December 22, 2011 Session Report

We had a small but mighty band of six for this session, three days before Christmas: Greg, Ron, Mike, Doug H, Tim and myself. We played two games, all as one big group: Ticket to Ride - the new Asia map -- and then 7 Wonders. Ron went undefeated, winning both games although he had some help in the first one, and maybe a little bit of advice in the second one.

First up was the new Ticket to Ride - Asia expansion, which Mike had brought but Doug had played before. It goes up to six with the players playing as teams. We randomly selected teammates by pulling out the colored trains, you were the teammate of the person whose color you pulled. Mike was paired with Greg, Ron with Doug, and Tim and I were paired together. Each player gets 27 trains (the expansion comes with nine extras), and there's a common area where they can share train and destination cards. At the start, you share one destination card each and keep the others secret. When you draw train cards, one goes to the common area and one to your hand. Face-up Wilds (locos) go to the common area. You can forego a regular turn (laying track, taking train or ticket cards) to put some of your destination cards in the common area. This is what Ron and Doug did and it worked out well for them as they wound up winning the game, aided by some fortuitous ticket draws. Tim and I came in second after a rough start where it appeared we were getting blocked on a key West to East route that eventually opened up after we had to build through the Himalayas. I found the game to be a refreshing and challenging variant from the regular Ticket to Ride and am looking to try it again. The map is extremely tight with six players, and we didn't even get to the version that is played with the flip side of the map. Final scores: Doug/Ron 198, John/Tim 147, Greg/Mike 110.

The second (and final) game of the evening was 7 Wonders. Ron had to be talked into playing and needed a refresher on the rules. Then he proceeded to win the game, a close one, by two points with Tim second. Ron had a perfect 18 in Military and added a couple of Guilds worth 15. Final scores: Ron 59 Tim 57 Greg 47 John 46 Mike 45 Doug 43. Well done, Ron!

Hope to see everyone this coming Thursday. A reminder, if there is inclement weather, just remember to call the Community Center by around 5 that day to check and see if they are going to be open.