May 13, 2010 Session Report

Nine gamers in attendance for this session. We welcomed two first-times to the club (Art and Jane) along with Mike, Paul, Clayton, Don, Eugene, Ben and myself who were among the "regular" attendees. Counted a total of seven games that were played over the course of the evening: Can't Stop, LeHavre, Vegas Showdown, TransAmerica, Wits and Wagers, Homesteaders and Cloud Nine.

Here's a few details. First up was Can't Stop, it was a four-player, with Clayton, Mike, Paul and myself. Clayton had been on a bit of a winning streak, but this time he couldn't pull it off despite some very strategic decision making. It turned out to be a really close game, I won over Mike who was one space short of his third number. Clayton only got one number to the top and came in third, ahead of Paul who was shut out.

Don was itching to play LeHavre, which Mike had brought, but it turned out Mike wasn't up to playing it, so I took on the role of "teacher" and Eugene, who had not played the game before, was the third player. Even though we started around 6:30, the game ate up all the rest of the session time and we still were three rounds short of completing the required 18 turns. We totaled up the scores after 15 turns (each person had an equal number of turns going first), plus one extra turn, Eugene did well with some late building to take the win in his first game, I came second and Don, who got off to a good start with some strong buildings, seemed to flounder when he picked up a couple of loans which he eventually paid off, and came third but everyone was over 100 points, so it was a fairly good game.

Vegas Showdown was a four-player, very close game, with Paul ending the game by filling all his Casino spaces (unusual for a four-player game). Mike scored well on diamond points to win a squeaker, 57 to 54 for Paul and 53 for Ben, with Clayton bringing up the rear with 38. With LeHavre still going on at the other table, this same group tackled Homesteaders. This time Ben came through with the win, with a very good score (65) to 58 for Mike, 51 for Paul, 22 for Clayton. Seems Ben has a knack for doing very well at this game, even going back to the days it was still a prototype a couple of years back.

Art and Jane had arrived and while I tried to get them interested in Lost Cities, they settled for TransAmerica instead. I understand they played two rounds, with Art winning both times, while waiting for the Homesteaders game to continue. Then Art and Jane joined Paul and Clayton for Wits and Wagers, with Paul winning by a wide margin while Art edged June by one for second. Once again, Clayton finished in last. Final game for this group was Cloud Nine, looks like it came down to the wire, final scores were Paul 52 Art 51 Clayton 48 -- don't have any scores for June who I don't think participated, at least for the full game. Well, at least Clayton was the most consistent performer this week -- last in every game. CORRECTION: Clayton was actually next to last in one game, so this statement is incorrect.

Mike, I have your LeHavre game and will bring it to next week's session. Thanks for letting the three of us play with it.

Also, thanks to everyone who showed at the Laurel Main Street event last week. While it was quite windy (such that we had to take the tent down), everyone had a good time and I am hoping the club got some new members (Art and June, who were at the Festival the preceding Saturday).