Friday, August 26, 2011

August 25, 2011 Session Report

We had a total of seven for tonight's session: Tim, Paul, Mike, Neville, Rembert, Alex and myself. We played 7 Wonders (with Leaders), Ra, Puerto Rico and finished up with 7 Wonders (without the Leaders expansion).

I am pleased to report I managed to win both 7 Wonders games. For the first game, I got an excellent combination of leaders that went well with a Science-based strategy that resulted in a whopping 73 science points (including two bonuses worth points each from two science-related leaders). A few other points here and there and I wound up with 85, highest score seen thus far. My strategy was aided by the fact that none of the other three players scored any Science points. Final scores: John 85, Mike 69, Paul 53, Tim 52 in a really high-scoring game.

By then Neville and Rembert had arrived and we split into two groups. One group played Ra, which turned out to be a big win for Paul (63), with Mike (50) and Rembert (40) being the other players. The other group played Puerto Rico, and Neville (who claimed to have played PR just once before) took the game, 51 points to 46 for John and 41 for Tim. Tim finished last despite building and manning three large buildings by game-end.

Alex had joined us so it was a full table of 7 for the final game of the evening -- 7 Wonders. This time is was luck, not strategy, that won me the game as I had finished my wonder with one remaining play, and then Paul (seated to my right) passed me a Guild card I was able to build for free and score 1o points. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good! Final scores: John 56, Mike 52, Alex 49, Neville 47, Rembert 45, Paul 43, Tim 43.

Hope everyone stays safe during the anticipated storm this weekend, looking to see you at the club next week.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

August 18, 2011 Session Report

Attendance of eight this week, and we had one first-time attendee (Tim's daughter, Cassandra) along with Tim, Mike, Paul, Patrick, Doug H, Neville and myself. Started with a game of 7 Wonders (without the Leaders expansion) before breaking into two groups for the rest of the evening. Other games played: Alien Frontiers, Puerto Rico, Quarriors and Settlers of Catan.

For the 7 Wonders game, Tim had a huge score (best I have ever seen in any game without the Leaders expansion) of 79, which included 55 point in Science. Second was Doug with 60, followed by Mike (57), Paul (50), Patrick (47), John (40) and Cassandra (28) -- it was Cassandra's first game.

We split into two groups of four each for the remaining games. One group played Alien Frontiers, which Patrick had brought, and Quarriors, which Neville had brought. Final scores for Alien Frontiers: Paul 9, Patrick 5, Cassandra and Neville 4. No scores for Quarriors, which did not finish, but Paul was leading when the game was picked up.

The other group played Puerto Rico and Settlers. Puerto Rico was a narrow one-point win for Mike, 43 to 42 for John, followed by Doug (33) and Tim (29). Settlers was also won by Mike, first to 10 points with Doug second at 8, I had 6 and Tim 5 when Mike ended the game.

Monday, August 15, 2011

August 11, 2011 Session Report

Good turnout of 11 for tonight's session. Attendees were Paul, Mike, Tim, Eric, Ryan, Nathan, Doug H, Rembert, Neville, Patrick and myself. We played the following games during the session: Paris Connection, Lost Cities, Power Grid-Korea, Monopoly Deal, Too Many Cooks and Ra.

Tim proudly displayed his first place plaque for winning the Speed Circuit tournament at this year's WBC. Congratulations, Tim!

Paris Connection was the first game while waiting for everyone to show. It was won by Paul (107) who went first and had collected the maximum number of stocks. Mike and Eric followed at 83, then John (77), Neville (71) and Tim (64). We then split into two groups as more people arrived.

One group (Eric, Mike, Paul, Rembert and Tim) played Power Grid-Korea. Believe it or not, the game had to be picked up -- unfinished -- at 9 PM. But Eric did get in a game of Monopoly Deal with his son, Ryan. Ryan wanted to play the game badly, and the score reflected his desire to win, 3-1 over Eric.

The other table got in two games. Nathan joined Doug H, Neville, Patrick and I for Too Many Cooks. For awhile it looked like a runaway win for Doug, but Patrick came on strong in the end to take an eight-point win, 27 to 19 for Doug and John, followed by Nathan and Neville at 15.

Patrick departed and Nathan decided to look elsewhere for his fun, so it was just three of us for Ra, which was the closest game of the evening, score-wise: Neville 47, John 45, Doug 44. Congrats to Neville for the win.

I did confirm with CC staff what Mike had reported earlier -- the CC will be closing at 9 PM year-round, which means our sessions will be ending at 9 PM after Labor Day, not 10 as in the past.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

WBC Information Posted

For anyone interested, here's a GeekList by me about my time at WBC this year.

http://boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/70732/2011-wbc-week

If you search the Geek for WBC under Geek Lists and Forums, there are quite a few more that have been posted.

People from our club I saw at the WBC include Doug G, Doug M, Tim, Don T as well as some past attendees, such as Nick, Beth, Ben, Pete P and Nicole. A good time was had by all.

For you 7 Wonders fans out there, they had 170 or so show up for the tournament and there's even a video of a tournament game in progress. Here's the link:

http://www.nextlevelcardgames.com/2011/08/wbc-coverage-7-wonders-preliminary.html

Finally, WindUp Films was there making a movie about the WBC. Not sure when the full version will be released, but there's a trailer you can see here:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=146928142055615&oid=160429884011245&comments

Enjoy!

Sunday, August 7, 2011

August 4, 2011 Session Report

I was at WBC and missed this week's session. However, Mike Brazinski was on hand and filed this report.

"Tonight, the attendance was pretty good with Patrick, Paul, Doug H., Eugene, Rembert, Neville and me at the club. Five of us (Neville and Rembert came a little later) started out with Queen's Paris Connection, a reissue of Winsome's SNCF. The game played quickly with Paul ending it abruptly by running to Marseille. It was a good move as he won the game. The scores were: Paul 80, Mike 71, Doug 67, Eugene 51 and Patrick 37.

After this we played two games of 7 Wonders, the first without the Leaders expansion, the second with. Neville, playing the Pyramids B, dominated the game with a score of 71. This included 20 points from the completed wonder and 16 points from military with only building 3 shields! The next best score was Eugene with 49, then Mike 45, Patrick & Rembert at 39, Paul at 37 and Doug with 33. The Leaders game wasn't nearly the blowout with Eugene winning with 70 followed by Paul & Doug at 61, Patrick at 60, Mike 57, Neville 42 and Rembert at 25.

At this point we split into two groups. Paul, Eugene, Rembert and I played Paris Connection a second time with Paul winning again with 154 points, Eugene at 140, yours truly at 138 and Rembert last with 112. Eugene then had to leave and the three of us played a quick For Sale game with me winning at 73 points, Paul with 60 and Rembert with 55.

The other group played Ascension. Patrick won the game with 50 points, Doug 47 and Nevile 39.

All in all, it was a good showing considering WBC. Paris Connection was well received and will probably get played again soon.

Now for the bad news. Due to PG county budget issues, we were informed that the community center will NOT extend its hours to 10pm after Labor Day. The 9pm closing will be maintained for the foreseeable future."

Sounds like a good session, sorry I missed it. Strong performance by Neville, smoking Eugene in that 7 Wonders game, a game where Eugene has done well in the past. Looking forward to seeing everyone soon, expect to file a WBC recap on BGG in a day or two.