Ra - July 18th, 2009

Ra

A tight little auction and set collection game with a pasted on (but pretty) Egyptian theme by Teutonic funboy Reiner Knizia. Players engage in a series of auctions over 3 rounds to collect tiles and score points.

My sister Marissa had arrived by this point with her two young children (Finnegan - 18 months; Mosley - 3 months), as well as my mom. As most of the attendees were embroiled in a game of Battlestar Galactica, Marissa, Hilary, myself, and Carissa played this as we chatted and played with the babies. Marissa was probably more distracted than the rest of us as she both fed and changed Mosley during the second and third epochs. Despite this (and despite saying that she did not care for this game) she edged out Hilary while I fell on my face.

I think a lot of the problem was that Carissa was sitting on my right and she called a lot of auctions in the second and third rounds which led to me having to bid first a lot of time and I did not adjust to the situation well.

Despite the fact that I got drubbed by someone who was only intermittently paying attention, this is still one of my favorite games. I find the way it marries auctions and set collection extremely elegant and every game poses its own unique set of situations.

Marissa: 45
Hilary: 43
Chris: 23
Carissa: 21

Game Time: 75 minutes