April 15, 2010 Session Report

Had a real nice jump in attendance this week, mainly through the appearance of the Sheas (Mike, Lynda, Lexi and Jordan) who were in the area from Connecticut for a few days looking at potential colleges for Lexi. They joined the club "regulars" Paul, Mike B, Doug H, Greg, Clayton, Ben and myself for this week's session. Games played: Dominion (x2), Puerto Rico, Vegas Showdown, Ticket to Ride, Lost Cities, Ben's prototype game, Medici, Wits and Wagers and Cloud Nine. So, it was a fun-filled evening with lots of games played, turns out the big winner was Lexi who went through the evening undefeated, sort of duplicating the feat of Doug a few weeks back.

First game up was Dominion, which we actually played with five (although the game was meant for no more than four) while waiting for more people to show up. Final scores on this one were John 30, Mike 22, Doug 21, Greg and Paul 12.

By this time the Sheas had arrived, as had Clayton, so we split up into two groups of five. One group played Puerto Rico, turned out to be an interesting game (it almost always is!) with Lexi pulling ahead with the Wharf near the end after having gone for the Hospice as her first building. I had the Harbor, Small Warehouse and Customs House but was still far behind Lexi on shipping VPs when the game ended. Final count on the scores were Lexi 58, John 48, Mike S. 47, Mike B. 43, Paul 30. Vegas Showdown was won by Greg, with 56 to 47 for Jordan, 45 for Clayton, 41 for Doug and 32 for Lynda. (Sorry, no details although I know Clayton did quite well when the Lounge Lizard card came out.)

At this point, Ben arrived with a new prototype game of his own invention. Mike B, Greg and I were the guinea pigs for this one. The theme was you are running a company, trying to promote employees, research new technologies, produce products, establish trading partners and then, later on, conduct espionage on your former trading partner. Ben won the game (no surprise), afraid I messed up the endgame scoring and don't have an accurate count, but I believe I finished in last, behind Greg and Mike.

At the other table, it was a four-player Ticket to Ride game, using the US map, very close scores, 13 points top to bottom: Doug 138 Mike S. 133 Paul 126 Lynda 125. In the meantime, Lexi and Clayton played some Lost Cities, Lexi winning that one. Then Lexi extended her winning streak by taking a three-player Dominion game from Jordan and Clayton.

There was still about an hour left in the session, time for some more games. Medici was won by Doug, another close score: Doug 115, Paul 109, Lynda 100, Mike S. 93. The rest of us played Wits and Wagers, and Lexi came on strongly to take the win over Greg and myself with Mike B, Clayton and Jordan joining us.

Final game, which barely got completed at closing time, was Cloud Nine. Lexi kept her winning streak intact, jumping out on the final balloon trip when Jordan didn't have the needed cards. Still, it was a fairly close finish, as Greg was in position to win had Jordan not crashed on the final balloon trip.

Thanks to the Sheas for joining us and making this week's session a memorable one. Next week we will be up against Games Days, so while there will be a session, some of us will be at the convention in Timonium. (I left some attendance sheets in the club notebook just in case I don't make it back to Laurel by 10 that day.)