February 21, 2008 Session Report

As many of you already know, I wasn't there last week. But that apparently did not stop people from attending -- indeed, a record crowd for a Thursday night in the brief two and a half year history of our club.

Thanks to Nick Schroedl for the following entertaining report on this past session. Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did, and reading it makes me very enthusiastic about next week's session and the future for our club.

John

Without further ado, here is Nick's report.


"I believe we had the biggest turnout ever at Laurel game night this past Thursday night, at least since I've been attending. I was fortunate enough to bring along five friends to play some games, including old timer Abe but introducing for the first time my buddy Brandon, Dustin, Mike and Mandy. Already playing games when we arrived was Paul, Gabe, Sarah, Ben, Bob, Neal, Tom, Clayton and Tucker for a grand total of 15 for the night. So many in fact, that we had to get another table to accommodate everyone.

I'll do my best in recalling all the games played and their winners, perhaps others can help me with anything I'm missing. All games were recorded and are in the club binder. I believe there was a total of 9 different games played.

First game played was Princes of Florence brought by Neal, it was Ben, Neal, Paul and myself (Nick). Both Ben and I were new and as it turned out we badly botched some major rules involving the amount of money and the number of points awarded after turning in a work of art. It was pretty comical seeing myself being lapped on the scoring track as Ben ran away with the game racking up over 90+ points (and with over 8k in his coffers) causing us to concede and declare him the winner in round 5. I want to try this game again but next time with fewer "house rules" wink, wink.

On the other table a big game of Atlantic Star begun including Brandon, Gabe, Sarah, Bob, Tucker and Clayton. Unfortunately I don't have the score for this one on hand but the game lasted quite a while.

New comers Mike, Mandy and Dustin were taught Kingsburg by Abe on the new table. All said they enjoyed the game and were only starting to get the hang of the strategy when the game ended in a tie between Mike and Mandy both in buildings and victory points. Mike only just eeked out the win by having more goods stored up.

A game of Transamerica started after the Princes of Florence game with Ben, Neal, Tom and myself (Nick). It was a quick game but only because my train simply plummeted off the chart after the fourth round. We crowned Neal the winner then Ben then Tom.

A game of Wits and Wagers followed the Alantic Star game and Transamerica game. Players included Brandon, Mike, Dustin, Neal, Sarah, Paul and myself (Nick). It was a good game with plenty of big bets in the final round. Neal was able to increase his already substantial lead in after betting correctly in the final round to be declared the winner. I took away from the game a strong urge to go study up on the Boston Tea party, sheesh I was waay off on that answer!

Gabe taught Bob, Ben and Tucker his game of Beowulf which looked very interesting but unfortunately I don't have the scores for.

In the meantime Clayton taught Mandy how to play Lost Cities. They split two games. Afterwards Clayton entertained many with some of his amazing card tricks.

After the game of Wits and Wagers, Sarah, Brandon, Dustin and myself (Nick) played Ingenious. After Sarah taught us the rules we dove in. It was a very close game. Sarah took a strong lead and Dustin surprised everyone in his last turns, I was unable to get yellow symbols even after turning in my tiles twice. And although we had to cut the game short because of time we were very close to filling the board so after one final round Sarah edged out Dustin by one point leaving Brandon and myself tied in third.

A fantastic turnout this week which drew lots of attention from passersby, four or five people stopped in to ask what kind of club this was and what kind of games we were playing. A few even stayed to watch a few turns of Transamerica and Wits and Wagers. Great atmosphere, hope to keep it going strong next week!"

Nick