April 29, 2010 Session Report

Things were a bit back to normal this week, attendance at nine. We had Mike, Paul, Don, Ron, Steve, Clayton, Tim, Eugene and myself for a total of nine. Games played: Stoplights, Sam Grant, Nostra City, Ticket to Ride-Switzerland, Tribune w/Expansion and Lost Cities, the first three games were new to the club.

Started off with a quick card game, Stoplights, three-player between Mike, Paul and John, Paul won after about 10-15 min. It's a quick playing card game where you try to get your color (or the neutral white color) lights in a row of five on your turn.

By then Ron and Don had arrived and started a game of Sam Grant. Not sure it was completed, Ron was the Union and Don the confederates.

Steve had brought Nostra City where Mike, Tim, Paul, Steve and I tried our hands at organized crime. Paul and I were "snitches" and when the verdict against the crime boss was Guilty, the two of us finished at the top although the other three thought they were competing for the win. Even though I was next to last on the all-important "Respect" track, I won the game and Paul, who was last on the track, came in second, because we had turned Snitch and ratted out the boss.

Then we had three games going for awhile as Clayton, Paul and Tim and played Ticket to Ride-Switzerland, a very very close game with Tim coming out the winner (97) by just one over Paul (96) and Clayton not far back in third (85).

Eugene had arrived, and we played a recent favorite (Tribune) that Mike had brought, using the expansion. Players were Eugene, Mike, Steve and myself. Game lasted four turns and it came down to the tiebreaker between Mike and myself. Mike won by one, but with an asterisk -- we had a rules question that wasn't answered (after checking that evening and also today just before this posting) on BGG. The question was whether a Tribune counted as a Scroll for the pre-requisite of obtaining a Favor of the Emperor tile. If the answer was Yes, then I would have won with five more points on the tiebreaker. Still, a fun and close game.

Speaking of close games, Clayton and I wrapped up the evening with a quick one-hand game of Lost Cities. I got too many handshakes (in four different colors), took some negative hits, which enabled Clayton to win a squeaker, 34 to 31.