Goa and Vegas Showdown

Kind of a haphazard gaming night. Nobody brought anything because everyone assumed others would bring something, so lots of indecision...I hate that.

So when someone suggested Goa, I jumped on it. It's one of my very favorites, and I'm always willing to play. This game ended with two players tied at 39, and one (me) at 38. Doesn't get much closer than that.

Then we played Vegas Showdown, a newer Avalon Hill game. It has nothing to do with gambling; each player is trying to build the best casino. Better rooms, better connected rooms, and various other things give victory points. It's basically an auction game. Each round various rooms are up for auction. There's a minimum bid on each room, but for every round that that room isn't bought, the price drops. The bidding is very close to Knizia's great Amun Re. Once you purchase a room, you place it on your mat, a la Princes of Florence. Apparently there are similarities tto Alhambra, but I haven't played that one yet, so I can't comment.
In the end, it wasn't a bad game. It's nice to see Avalon Hill, whose games target a more mainstream audience, taking good mechanics from good games to showcase. But if given a choice, I'd MUCH rather play one of the games from which the mechanics have been taken.