My friends and I pulled out Great Wall of China, a game which I'd been lugging around for a few months without ever managing to play, during out Thanksgiving weekend gaming get-together at the end of the night, having already played A Game of Thrones, Around the World in 80 Days, and a few others, when we were down a player due to the darkening hour and degenerating into a drunken mess. It turned out to be a fine game for just such an occasion.

A typical Knizia theme-laid-over-mathematical-mechanic card game, Great Wall requires players to "construct walls" by collecting and placing into play cards representing sections of a wall with differing numerical values, some with special abilities affecting the value of the cards placed (Dragon, Cavalry, Infantry, Noble). Players score by winning "prestige tiles" of various point values randomly assigned to the sections of walls (i.e., rows of cards) being "built."

We played a full boat game with 5 players: myself, JD, Larry, Paul, and Steve. I drew my first 5 cards and wasn't sure what to make of them at first, but, as we went around the table, it was obvious enough how to proceed. I had a good draw, initially, and took a 5-value prestige tile on one wall by laying down 3 infantry cards simultaneously and overpowering my opponents' ability to match my score in 1 turn as the play rotated back to me. Good start, I thought!

Too bad it was virtually the last prestige tile I would take ... My wall removed from play, it was replaced by another set of prestige tiles--even higher-value ones! A 7 and an 8! My 5 tile didn't look so great as JD took a tile and then Larry ... In fact, it began to look downright lonely on the table in front of me as JD accumulated a nice, little pile and Larry and Paul took a few choice others.

The Dragon emerged several times from among the cards to subsume high-scoring cards, and, using them, I managed to foil scoring by a few of the other players. It felt like I was doing alright, despite the continuing solitude of my lone tile ... I was crusing along, screwing an opponent here, maintaining a high-score there, all very well until I got emotional.

One wall began to look particularly attractive ... An 8-value tile lay beside it, promising a riches of point accumulation that would surely, I thought, overpower JD and Larry's growing pile of smaller value tiles. "If only I can get that 8," I said to myself, "I will be King!"

Steve had laid down a couple of 1 value wall-segments beside it, so I threw down some cavalry and took the lead on the wall by 1 point. Then Paul threw in some points of his own, taking the lead for himself. Steve took the lead back, and I gave as good as I got when my turn rolled around again. The row of cards began to stretch toward the edge of the table ... What would happen if it went too far? Would we lay cards on the floor? Recruit the dog to stand perfectly still as we line his spine with wall-segments?

Before I could come up with good option, Paul shattered my hypothesizing with a deadly Noble. I had been in the lead, but, now, we were all tied as our cards were reduced to a value of 1 each. It was sheer numbers now ... Any of us could simply throw another shrimp on the barbie and prolong the agony.

So that we did. At least, that Steve and I did. Paul, having worked his evil magic, stepped back and proceeded to build other walls as other 8 and 7-value prestige tiles popped up everywhere and gobbled up in even numbers by everyone but me. Steve and I passed three or four turns laying down card after card on that stupid wall, neither of us gaining the upper hand, until, finally, his intoxication cleared and he stepped aside.

But it was too late for both of us ... Before the next turn passed and I could at last claim that dang wall, Larry or JD (I forget which; it's too painful to think about!) played their last card, and the game slowly rotated to a finish. My mania for that 8-tile had forced me into a fruitless chase for last place, a game which, unfortunately, I won.

Great Wall is a fun game, a good time-killer or space-filler. Not very weighty, but it moves at a nice clip once it gets going and the pictures on the cards are pleasant. Yes, a decent game: good, not great, but there is a place for such games.

I console myself with such objective impressions, but, tonight, when the moon slides behind the black lid of my consciousness, I will damn my obsession again and again and again ...

May god have mercy on us all.