July 26, 2007 Session Report

Another good turnout with a total of 12 gamers, including two newcomers to the club: Patrick Chapman and Eric Sokolowsky, who joined Gabe, Eric H, Sarah, Val, Nicole, Paul J, Beth, Clayton, Neil and myself to play a total of eight different games: Lost Cities, Puerto Rico, Boomtown, TransAmerica, Rummikub, Coloretto, Wits and Wagers and Category 5.

Here's a few comments on some of the games, who played what, winners and scores where I have them, etc. Gabe and I got there first and played a really weird hand of Lost Cities; I think we had a bunch of handshake cards at the start that didn't match any of our cards so it was tougher than usual putting together high scoring expeditions. I believe I pulled it out by getting three colors going while Gabe could only manage a positive score on two of three.

By then more people had arrived and five of us played a game of Boomtown, which was won by Sarah (84) ahead of Eric S (77), Eric H (70), Gabe (59), I was in last (40).
Patrick, Neil, Clayton and Val had arrived by then, and they contested a four-player TransAmerica. The same two groups kept going for the next round of games, which consisted of a 5-player Puerto Rico, where Sarah, who was playing for the first time, managed to win (assisted by a cast of thousands), with a final score of 55 (had the harbor and two large buildings) followed by me (46), Eric S (44), Gabe (39) and Eric (37). Meanwhile, there was a four-player Coloretto, which I heard wound up in a tie between Clayton and Patrick (? -- not sure on this one as the PR game was so intense I had difficulty keeping up with all the other games going on).

Beth, Nicole and Paul J arrived a bit later and Beth and Nicole introduced Paul to Rummikub -- which Paul promptly won (another win for a first-time player at a new game, which seemed to be the theme for the evening). Next up for the non-PR group was a full table of seven for Wits and Wagers, which I heard was another tie involving some of the new players again. Then the evening wound up with a couple of quick fillers (Category 5 and Blink) to keep up our tradition of pushing the envelope of finishing right on the verge of the 9 PM closing time.

Hope everyone had a good time -- hope to see Patrick and Eric S back at some future sessions. I have a new limited edition Cycling game called "Tour" that I hope to try out soon at a future session, but I was happy to have the opportunity to play PR at Eric S's suggestion. Sarah brought an interesting looking card game I would like to try some time soon as well.

Next week some of us (including myself) will be out of town for the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster, PA) -- thanks in advance to one of you who I am hoping will track the attendance/games played (there's a couple of sheets in the club's notebook) and either forward the info to me or post it here.

I was pleased to display the GCOM banner which has been made available to hosts at all GCOM locations -- unfortunately, I forgot to leave it in one of the game bins with the club games so it won't be making a future appearance for at least a couple of weeks.