Friday, January 30, 2009

January 29, 2009 Session Report

Attendance for this week's session was nine: Clayton, Gabe, Mike, Paul, Ron, Nick, Jonathan and myself were joining by Jim, who was attending his first session. We played a total of six games: Take It Easy, Agricola, Railroad Tycoon, New England, Wits and Wagers and Cloud Nine.

The short warm-up game for this session was Take It Easy, which I managed to win competing versus Clayton, Gabe and Paul. Soon others arrived and we started two longer games: One was Agricola, using the introductory family game, and that was won by Gabe ahead of Paul, Jim and Jonathan. The other five players (Mike, Ron, Nick, Clayton and myself played Railroad Tycoon after appropriating a second table for the oversized mapboard. Mike wound up the winner after securing a key route into Chicago. I was ahead until then and should have played a bit more defensively to keep Mike from winning. Final scores were 69 for Mike, 65 for John, 53 for Nick, 48 for Clayton, 41 for Ron.

New England was played after the Agricola game finished, and it was a real close game, won by Paul (34) ahead of Gabe (33) with Jim and Jonathan not far behind. The five of us from the Railroad Tycoon game followed up with Wits and Wagers (again won by Mike after I squandered an early lead) and then we finished up with Cloud Nine, which Nick won right before the clock struck 10, ending the session.

Friday, January 23, 2009

January 22, 2009 Session Report

We had a total attendance of eight for this week's session: Mike, Paul, Doug, Don, Clayton, Gabe, Chris and myself. We played a total of seven different games: Parlay, Toledo, 1830, Vegas Showdown, Boomtoom, Pandemic and Aquadukt.

For most of the evening, two different tables of games were going. Mike, Gabe, Paul and I were first to arrive and played a hand of Parlay while waiting to arrive. Mike had brought 1830 and Don was interested in learning it, so the three of us played a three-player game that took just about the entire time. Mike wound up winning, combining the PA, C&O and Erie RR lines en route to victory. I was in contention until I had to pay around $1 K out of pocket for a diesel right before the end.

The other group of Gabe, Doug, Clayton and Paul played Toledo, which was won by Gabe with Doug in second. Then next up was Vegas Showdown, won by Paul (67) ahead of Doug (64) with Gabe and Clayton trailing. Then Clayton took a bit of a break while Chris arrived for one game, which turned out to be Boomtown. Gabe won by a substantial margin, 158 to 82 for Paul who was second. Then it was a cooperative game, Pandemic, pleased to report the players won and the epidemic lost. Finally, last up was a three-player Aquadukt, Gabe winning a close one, 34 to Paul with 32 and Doug with 29.

Friday, January 16, 2009

January 15, 2009 Session Report

Attendance was 9 this week: Gabe and Greg were back after a bit of a hiatus, along with Jonathan, Mike, Doug, Paul, Clayton, Don and myself. We played a total of seven different games: Hoity Toity, TransAmerica, Age of Steam, Tribune, Puerto Rico, Powerboats and Turn the Tide.

Hoity Toity was a five-player, won by John over Gabe on the longest set tiebreaker, Doug, Paul and Jonathan also played. The other table started up with TransAmerica, three players (Mike, Don, Greg) and no report on who won. Then Clayton arrived and joined Mike, Don, Greg and very long, intense Age of Steam game. Clayton was apparently close to bankruptcy in this unforgiving game, but managed to survive to the end. It was a real close finish among the other three, final scores were reported as Mike 90, Greg 85, Don 81, Clayton far back at 29.

The five of us at the other table elected for Tribune, which lasted longer than usual, with four of the five reaching the four of six victory conditions. It came down to the tiebreaker, with Doug getting the two-point bonus for triggering the end, and the game was still a tie (no further tiebreakers in the rules) with Doug and Jonathan at 29, John at 24, Paul at 23, and Gabe was not far back, with three of the four winning conditions.

The five of us then played an old favorite, Puerto Rico, which wound up in a win for Gabe (56) ahead of Doug (51), Jonathan (45), John and Paul (44). The other table played Powerboats, which saw Mike narrowly edge Clayton for the win. Greg crashed near the end, and Doug abandoned the race to get home a bit earlier. Finally, there were a couple of four-handed rounds of Turn the Tide (Doug, Gabe, Paul and myself), didn't keep track of the scores.

Friday, January 9, 2009

January 8, 2009 Session Report

First session of the New Year -- we had a total of eight in attendance. Clayton, Doug, Paul, Mike, Ben, Jonathan, Don and I played a total of four different games with two tables going at just about all times.

Games played: Ra, Lost Cities, Cosmic Encounter, Wealth of Nations.

First hour saw the early arrivers (Clayton, Doug, Paul, Mike and myself) start off with a five-player Ra, which saw Mike come from behind in the third Epoch after Doug and Clayton had each threatened to win the game, while Paul and I trailed badly. Final scores: Mike 53, Doug 46, Clayton 44 then a big gap, Paul with 30 John last with 28. Ben and Jonathan had arrived a completed a two-player Lost Cities game, not keeping track of the scores.

Don had arrived and wanted to play Wealth of Nations, while Mike and Jonathan were pushing Cosmic Encounter -- each of these longer games took up the rest of the session time. Ben and Paul joined Mike and Jonathan in the Cosmic Encounter game, no report on the game except Jonathan was the winner. The Wealth of Nations game pushed right up against the time limit. To make a long story short, Don crushed us -- when we hastily tallied up the points, he had more than twice the VPs of anyone else (124). Clayton with 60 was a distant second, closely followed by John (59) and Doug (55). Since it was Doug's first play, he kind of had a good excuse for losing, but Clayton and I had both played before and we still got creamed.