afford to buy a processing facility (for my coffee, tabaco, indigo or sugar) it was immediately manned. No mayor was even required; everytime settler was called, I got a free quarry, manned and ready to go... that way everytime I bought a building I recieved a massive discount. My final score was 22 victory points. Not bad for a beginner. ;)