Napoleon, Arabia, Dominion

New game discoveries:

Napoleon's Triumph: I played this twice and I'm captivated. It's a very nice balance of fluidity and constraint. It is very tense. It's very hard to figure out a strategy in the game at first, but things are slowly opening up. I am very new to wargames, and I have this comment: mein Gott is conflict simulation cool! It's like this boardgame is not a boardgame: when I play NT, I think about the historical battle rather than this thing made of cardboard and wood. I've got a few more games of this lined up (the game seems to garner particularly high respect from wargamers, so it's unusually -- and thankfully -- easy to find opponents.) I'm also working on a player aid.

Tales of the Arabian Nights: I played this once and it was great. The story events are very dream-like (imagistic, episodic). It was fun (and challenging) to think them as part of a common narrative. The different events and encounters opened different possibilities for interpreting my character. It was interesting to decide between following the changes the events threw at my character, or resisting those changes.

Dominion: I can see why this game is so popular. But it's a strange one. Because the pace is so fast it put me in a mental zone that made me feel like the cards were playing me...like I was a neutral medium for all these cards moving quickly around the table. I felt immersed and detached at the same time. I can imagine playing one game after another and then suddenly realizing that hours have passed, my eyes are blurry, and the sun is rising.