April 23, 2009 Session Report

In attendance (total of nine): Mike, Paul, Gabe, Greg, Ron, Clayton, Don, Chris and myself. We played a total of six different games, one of them twice: Can't Stop, Roll Through the Ages (x2), Princes of Florence, Show Manager, Rails of Europe (the RR Tycoon expansion) and San Juan. Some details on the games follow.

First up was Can't Stop. After some shuffling of seats after a few more people showed up, the four players were Clayton, Mike, Greg and myself. Mike raced to an early lead, Greg and I failed on our early rolls and had to play catch up. Then Clayton, to everyone's surprise, quit before reaching the top after advancing halfway up the middle numbers. Mike and Clayton each got two to the top, then Mike won by rolling a "3" for his third number. Greg and I trailed with just one number.

Ron had brought Roll through the Ages -- Paul and Gabe joined in. Gabe hit 5 skulls for a revolt in his first roll with 6 dice. Paul went on to win the game. Second game was started once Don arrived. Gabe won the second game, over Mike, Ron and Don. At the other table, Greg was interested in Princes of Florence. Paul, Clayton and I joined him. For Clayton, it was his first time at the game, and Paul was playing it for only the second or third time. Greg and I kind of took advantage of this, as we bid each other up on the Jesters, each got a couple of recruiters and put on 8 works by game's end. In the final turn, it came down to who got the best work bonus and I managed to win by three, 69 to 66 for Greg, Paul had 45, Clayton (who had a really rough time his first game) 23.

I had brought the original Show Manager game (the forerunner of Atlantic Star which has been played at the club before); the four of us from the Princes game played this, Greg being the only newcomer to the game. I managed to score a perfect 30-point Wolf and have it take #1 spot in NY but, alas, Greg took the cues well and won with 60 to 45 for me. Clayton had 27, ahead of Paul at 22. Out of curiosity, I calculated the scores for the two dummies: 44 for dummy #1 and 23 for dummy #2, but remember they didn't have to borrow against any musicals.

Chris had arrived and joined the Mike-Gabe-Ron-Don group to play Rails of Europe (a Railroad Tycoon expansion) which I joined to take over Chris' spot when he had to leave. It was a close game with Ron, Gabe and Mike well ahead on the scoring track, but Ron had taken out 15 (!) shares which dropped him to third in the final standings, which were: Gabe 48 Mike 44 Ron 41 Don 30 Chris/John 24. I totally blame Chris for our poor score.

Finally, there was a three-player San Juan game at the other table, which Greg won going away with both the City Hall and the Guild Hall. Final scores: Greg 47 Paul 32 Clayton 19.

Next week's session conflicts with the first day of Games Days and the annual GCOM meeting. However, the Community Center will be open for gaming at regular hours. Hopefully someone will keep track of attendance and send me a report.