August 27. 2009 Session Report

After an unusually high attendance the prior week (mostly thanks to the Sokolowsky family), a drop in attendance was expected for this week but, with 10 total attendees, we did manage to hit what has now become the first-double digit average attendance in the club's history. Eugene and Tom were back to our club for the third time, joined by Ron, Jonathan, Mike, Paul, Clayton, Ray, Neil and myself. We played a total of 7 different games: Winners' Circle, Lost Cities, Ra: The Dice Game, Ticket to Ride - Switzerland, Vegas Showdown, Ticket to Ride - 1910, TransAmerica.

Some results and session highlights follow.

Winners' Circle was first game played, and Mike came out on top with Ron, Jonathan, Paul and Eugene also working behind the scenes to manipulate the horses. Meanwhile, Clayton and I got in a couple of hands of Lost Cities, one hand was close; final count was John 114 Clayton 27. Eugene had to leave early, missing out on the opportunity to play Stone Age which I had brought at his request. Maybe next time.

We then split into two groups for the next round of games. One was 3-player Ticket to Ride-Switzerland, and Clayton ended the game but Paul turned out to be the winner. Ron was the third player. I had just bought Ra - The Dice Game, which was played for the first time. Mike, Jonathan and I were joined by Ray who we hadn't seen for awhile; final scores were John 48 Mike 40 Ray 36 Jonathan (who focused on monuments) 32. Some might think I had the edge having played the game once before, but I credit my victory to lucky die rolls.

Neil and Tom had arrived, and they joined in the final couple of games. The train theme continued at one table, as a four-player Ticket to Ride using the US map with the 1910 cards was played. Final scores on that game were Paul 137, Neil 116, Ron 111, Tom 45. The same four players then locked horns in TransAmerica, and this time Neil was the winner in a close game with Ron second, Tom third, with Paul (who could not repeat his Ticket to Ride success) bringing up the rear.

The other table tried to finish a five-player Vegas Showdown game (with two new players) in just over an hour. Well, we almost made it. One stack emptied out, but we had to call the game before the finish. Final scores were close, Jonathan (one of the two "newbies" to the game) was the winner with 45, everyone else was within 5-10 points in the 35-40 range (sorry, didn't get the scores down as we were busy picking up the game by the 9 PM witching hour). Clayton, Mike, Ray and I were the other players.

Anyway, next week will be our last session at the summer hours and, a week later (after Labor Day) the sessions will resume with the 10 PM closing time, and extra hour of gaming. Hooray!