Fantastic Independence Day Weekend

The weekend started off with my 2 sons coming home. We spent some time talking with them and then cooked burgers out on the grill.

Then as is our family tradition, we popped in Independence Day the movie with Will Smith, Bill Pullman and Jeff Goldblum. I love this movie, and while its not top of the line material it is an easy and fun 2 hours.

Afterwards, my son and I broke out blood bowl and played a half. My Skaven faced off against his Lizardmen and I won the toss. By turn 2 I was up 1-0 and by turn 4 it was 2-0. Things went against me to prevent a 3-0 run-up by half-time and I still could have scored on turn 7 if not for a double 1's throw and then a turn 8 score if not for a 1 to pick up the ball. Oh well, we called it at half with me up 2-0.

Saturday had us packing up the car and heading into Ft.Worth to my brothers house. At least 30 people there, in a large family reunion with lots of food, burgers and hotdogs, swimming and lots of laughing.

After eating and swimming, we broke out Junta. And if you have never played Junta you have missed something. Me, my son and 3 nephews battled it out for who would be El Presidente and who could assassinate who before they got all their money in their Swiss bank accounts. My son pulled off a last turn massive deposit that pulled him the win. I actually did pretty poorly and came in 4th. :(

Saturday night after watching Pan's Labyrinth, a Spanish movie that was ok. My oldest son loved it. Didn't do a lot for me. Derek and I broke out the game Titan. Another fabulous throwback board game. We went around for a few hours building up our forces, and Derek caught be by surprise attacking my Titan. I was sure I was safe and didn't worry about things much as I had 2 minotaurs, an angel and a warlock with the Titan. But some good dice rolling on his part and soon I was down to my Titan and 1 minotaur against a lion and guardian.

My minotaur was almost dead, and if he died, my Titan would surely fall soon as well. So I took the chance, protected my minotaur and threw my titan into the melee. I killed off his guardian and then missed killing his lion by 1 wound. This came back to haunt me as the lion was able to do enough wounds to kill my Titan and give Derek the game.

Sunday, we laid around and didn't do a lot of anything. Played on the computer and then cooked Fajitas out on the grill.
We played Disney Scene It, one of my youngest son's favorite games. He crunched us all being able to name Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules and Little Mermaid from 1 picture each for the win.

Afterwards we broke out Robo-Rally. Another fantastic board game where you are a robot and you program your robot 5 moves in advance each turn. The robots are in a race. My oldest Andrew and I shot out to the lead when Derek got pushed off the board by yours truly and he had to start over. I touched the #1 flag first and was headed to #2 with Andrew close on my heels.
With a set of bad cards, Andrew passed me up but barely as we both went through the teleporter and were about to touch the flag. Andrew did a outstanding move, spinning to face me and forcing me back through the teleporter with a special gun. This forced me off into a pit and I had to go back to the first flag.

Meanwhile, Derek and my wife had both touched flag 1 and so I was in last place. Andrew touched flag 2 and was heading for the finish line, way out in front and looked impossible to catch.

Derek took a ton of damage from my wife's robot and soon had to power down to repair itself and my wife was 2nd to the #2 flag, but couldn't quite get the flag. I was right behind her and managed to pass her and started heading for the finish line.

Andrew got caught up on some conveyor belts with crushers and got caught on the wrong side of them. Unable to get across, he lost valuable time trying to position himself. The wife touched the flag #2 and was trying to catch me.

I caught up to Andrew and when it looked like it would be a photo finish, Andrew messed up and got caught in a crusher that sent him back almost to the #2 flag. I was able to cruise in for an easy win.

Andrew packed up to head home and my wife, Derek and I broke out the Clue DVD game. Similar to the old clue game with several new twists. First there are 4 categories to solve instead of 3. Who, where, what and when. An inspector on the DVD helps you along with some clues and some cards don't get dealt out. Taking a secret passage is no longer such an automatic thing either as it can help or hurt you.

In the end, I solved the mystery first to wrap up a fantastic weekend of good gaming, good fun, good food, family and relaxation.

I hope everyone had as good a weekend as I did. Now just 10 more days till the countdown of the biggest game weekend of the year with the Hillbilly road trip.

Until next time...