Thursday, October 25, 2007

October 25, 2007 Session Report

This week we had a total of 7 in attendance, as Joan (Sarah's mom) was back for the second time to join Sarah, Paul, Eric, Stan, Clayton and myself. A total of 7 different games were played: Ingenious, Vegas Showdown, Lost Cities, Show Manager, Hoity Toity, Yinsh, and Category 5.

Details on some of the games: Started off with a three-player ingenious game that had an incredibly close finish. Eric looked like the early leader but stalled out when he couldn't push his worst color (blue) toward the end of the game. I managed to pull out the win (9) while Paul (8 then 9 for second worst color) nosed Eric (8 in two worst colors) for third.

By this time Clayton had arrived, and we played an old club favorite, Vegas Showdown. I snagged a Nightclub to take the early lead but midway through the game, an unusual situation developed when the price of the high-scoring Theater dropped as none of the four pre-requisite buildings, the Fancy Lounges, had appeared. I snapped up the Theater and saved up my money for the Fancy Lounge. Unfortunately, Paul outbid me for the two that came up and the game ended with the big square pile emptying while five rectangular buildings (and the two remaining Fancy Lounges) were yet to come out. The end result was a relatively low scoring game, won by Eric with 46, John 40, Paul 37 and Clayton 36.

Sarah and Joan arrived and occupied themselves with a two-player favorite, Lost Cities, won by Sarah. Then we all hooked up for a game of Show Manager (the precursor to Atlantic Star), and Stan joined in as Joan's mentor as she was new to the game. It turned out to be a real unusual game as the first completed show for everyone was the same -- the ballet -- meaning money was real tight since noone was able to borrow on that first completed show. Sarah and the Stan/Joan team seemed affected the most as both were forced to take several undesirable cards for free until a second show was completed. I had pinched my pennies early in the game, and this contributed to an eventual win as I finished second to Eric in NY and was first in Hamburg. The Stan/Joan team managed to finish second overall despite the early money troubles, and Sarah recovered to finish fourth, ahead of Clayton and Paul.

Eric and Stan split off to play several games of YINSH, and Eric reported besting Stan two games out of three. The other games played were a four-player Hoity Toity, another new game for Joan, who ended up doing quite well, leading the race around the board until the very end when Paul passed her and wound up with best collection to take the win. Sarah and I brought up the rear. Then Clayton joined the four of us for a few hands of Category 5, the late night staple, final scores were John 11 Paul 21 Sarah 34 Joan 48 Clayton 70 (three hands played).

A reminder that EuroQuest is just two weeks away, the pre-reg deadline is Nov. 1st. For details, go to http://euroquest.gamesclubofmd.org

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