Friday, September 25, 2009

September 24, 2009 Session Report

A bit of an abbreviated report this week because I am saving up my energy for Congress of Gamers this weekend, hope to see many of you there. A final reminder, the event takes place at the Bauer Drive Community Center in Rockville and it only costs $5 a day. Here is the link to the website:

http://www.congressofgamers.org

Attendance total of seven this week, it was good to see Ben back after a hiatus, also Ray and Eric S. as well. Eugene, Clayton, Don and I rounded out the list of attendees. We played a total of six games: Civil War Express, Big City, Railroad Tycoon, Ticket to Ride-Nordic, Roll Through the Ages and Can't Stop.

Civil War Express is a prototype of a quick-playing two-player Civil War game that I have agreed to help playtest; the game can be played with Settlers pieces and a deck of playing cards. Clayton and I tried it out, Ben joined us for the last few turns. I won as the South player despite losing Richmond. Initial impression was that the game has play balance issues, as it seems fairly tough for the Union to win but later on I found a rule we misplayed, so I would like to give it another try soon before finalizing any playtesting comments.

Eric asked that I bring Big City which turned out to be a three-player with Eric, Eugene and Don. I heard (big surprise) that Eric won the game. We then worked Ray and Ben into the rotation for the next round of games, which turned out to be (1) a four-player RR Tycoon (original US map) that Ben, Eric and Don and Ray played where Ben nosed Eric for the win on a second-level tiebreaker (the RR Tycoon lasted the rest of the session) while (2) the rest of us (Clayton, Eugene and myself) worked in three games in the same time frame, Ticket to Ride-Nordic which I won by completing the most tickets and then Roll Through the Ages and Can't Stop, both of which were won by Clayton who once again proved the master of the die-rolling magic.

I will not be at the club next week but left some attendance and game record sheets in the bin with the club notebook that I hope someone will fill in for me next week.

Finally, for those of you who have not heard, Days of Wonder is sponsoring a Worldwide Ticket to Ride Tournament and the first regional qualifying event in the US will be none other than this fall's EuroQuest in Timonium, MD. See the following link for details:

http://www.daysofwonder.com/tickettoride/en/world-championship

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