Hi all.

Just passing along that there are quite a few designer board games for very good prices at Bianca Amores Liquidation Center in Saskatoon. I picked up Bastion (Z-Man) for $15, brand new in shrink. I believe that some people are buying from there and selling them on kijiji for higher prices.

I picked up a couple of Young Jedi starters and a few booster packs to play with my kids over Christmas.  Anyone have any cards they are looking to get rid of?

Played an all weekend game of Empire Builder with my wife and kids (ages 10 and 11).  We never did finish, as the game was too long for my boys, and it took up the whole dining table so we were eating on a little green Ikea kid's table (it was cosy).  Will have to reintroduce it to them in a few years.  I've found that their attention span has increased with age, but they are not ready for quite that long a game yet.

Other than the length, they both caught on pretty quickly and seemed to enjoy themselves.

Had some guys over on Friday night for a 6 player game of Imperial 2030.  It was the first time playing for all except 2 of us.  We played a variant where everyone gets to invest whenever someone landed on "Invest" on the rondel, as opposed to only the player landing on that space.  There were also some overlooked rules that we didn't play (one of them being that all battles had to be fought as opposed to the rules which state that armies/navies are allowed to occupy the same country if both countries agree to it).

4.5 hours later and we didn't finish the game due to guys having to get home.  Seems a long playing time for a euro, although setup and rules explanation are included in that time.

Planned on playing some Risk on the weekend but could only round up 2 other guys.  We ended up playing Nuclear Risk, which is where a nuclear disaster occurs whenever double 6s are rolled.  Whoever rolls the double 6s loses all of their armies involved in that battle and their territory involved in the battle becomes a nuclear wasteland.  Wastelands are passable, but you lose half your armies in the process.  Made for an interesting game, and I'd definitely play this variant again as it speeds the game up and allows for some crazy shifts in power.

We then played Castle Risk, which requires a total shift in thinking when it comes to Risk games.