Wednesday, November 25, 2009

November 19, 2009 Session Report

Attendance was back to more normal levels this week, as we had a total of eight gamers present: Paul, Eugene, Greg, Ron, Mike, Ibrahim (who was back for his third session and whom I had called Abraham in some previous reports -- my apologies), Rodney and myself. We played a total of five games: TransAmerica, Cheeky Monkey, Automobile, Stone Age and Wits and Wagers.

First up was TransAmerica, we got in maybe one or two rounds before more people showed up. Final scores were Paul 0 (winner), John 1, Ron 2, Ibrahim 4, Greg 5, Eugene 10 (!). Eugene had to leave early but we congratulated him for his strong performance at EuroQuest where he finished sixth in the Wild Card tournament there. The six of us who were left (which included Mike at this point) played Cheeky Monkey, which was a three-way battle won by Ron (37) to Greg (24) and Ibrahim (23). The rest of us didn't get any bonus points for most animals, and Mike in fact, had zero animals in his stack at the end of the game. Paul with 2 and yours truly with 5 were also in sad shape.

Rodney arrived, so we were at seven and split into two groups. Greg wanted to learn Automobile, so Mike, Ron and I joined him for a four-player game. Final scores: John 4790, Ron 3860, Mike 3550, Greg 3520. The Stone Age game was won by Rodney, who should know the game fairly well as he GMs it at WBC. Final score count: Rodney 233, Paul 167, Ibrahim 107.

Ibrahim and Ron decided to call it a night at this point, so we wrapped up the session with a five-player Wits and Wagers, which I somehow managed to win (43) to Greg (11) and Mike (3), while Paul and Rodney gambled away whatever chips they won on some wrong answers. I remember there being one sports question in there, something that is usually to my advantage.

A reminder, no session next week due to Thanksgiving. Will need to check, but I suspect the Community Center will also be closed on Christmas and New Years eve (December 24 and 31st), need to check for sure, so it looks like three more sessions for the rest of 2009.

Friday, November 20, 2009

November 12, 2009 Session Report

I was at EuroQuest and missed this session, as did several other Laurel club regulars. As a result, this session was rather sparsely attended, with just four (Clayton, Don, Mike and Paul) in attendance. Two games were played: Puerto Rico and Stone Age.

As expected, Mike (who was the defending Puerto Rico Champ from EuroQuest) won the Puerto Rico game, which is kind of ironic because at the same time the club session was going on, the Puerto Rico tournament at EQ was getting under way. Final scores of the Puerto Rico game were Mike 48, Don 43, Paul 37, Clayton 29. Also, should add I am not surprised to see Don do well since he had advanced to the elimination rounds at WBC earlier this year.

Stone Age game final scores: Don 166, Mike 136, Paul 130, Clayton 76.

For anyone interested in tracking any of the EuroQuest action, here's a link to the BPA Website which lists the winners:

http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/eq09.htm

If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there's a link to over 350 photos taken during the convention. In addition, there's a link to a GeekList posted at the BoardGameGeek website by yours truly, but here's the direct link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48656

There were a few notable performances by supporters of our Laurel club at EQ. I managed to finish fifth in the Settlers of Catan tournament (to my great surprise!), just missing the final. Greg Shirah finished sixth in the Princes of Florence tournament, also just missing the final. (Greg also served as the Assistant GM for the event this year.) Helen Powell, who has been to the club on a couple of occasions, did reach a final and was runner-up in the Dominion tournament. And then there is Eugene Yee, who scored over 100 points to come in sixth place in the highly unique Wild Card event where you need to do well at a variety of Euro games. Nice going, Eugene ...

Friday, November 6, 2009

November 5, 2009 Session Report

Very pleased to see a huge jump in attendance this week, which was greatly appreciated after the decline in recent weeks. We had all four of us from the prior week (Mike, Paul, Clayton and myself) plus Ron, Jonathan and Sarah (all of whom I hadn't seen for awhile) in addition to Greg, Don, Doug and Ben for a grand total of 11. We played the following games: TransAmerica, Pillars of the Earth, Age of Steam, Hoity Toity, Days of Steam, and R-Eco, and this doesn't count a couple of games that Sarah played solo while patiently waiting for one of the longer games to finish.

TransAmerica was a quick warmup, just one round, while waiting for people to arrive. Mike won the round, with Jonathan, John, Paul, Greg and Ron also participating. Then we split into two groups for longer games that we kind of the feature event of the evening. At one table, we had Jonathan, Ben, Ron, Greg and Don playing a five-player Age of Steam and the report I got was the game ended in a tiebreak between Ben and Ron. The Pillars game, also a five-player used the expansion which tries to balance out some of the luck factor in the game. This, too, was a close finish (at least for three of us), final scores were John 48, Mike 45, Doug 43, Paul 31 and Clayton 20.

In the middle of these two games Sarah arrived, and while I tried to offer her the chance to team up with one of the players in our Pillars game (and, judging by the score, it looked like Clayton could have used her assistance), but she bided her time by playing a couple of solitaire games (card and Can't Stop played solo). We then got her in a game as Pillars wrapped up, which wound up being a four-player Hoity Toity which was won by Doug; Paul and I were the other two players (Paul came second while I had a miserable game and came last). Then the Age of Steam game finished and the players tackled the simpler and shorter Days of Steam, which Ben had brought. Unfortunately, that game didn't finish. Clayton returned to the other group and we played a five-player R-Eco, which wrapped up the evening with another win for Doug, as usual a low scoring affair: Doug 10, John 7, Paul 6, Sarah 3, Clayton 2.

Next week, of course, will be EuroQuest, but I left a couple of scoresheets for those in attendance to track results in my absence. Hope to see many of you at EQ and hope everyone else will stop in at the club on Thursday.