So I had to start my morning a bit early as I had a check-up this morning, about 10:20ish. I was early, about 7:30ish, and just read emails and was lazy. I finally got dressed and went to see the doc. It was almost lunchtime when I got home.
Evan came over to play a game. We packed the board Vindication in Air Volvo and headed out. We discovered that The 649 Taphouse opens at 3PM. That would not work, but there is a good Mexican place there, Tapatio; since we were in the area, we had lunch. You can find both places in the Farmington Village strip mall near the end of 185th in Aloha. The food was good.
We then headed to Wildwood Taphouse to play games; we knew they were open. As usual, I opened a tab and asked permission to play a board game. They were not very busy; the newish bartender was interested in Vindication. We explain some of the game’s features to her.
Evan tried a new power we had not seen before. He pulled one of the new relics from the recent changes and used it to eliminate game-end triggers! Something I have never noticed before, and it made for a strange ride. The longest Vindication game ever!
I managed to pull all the cool traits, and, remembering many losses to Evan, I kept added traits. The traits added more and more powers to my character.
Both of us Vindicated, and Evan dropped that game end trigger! I just kept adding on more and more and more cards. I lost two people to the Monsters! I have never lost two in a row! Evan got the evil doppelganger trait that let him replace my control of regions but only gain one honor point instead of two. Soon I had to get them back. We traded some regions three or four times!
Evan and I both agree that Evan should have let the game end sooner. I just racked up 50+ more points than he did from the long run, but he did get a stunning 32 points for region control.
Had I not gone on a binge of trait buying and picked up the Vision proficiency tile and increased my speed to max (getting that secret quest filled), I would not have stopped him. It was an excellent plan to run the game long. I just kept running my engines in traits to keep ahead. The monsters also gave me the courage mastery, but I still bought the proficiency to stop him sliding in on me. Again, I was playing a lot of defense.
We have never run Vindication this long or this hard in a two-person game. I have never had so many companions and other cards. The game held up; we did not see any funky rules issues. It played well, and we were both happy with the game. I was happy I managed to be defense enough.
Also, at Wildwood Taphouse, I saw Jim Vander Velden and his wife. He likes the beer and the people there, and we bumped elbows and were happy to see each other. Jim retired from Nike more years ago than we would want to admit and has been fully retired for seven years.
We paid the bill and headed back after playing a few rounds of the game Skull. An easy-to-learn bluffing game Will taught me, and I always have in the car. Recommended!
I then returned home, picked up Susie, and we drove to Sherwood. I have an early DMV appointment there, and I wanted to find it today. It was a good idea as it is behind some buildings and quite small. We then drove to a small park to see where the Pickle Ball courts are located. Evan plays.
We saw that the Spaghetti Factory had opened in Sherwood as we were driving. Thus dinner was in the bar of the newly opened (only open for two weeks) restaurant. We had drinks and dinner. It was lovely. Our bartender seemed quite taken with us and very helpful. It was a great time.
Susie finally got a properly made Southern Comfort Manhattan on the rocks with a cherry. I think it is the first one since 2019!
24,097 people were vaccinated yesterday in Oregon. Hopefully, these numbers will increase as it takes time to post the final counts.
915 people died today from Covid-19 in the USA.
I picked the Russian version of We Will Meet Again. We have done it before, but it seemed a good fit for today.
Alohawild (Michael Wild's) Website 