March 12, 2009 Session Report

We had a total of nine gamers present for this week's session; Mike, Don, Ron, Paul, Clayton, Doug, Chris and I were joined by Eric S, whom we haven't seen at the club in awhile. Games played: McGartlin Motorsports Stock Car Championship racing, Agricola, RoboRally, Roll Through the Ages, Power Grid, Union Pacific, and the Ticket to Ride Card game.

First up was the McGartlin game, which Ron had talked me into the bringing. After some shifting of seats, it was Ron taking the early lead and holding on to win in a short 100-lap race of the one-mile oval. Doug, Clayton and John were the other three drivers. Mike, Don and Paul contested a three-player Agricola, which wound up to be a hotly contested affair, Mike winning over Don by two (35 to 33).

Eric had joined us and he brought RoboRally, and Doug's experience with the game at the Potomac club proved to make the difference as he won despite being shot up while headed to the third and final flag. Most of the rest of us (Eric, Ron, Clayton and myself) spent much of the game floundering around, falling into pits, getting shot up and going the wrong way on these conveyer belts.

Chris arrived and challenged Clayton to a rematch of Roll Through the Ages from a couple of weeks ago, and this time Chris was the winner, 16 to 3, as Clayton sustained too many disaster points for famine and other calamities. We then broke into two groups for the second half of the session. One group (Don, Ron, Clayton, Paul and Mike) played Union Pacific; the rest of us (Eric, Doug and I) played a three-player Power Grid on the Benelux map with the new deck. This made for a really quick game (we finished in less than an hour and half) and it was real close, ending with me winning by one city with Eric second and Doug third. Doug had the highest plant capacity but lacked the funds to build the necessary cities on the final turn.

The UP game finished with Ron the winner (108) ahead of Clayton and Don (101) and Mike (100). Eric wanted to try out the Ticket to Ride card game which we barely got in right before closing time, and Eric won with something like 108 points ahead of Doug and me.