March 13, 2008 Session Report

We had a total of eight gamers for this evening's session. Clayton was first to arrive, and Paul, Gabe, Nick, Ben, Sarah, Neil and myself rounded out the group. Started off with a couple of quick games, first a four-player Can't Stop, which Clayton was well-positioned to win had he stopped after hitting his second number. But he couldn't stop rolling and this opened the door for Gabe, who won the game while Nick and I brought up the rear. Ben and Sarah arrived while we were playing, and they contested a single hand of Lost Cities which Ben won, reportedly a close game where both had positive scores.

Once everyone had arrived, we split into two groups, playing a couple of games with some strong alien/space invader type themes. Nick had brought a new game, Estimated Time to Invasion, which wound up with Clayton winding up as the victor, playing the aliens and succeeding in the final round of attacks after it turned out Gabe was revealed to be the "Judas" character. Neil and Sarah joined in, and everyone seemed to have a good time playing the game.

Meanwhile, at the other table, Paul, Ben and I played three games of Race for the Galaxy, which Nick had also brought. Paul, who had done well in a couple of games at the Beltsville club, couldn't seem to get the right combination of cards and finished last in all the games. Ben won the first two, but each games I came closer, losing by four and then losing by one in the second game. Finally, in the third game, I got the strong Military world and parlayed it to a five-point win over Ben with some nice bonuses for my Alien and Rebel worlds.

We then split four and four for the final two games of the evening: Queens' Necklace and Tribune (with my hand-made copy). I had Gabe down as the winner in Queens Necklace, ahead of Clayton, Sarah and Neil. In the Tribune game, I managed to get to the fourth required victory condition in turn four, while Paul narrowly edged Ben for second on a tiebreaker but neither could fulfill more than two victory conditions. Nick, who had done well in his one previous Tribune game, was unable to get the cards he needed to control the Vestal faction which probably would have put him in second instead of fourth of four. I like Tribune because it's relatively quick for a meaty type game.

A couple of announcements: This Saturday there is going to be a special gaming event at the Family Games Store in Savage, MD. And, looking even further into the future, GCOM has once again applied for booth space at the Main Street Festival in Laurel, which will be Saturday, May 10th (an open-air, rain-or-shine event).