Thursday, November 20, 2008

November 20. 2008 Session Report

Last session before Turkey Day, and we welcomed back a couple of attendees who had been MIA for way too long -- Abe and Brandon, who joined Mike B, Ben, Paul, Ron, Greg and myself for a total of eight gamers in attendance. We played a total of six different games, a couple of which were played for the first time at the club this week: Ingenious (played twice), Le Havre, American Megafauna, Can't Stop, Citadels and Cloud Nine.

Started off with a four-player Ingenious, and Paul won with 16 after everyone else's colors got shut down. Final scores were Paul 16 John 14 Mike 10 Ron 9. Greg and Ben had joined the group and, after much discussion, we split up into two tables to try the two games that were new to the club: LeHavre (a recent Essen release) and American Megafauna (which Ben had brought). Mike and I played LeHavre, first time for Mike, second play for me; some hard lessons learned in my first game (also a two-player short game version) paid off as I managed to outbuild Mike for a 156-117 win. Brandon and Abe joined the group, and played a two-player Can't Stop while waiting for the other games to finish. I had Abe down as winning that one, 3-1.

The American Megafauna game was a close win for Ben, not sure how well received it was judging from the reactions on some people's faces. Paul, Abe, Brandon, Mike and I played a five-player Citadels, which got off poorly for Paul as his first three character selections got assassinated, and Brandon won with 26 ahead of Mike in second with 22. Greg, Ben and Ron played Ingenious (also won by Ben) and then a quick game of Cloud Nine that was abandoned with Ben in the lead.

Again, a reminder that the Community Center will be closed next week due to Thanksgiving. I do recommend the special day-after-Thanksgiving gaming session at Damascus Community Center, which starts at 2 PM and should last well into the evening. Our next session at the Laurel CC will be two weeks hence, on Thursday, December 4.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

November 13.2008 Session Report

After a week off due to EuroQuest, gaming was back last week with a strong attendance of 10, including one first-time attendee. Jonathan joined Clayton, Ron, Paul, Doug, Greg, Mike, Don, Nick and myself and we played a total of seven different games: Power Grid-China, Qwirkle, Dominion (x2), Say Anything, Aquaretto, Hoity Toity and Turn the Tide.

Qwirkle was a three-handed affair played by Doug, Paul and Mike while waiting for others to turn up. Then one group (John, Doug, Greg, Nick and Clayton) played a five-handed Dominion which seemed to work out well even though the game is designed for two to four. John won with 30, Doug edging Nick for second (22 to 21). Mike, Jonathan, Paul, Ron and Don tried the Power Grid-China map, and it came down to a tiebreak on money between Jonathan and Mike, and Jonathan won his initial game at the club. Meanwhile, the other group played the party game, Say Anything, brought and taught by Nick; Greg won a real close one, 15 to 14 for Nick. Still waiting for Power Grid to finish, we played Aquaretto, and this time it was John in first (26) ahead of Greg (16) and Nick (15).

The two groups then re-split into the final games of the evening. Another five-handed Dominion, a low-scoring game won by Mike (only 13) ahead of Don, Ron, Jonathan and Clayton. The other table played Hoity Toity, an old favorite, Nick holding on to win after losing three pieces to thieves on the final turn, while John (with a 14-card set) could only close to second. Turn the Tide was the final game, but we didn't get in enough hands to declare a winner before the clock struck 10.

Saturday it was National Gaming Day and some of us (Clayton, myself and Bill Duke) attended a special gaming session at the Laurel library from 12 - 5. We played some light favorites, including Lost Cities, Can't Stop, Cloud Nine, Coyote, as well as Dominion, Sorry, the quick-playing Settlers variant, and the donated game (Pictureka). We were joined by some young gamers for several of the games; the Cloud 9 game was especially competitive.

Hope to see everyone for the session on Thursday next week.