Wednesday, December 29, 2010

December 23, 2010 Session Report

Four (Patrick, Paul, Doug and myself) of us in attendance, we played just two games (Inca Empire and 7 Wonders).

Inca Empire is a remake of a game with a really long name beginning with a T I don't know how to spell or pronounce. I had played it once before; this game had superior graphics but was still on the long side, consuming most of the session time. It turned out to be really close, as heading into the final turn we were separated by just six points with the leader (me) at 100. I thought I was headed toward defeat because I wasn't connected to enough high scoring locations when I drew one of the Wilderness cards that let me connect. This gave me 10 extra points, which turned out to be the eventual margin. Final scores: John 143 Patrick 133 Paul 129 Doug 125.

I guess I probably like the game a bit more than the initial version played several years ago, so would play it again but probably still a "no buy" for me.

We wrapped up the evening with 7 Wonders, all but Paul had played this hot new Essen game before. I am still getting the hang of it, and the game wound up a tie between Patrick and Doug at 51. Doug had more coins at game-end, which was the tiebreaker. Other scores: John 44, Paul 40. 7 Wonders is a good, solid, quick-playing game that also has the advantage of playing well with 7.

Sunday, December 19, 2010

December 16, 2010 Session Report

Not much to report for this week. It snowed the day of our session but, because the CC decided to stay open, I dutifully showed up at 6 PM with a couple of games. No one else came by 6:30, so I left. Everyone who stayed home probably made the right call, as driving conditions were a bit treacherous. Hope we can enjoy a session this week, as I have managed to snag a copy of 7 Wonders, this fall's hot new Essen game, and hope to have a couple of other new games on hand as well.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

December 9, 2010 Session Report

Nine in attendance this week, and seven different games were played. Roll call: Doug, Ron, Paul, Mike, Don, Greg, Eugene, Rodney and myself. Games played: Speicherstadt, For Sale, Founding Fathers, Vegas Showdown, London, Igel Agern (the Hedgehog racing game) and Ingenious -- Card Challenge.

First up was Speicherstadt. It was a close game, Paul kept taking the Firemen to the frustration of Ron and Doug who didn't get any. This gave him enough points to come in third, but he didn't get any contracts. To my surprise, I came away the winner with 19 ahead of Mike in second (17), followed by Paul (16), Doug (11) and Ron (10). Like the unique bidding mechanic but somehow the game seems a bit too short and shallow.

The other group, while waiting for Speicherstadt to finish, played For Sale. Rodney was the winner. No scores, but Don, Eugene and Greg were also in the game.

Then we split up, one group played Founding Fathers and the other group wound up playing London. Founding Fathers finished first, with Greg (20) the narrow winner; John (19), Don (17), Paul (12) and Rodney (10) were also in the game. The London game was even closer, coming down to the tiebreaker (least poverty). This gave the win to Mike over Eugene, as they each had 47 points. Not far behind was Ron at 45 (good effort for his first game) with Doug at 40, last, but still within 7 of the winner.

Meanwhile, a five-player Vegas Showdown was won by Rodney (45) ahead of Paul 36, John 34, Greg 27, Don 18. This was one of the lower-scoring and quick-finishing 5P games of this I have seen, as one stack ran out while the other two had plenty of tiles remaining. The Theater did not even come out.

Final games of the evening were Igel Agern, the Hedgehog game, won by Mike and then a three-player Ingenious-Card Challenge, won by Greg over Paul and myself just before closing time. We thought the game may have had a kingmaker/endgame stall problem as it turned out all three of us needed the same color (purple) to win. Greg finally broke the stalemate by moving another color to 10, earning another turn which enable him to get the one purple point needed to cinch the win.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

December 2, 2010 Session Report

A good turnout of nine for this week's session: Ron (who was back in the area for most of the rest of the year), Patrick, Paul, Doug, Mike, Eric, Tim, Don and myself were the attendees. It turned out to be the night of the incomplete games, or more accurately, games without winners as there were a couple of games that were unfinished, plus some cooperative games where the cooperation among the players wasn't enough to defeat the game system.

Patrick and I had both brought the same game (once again), which was the recently released Civilization Board game, the third such game issued trying to capitalize on the popularity of the computer game series designed by Sid Meier. Tim and Mike joined in, we probably got less than halfway through after a half-hour of rules explanation and three hours of playing. Mike had a well-developed city but had taken it on the chin in a couple of battles. I was gradually collecting Coins while Patrick had developed a strong military presence. Everyone seemed to enjoy playing the game although obviously it was too long for a four-hour time slot.

The other group of five (Ron, Don, Doug, Eric and Paul) took Tales of Arabian Nights for a spin. After about two hours, the game was picked up -- unfinished. Noticed a couple of thumbs-down from some of the players. There was some mention of Power Grid, but that never got going. Don and Eric played a two-player game, leaving Ron, Paul and Doug to try to cure some diseases by playing Pandemic. Again, two games were played -- the players lost both. These same three tried their luck in another cooperative (Forbidden Island) but again, no success. Turns out Eric, who won a two-player Patrician game over Don, was the night's only winner, and the two of them left early.