October 30, 2008 Session Report

One day before Halloween, a kind of a cold evening, we still had a total of eight gamers: Mike, Doug, Paul, Ron, Don and myself, joined a bit later by Nick and Ben. We played a total of six games, one game (a new one) was played three times, and there was one appropriately themed game given the time of year.

First up was Hoity Toity (aka Adel Verfplichtet aka By Hook or Crook), but the new Uberplay edition allows for a sixth player, and there were six of us (Ron, Don, Mike, Doug, Paul and myself) who took advantage of the opportunity to play. Don and Mike were new to the game, and Ron had played it before (years ago) so it took awhile for the cobwebs to wear off. Don proved being new to the game was not a handicap, winning with Doug second and Paul third. Ben and Nick had arrived and couldn't wait to try the newest release (which Mike had brought): Race for the Galaxy with the Gathering Storm expansion that added a number of cards and options to the regular game. Ben, who is somewhat of a self-proclaimed expert on the game, pulled out the win (24-20) and Mike (who had brought the game) was interested in joining them. Ben won the next game with Mike second, then finally Nick stopped Ben's winning streak with a close one point win in the third of three Race games played last evening.

The remaining five of us (Don, Paul, Doug, Ron and myself) hooked up in a five-player Vegas Showdown, which saw Paul experiment with a rarely seen strategy: no slot machines the whole game. Well, it probably won't be seen again soon, as Paul trailed most of the game and wound up last, with Doug taking the win, 67 to 56 for Don, followed by Ron (53) and yours truly at 51. Then we split into two groups of four for the final completed games of the evening: Car Wars, won by Ron with Mike in second -- it was Ron's first win in the two weeks he has been coming to the club! The rest of us tried (for the second time) an appropriately themed game brought by Doug called Wicked Witches Way which is a quick draw, guessing, bluffing kind of abstract game where you are trying to match nine different symbols that could form part of a formula based on a die roll. What was interesting about the game was how aggressive the two younger guys were about closing the box and making a quick play, while us older guys (Doug and myself) were more laid back. Well, the laid back approach paid off, as the final standings were in indirect proportion to who closed the box first: Doug (who won) closed the box zero times while I surprised myself with a second place finish, after having closed the box exactly once. Nick, who led most of the way, fell to third as Doug and I made a late surge. Ben, the trigger-happy one among us who was hell-bent on closing the box at just about every opportunity, was often wrong in his guesses and stuck at -2 until he got off the snide which let him exercise his box closing privileges as often as he liked. Final scores: Doug 29 John 28 Nick 20 Ben 11 (Doug wound up the winner after showing three bonus cards worth a total of 7 VPs while my two cards netted me just 3 VPs after I managed to cross the line first). Well done, Doug.

Doug and I hooked up for the final game of the evening, a two-player Dominion (probably the last time for my already worn-out prototype set as the "real thing" is expected to be available next week at EuroQuest). We didn't quite finish, calling the game at right before 10, so maybe next time ...

Speaking of EuroQuest, for next week's session, I (and several other club members) plan to be there on Thursday evening, Nov. 6th which means the club session for that week is up in the air. I plan to survey past attendees and, unless more people commit to show up, I may cancel next week's session. However, for those of you who live nearby, I plan to be at the Laurel Library at 7 - 10 PM on Monday, November 10th, for the first of two sessions designed to bring boardgames to the library. Feel free to join me then, although I will be looking for many of you at EQ next week.