February 5, 2009 Session Report

Total attendance of nine tonight, with Pete, Paul, Clayton, Don, Doug, Gabe, Mike, Jonathan and myself in attendance. A total of six different games were played: Through the Ages, Roll Through the Ages, Ticket to Ride (1910 version), Hollywood Blockbuster, Ra, and R-Eco.

We split into two groups and one group (consisting of Gabe, Don, Mike and Jonathan) stayed with one game, Through the Ages, that lasted the entire session. They made relatively good time given the complexity of the game and finished two of the three Ages right before the 10 PM closing time. Final result was a tie (!) between Gabe and Mike at 70, Jonathan at 59, Don at 31 (but Don told me was set up to come on strong in the 3rd Age).

The other group played five different games. We started out with Roll Through the Ages, a dice simulation of the Civ-Building game taking place at the other table. Paul won this one with 22 points, followed by the Doug/Clayton team at 16, then Pete at 8 while I was a miserable last with 6 points, losing 20 points to various disasters and epidemics. (I was the teacher in this game -- making its first appearance at the Laurel club -- which of course is an excellent excuse for losing.)

Next up was Ticket to Ride, we played the 1910 version will all the tickets. I managed to pull out the win although not without some tense moments as I was able to secure the last route into Montreal which kept me alive for completing my largest (20-point) starting ticket. Final scores: John 157 Paul 129, Clayton and Doug each with 94, Pete at 86. Doug had a Miami ticket that he had to give up on once Paul, Pete and Clayton all started building in the same area. (Just about all the tracks in the Northeast/Eastern Seaboard were used in this game.)

We then played an old favorite, Hollywood Blockbuster, and I managed to pull out a very close win, 84 points to 80 for Pete, after getting an award-winning movie completed at the final Party. Doug (57), Paul (56) and Clayton (47) were the other would-be movie moguls in this game.

Pete left us at this point, so were we four for the next game (Ra) which also proved to be a real nail-biter, final scores were Doug 33 Paul 31 John 31 Clayton 25 for an eight-point spread top-to-bottom.

The four of us had time for one more game, R-Eco, and it was an even closer, but really low scoring game. Clayton was last with just one point. Paul and I tied for second with two points. Doug, the winner, had ... you guessed it ... just three points.