Manifest Destiny

Today, I played Manifest Destiny as my only game. This is a somewhat complex game and we were asked to read the rules before playing. Unfortunately, I did not have enough time to do that, but, during the drive to Ed’s house, Adam explained the rules to me (well, as much as you can with no visuals). We started around 6:30pm and ended at 10:30pm which made it a long game. The map is centered on the United States and includes Canada, Mexico, and small boxes representing other areas like the Middle East. There are three eras during the game (the last being our century). Your goal is to expand an empire, but I did not really feel like I was playing a civilization game. There is a lot of randomness to this game in determining the success of attacking, defending, and researching technology (which gives you special powers). The bias is towards attacking, so your are constantly growing and shrinking in your area. Your strategy is determined by what action cards that you draw. These cards are mostly malicious so expect a lot of swings in who the leader is at any one point in time.

I was surprised that I won this game. After all, I was playing with Marty and Adam. Both of who have played this game before. I think that I won because no one picked on me during the game. Adam and Jon were both leaders at one point and then heavily mangled by other players. For example, Jon was decimated in one area by one action card.

Sadly, as elated as I was when I won the game. It quickly turned to shame when I accidentally spilled my beer on Adam’s game!