January 3, 2008 Session Report

We got the new year off to the right start with a significant jump in attendance, up to double figures (10) for the first time in awhile. Paul, Clayton, Sarah, Nick and I were joined by Matthew, Olivia, Joan and Val (whom we hadn't seen in awhile) plus a newcomer, Abe, who was a first-time attendee at the club. We wound up playing a total of nine different games, including one game that was played twice.

Paul and I started off the evening with a two-player game, KGB vs CIA, playing with a variant that seemed to make the game a bit more strategic and somewhat less luck-oriented. Then Clayton, Sarah and Nick arrived and we played a 5-player Ticket to Ride with the 1910 expansion set. Nick liked the larger-size train and ticket cards, but Sarah seemed to prefer the older version. It turned out to be a fairly brutal game, and no one completed more than three tickets -- most of us being lucky just to complete the three we started with. Everyone seemed to be getting in each other's way, particularly Sarah and myself. I managed to pull out the victory with Paul in second by completing a 18-point ticket (LA-Miami) on my last track lay.

Olivia, Jane and Matthew had arrived and played what is becoming the family favorite, Blokus. The game wound up in a three-way tie -- all of them got their pieces down -- as they didn't play with the rule for a neutral fourth player. This turned out to be a warmup for a really competitive four-player game, which wound up in a win for Sarah (5) over me (7) with Olivia coming in third ahead of her mom -- reportedly this was Olivia's first non-winning effort in several plays at the game.

Meanwhile, Olivia's dad, Matthew, joined Clayton, Nick and Paul in a Settlers of Catan game. Nick ran away with the game, getting to 10 points well ahead of Matthew, who did well to finish second (5 pts) his first game out. The other group (Sarah, Jane, Olivia and myself) played two more games -- Ingenious and then Cartagena -- with the same result -- wins for Sarah who was now on a three-game win streak. High point of the evening was Sarah's six-tile play to win the Ingenious game, taking each of her six colors to 18 on the same turn, something I have never seen or even heard of happening before.

Abe (Nick's roommate) had joined us by this time, and his first game was a five-player Hoity Toity which turned out to be a win for Nick (two in a row) with Paul in second, followed by Abe, Clayton and Matthew.

Finally, we wrapped up the evening with a quick round of TransAmerica that wound up being abandoned after one round as some of the players had to leave. Joan, who was later replaced by Paul, wound up winning for the Yellow train. This left seven of us to play Cloud 9 until closing time, with Clayton and myself playing as teammates. The game wound up in a tie at 42 between Val and Paul (Val winning on a special one balloon flight tiebreaker that Paul created before we found the real tiebreaker -- most cards in hand in the rules). I was third at 41 followed by Abe (32), Nick (22) and Sarah (16).

Everyone seemed to have a good time tonight, hope to build on tonight's session and keep this strong attendance going next week.