April 4, 2009 - Variety

Location: Michael and Danielle's House
Players: Yoda, Steve, MichaelP, Danielle, Kay, Mike, Dave

After our first foray into Illuminati, Danielle had expressed an interest in joining us for a game of it. Others expressed interest in repeating Iron Dragon again while the first game's learning was still relatively fresh. The thought was to put them both into the same day, expecting that each could be completed in a morning or afternoon.

After munching Munchers, Iron Dragon began the day. MichaelP, Steve, Kay, and Yoda played. The game went much smoother and faster than the previous game, since all had some idea from the start. Yoda won just before lunch. Kay was a close second. Steve and Michael claimed this was the expected result given the vast amount of experience those two had at the game.

Danielle returned with the baby and the pizza. Dave came over to watch the baby. Rules were explained to the Illuminati newcomers. A couple of examples were stepped through, and then we got down to business. Money was mostly located in little bowls in the middle in clear view to discourage pilfering. (Michael tried anyway.) The big 50 'bills' were off to the end near Steve and Danielle, and at some point someone noticed that they thought one of them was missing. We decided that Steve must have stolen it, so he became something of a feared target. Danielle had the group which gets to hide its winning condition, so we didn't know what she was trying to achieve. She did a good job of disguising her goal and pulled off a win that surprised all because we had no idea that she was close. (Transfer power Yoda sure she wanted. So sure no other goals watch did he.)

The abrupt end to Illuminati left us with a bit more time to fit in something short so we played a couple of games of Chronology. Mike had shown up late in the afternoon to meet Dave, and we enticed him to join the first game. And he won. He convinced Dave to join us for the second game. And Dave won in a squeeker. (Everyone but Yoda had nine cards and was ready to win with only one more card.) Maybe next time I should let someone convince me to play...