Thursday night: The gang learns Jacob Marley, Esq.

Chris B., R.J., Tim F., and Crystal joined Lee and I for a rousing game of Jacob Marley, Esq. since I had been hankering to play it again. It's a cute little game, but the whole thing took us longer that I would have wanted: we finished out in about an hour and a half of play.

Chris suggested using hidden victory points, which would have sped up the game by at least 20 minutes. As the clear leader from about 20 minutes in, his loans were repeatedly hammered into the Bankrupt status, costing him points and extending the game. He finally engineered a scenario where he was able to move and win.

I like this game more for 4 or 5 players... there's very little to do on other people's turns (except look at loan stacks where you have left a calling card. Two of the stacks of loans actually ran out, which I hadn't seen happen in the 4 or 5 player games I've played. As it happened, this cost me the ability to get loans at least once, since I landed on an "empty" neighborhood, and had no calling cards to be able to jump ship. If I had been planning ahead, I could have dropped a calling card earlier on, and given myself some flexibility.

Gamecount: Individual game sessions played for the year = 124, New game titles played for the year = 20.