February 26, 2009 Session Report

I was not able to make the session this week due to the PrezCon convention in Charlottesville, but Mike Brazinski who was there provided the following recap:

"Attendance for this week's session was light. Paul, Don, Clayton and
me. Games played: TransAmerica, Agricola and Puerto Rico.

Paul, Don and I started a TransAmerica while we waited for others to
show up. Paul won the game very quickly by completing all his routes
first in three rounds while I kept falling four links short each
time. Don did pretty well but Paul kept finishing his routes just
before Don had a chance to go.

Clayton showed up and we played a four-person family-variant of
Agricola. Paul had troubles getting his farm progressing. Don had
his farm going but was a bit slower growing his family and upgrading
his farm. I ended up winning the game with 31 pts, Don had 26, Paul
had 22 and Clayton had 6. I think if Don had one more family member
and improved his house, he would have had me beat.

While picking up the Agricola game, a debate arose on whether Anthrax
killed more in the Dark Ages than Bubonic plague. The question was
left open although both sides thought they were right.

We wrapped up with a Puerto Rico game. The game was close with Don
shipping 5 corn pretty well along with a harbor. I had a building
strategy with two large buildings at the end. Paul tried focusing on
quarries but fell behind in the game early and couldn't catch up. The
game ended with Don and I tied at 49 points. Don had 36 points
shipping, 13 building points and no big buildings. I had 16 shipping
points, 22 building and 11 bonus points. The tie breaker gave the
game to me because Don had 5 corn left over but I had six coins and
one corn."

Mike, thanks for the write-up. Nice effort by Don to wind up tied with Mike, who everyone should know is the reigning EuroQuest Puerto Rico champ.

As for me, I had a great time at PrezCon going all five days from Wednesday through Sunday. The high point came on Saturday when I won my fourth different tournament there in the past three years, the McGartlin Motorsports Stock Car game. The GM had a special prize in addition to the usual plaque and T-shirt, a 1/24 scale car. This one was especially sweet since McGartlin was the one tournament that first attracted me to PrezCon over 10 years ago and, as many of you know, it's still one of my top three favorite games. (I will be happy to bring it to the club some time and teach others although some of you have played it before.) Didn't do quite so well in Puerto Rico and Imperial where I was the defending Champ in both games. Lost in semifinals of PR, but no disgrace finishing second by 3 points to Dave Platnick who then went on to win PR at PrezCon for the third time. Imperial I didn't even win a game in two tries, but I was stunned to win my first tournament game in Settlers, and the guy who beat me in the semis, like Dave, went on to win the tournament and also earned a free trip to the World Championship Settlers qualifying event later this year at GenCon in Indianapolis. I also sold some older games at the auction there for some cash, so all in all, it was a very good week for me although the weather forecast was looking a bit bleak on the return trip but fortunately I beat the worst of it, getting home before dark.

John