August 30, 2007 Session Report

This was our final session before Labor Day, when the Community Center moves to the 10 PM closing time (so now four hours of gaming instead of three).

Attendance was down a bit but not much as we had eight gamers in attendance: Gabe, Sarah, Eric, Paul, Rodney and myself were joined by Neil and Stan, whom we welcomed back to the club after a brief absence.

First game was Atlantic Star (the remake of ShowManager), which was a 6-player contested by Eric, Paul, Gabe, Sarah, Neil and myself. Paul had difficulty getting the right cards for his first cruise, which unfortunately for him wound up being the five-star one. However, he borrowed on it right away and finished the game in a strong third place. The game actually ended in a tie for first (something fairly unusual for this game) between Eric and myself, and I had a few extra bucks on hand which was the tiebreaker. Final scores were John and Eric 53, Paul 42, Sarah 26, Gabe 25, Neil 22.

Next up was Fist of Dragonstones and Sarah made up for her tough luck in the cruise line business by being the first to three points for the win. Eric and Rodney were not far behind with two points apiece, Gabe and I got one point, Paul had zero.

By this time Stan had arrived and the seven of us (Neil had left by this point) played two games. Gabe, Paul, Rodney and Sarah played a four-player If Wishes Were Fishes which Rodney (who may have been the only person to previously play the game) won. Eric and I were looking to try out a sailing game, called Race the Wind, and we persuaded Stan to join us. It turned out to be a real close race as we had to contend with wind puffs and wind shifts as we zigzagged up and down the course. I fell in behind Stan and then blanketed his wind after he led the way past the first mark. I pulled ahead briefly but then came a key moment where Eric and I were about to collide and he explained to me the starboard/port tack rules which I got wrong and had to give way. This put Eric and Stan ahead but I was in position to play kingmaker, which I did, by blanketing the wind of the only other boat I was close enough to mess with, which in this case was Stan. So Eric won a very, very close race.

A reminder that weekend after next (Sept. 8-9) is TriadCon at U of Md. in College Park. Pre-reg. deadline (save $5 off admission price) is today, Aug. 31. Here's the website:

http://www.triadcon.org