Thursday, December 27, 2007

December 27, 2007 Session Report

We had a total of six gamers in attendance tonight: Sarah, Paul and myself were joined by Tucker and his dad, Bob, along with a first-time visitor to the club, Nick, who lives in Laurel. Hopefully, we will see Nick return for future sessions.

We played a total of six different games, one of them (Uptown) was placed twice. Paul and I arrived first a finished up one hand of a new game, KGB vs CIA, and then we were joined by Sarah and Nick. We played two games of Uptown, and I managed somehow to win both (the first with just one group). Everyone seemed impressed with this new game, by virtue of the fact that it was played two times back-to-back. Next up was Ticket to Ride, and while others focused on finishing off those 15-point connections, I drew tickets twice and managed to get five tickets completed, including one I drew after already having the connection -- but it was a close finish, as I barely made a 20-point ticket when Sarah ended the game. Meanwhile, Tucker and Bob had arrived and Tucker "schooled" his dad in Lost Cities.

Our longest game of the evening turned out to be a six-player Slapshot. Sarah triggered the end game by winning the regular season, but Paul swept through the playoffs, beating me, Bob and finally Sarah in an exciting best of five game final. Then we kept everyone involved by playing a couple of rounds of TransAmerica before the 10 PM closing time.

Hope everyone had a good time, and hope to see more of you next year in 2008 !

Thursday, December 20, 2007

December 20, 2007 Session Report

Attendance was down a bit this week, as Paul and I (the first two arrivals) were eventually joined by Eric, my co-host John Goon, and Sam. It was the first time at our club for Sam, who jas been an attendee at past sessions at the Beltsville club. Paul and I managed to complete a few hands of Quiddler, which I managed to win by 245 to 183 after making good use of those two letter cards for longest word bonuses. Then Eric joined us, and we played Guillotine; I thought I was doing fairly well when I got Marie-Antoinette to go with King Louis, but Paul turned out to be the winner, 29-27, with Eric a bit further back. Next up was R-Eco, which turned out to be a runaway victory for yours truly, 17 points to 6 for Eric and 3 for Paul (Eric being the only player who did not illegally dumping).

Sam had arrived and we taught him Vegas Showdown, in which he proceeded to stomp us by getting lots of diamond points (and three of the four fancy lounges). Eric got the theater to move up to second, while Paul and I fought for the honor of not finishing last. Final scores were Sam 83, Eric 62, Paul 48, John W. 47.

John Goon joined us for the final two games of the session: Uptown and Carcassone-Discovery. Sam made it two in a row by taking Uptown on the tiebreak of fewest captures; it was past the halfway point before Sam made his first capture, and I wound up having to start a second group. John G. won the final game, Carcassone-Discovery, by 10 points, 50 to 40, with Same finishing second. So, two wins and a second for Sam, who also learned three new games!

Finally, for those of you interested, the rumored visit of a Baltimore Sun reporter to our session did not materialized.

Friday, December 14, 2007

December 13, 2007 Session Report

For this week's session, we had a total of eight gamers in attendance: Paul, Doug, Sarah, Clayton, Neil, Ben, Larry and myself. We played a total of nine different games: Lost Cities, Ticket to Ride, Ingenious, Skip-Bo, Guillotine, Power Grid, Coloretto, Settlers of Catan, and R-Eco (4x).

Some details follow.

Paul and I were the first to arrive and we were able to wrap up a quick hand of Lost Cities by the time everyone else began to arrive. We split into two groups for the first round of games. Sarah won a close Ticket to Ride (US) game against Paul, Doug and Clayton. Neil and I started a game of Ingenious, and Larry joined in; I managed to win with Larry a close second in a game where all three of us had the same "worst" color (yellow).

By this time Ben had arrived, and he, Larry, Neil, Paul and I played a five-player Power Grid using the new deck and the US Map. The game was completed in near-record time (an hour and a half) when Ben built to his 15th city at a time when most of the rest of us were banking on another turn. Final scores were Ben 13, Larry 12, Neil 11, John 11, Paul 10. At the other table, Clayton, Doug and Sarah played Skip-Bo and Guillotine; Doug won both games.

We re-shuffled players and games after this and Ben, Larry, Neil and Paul wound up playing Coloretto -- no report on the winner of this one. Sarah, Doug, Clayton and I played Settlers -- first game for Sarah, who seemed to pick up the game fairly well, taking both Largest Army and then Longest Road to finish just one point ahead of Doug, 10-9, with Clayton and I far in arrears. Finally, at the other table, Larry and Neil had left, but Paul and Ben decided to see how R-Eco played with just two players. Turned out they both seemed to enjoy it, as they played a total of four games, each scoring two wins.

Monday, December 10, 2007

December 6, 2007 Session Report

Thanks to Doug Hoylman for furnishing the following report on last week's session, which I was unable to attend:

Paul and Doug were the first to arrive and played Quiddler and Qwirkle; midway through the latter Larry and Ken turned up, and the four of us played Power Grid and Carcassonne H & G.

Hope to be back on my "normal" schedule this week which means hopefully seeing everyone this Thursday evening.

John