Sunday, October 30, 2011

October 27, 2011 Session Report

Hate to admit it, but with all the EuroQuest prep stuff going on, I have managed to misplace the information from this week's session, so I will have to compile the report from memory. I know the group was Mike, Neville, Rembert and myself, plus Jonpatrick whom I knew from other gaming events -- conventions like EuroQuest and PrezCon -- but who was attending his first Laurel session. During the session, John Goon and Stan stopped in, with John picking up a Crokinole set that Stan and his brother Carl had put together.

The one game of the session was Ristorante Italia. It was one of eight new Essen games I had picked up the prior day (Wednesday) for this year's EuroQuest, courtesy of Alliance Game Distributors. Mike had borrowed the game and was scheduled to do a teaching demo at EQ next week, and he did an excellent job of explaining the rules. The game was about running a restaurant, securing ingredients and putting together starters, first courses, second courses, desserts and eventually complete meals served with wine. The best Italian restaurant won the game.

Can't recall exact scores, as I recall the game was between Mike and Jonpatrick, while Rembert and I were close for third, with Neville coming home a bit further back. It seemed very important to get a second chef's hat to do the more complex recipes, and unfortunately Neville was one spot short at the end of the game.

Anyway, while the club will remain open last week, expect attendance to be sparse. Mike and I, along with most of the club regulars will be at EuroQuest in Pikesville. Hope to see many of you there. Will return in two weeks.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

October 20, 2011 Session Report

Attendance of seven for this week's session: Mike, Eric, Neville, Doug, Greg, Rembert and myself. We played a total of four games: Jet Set, Eminent Domain, Fresco and Black Friday.

Jet Set was won by Greg. Final scores: Greg 30, Eric 25, Rembert 21, Neville 16.

Eminent Domain was a win for Mike. Final scores: Mike 31, John 20, Doug 18.

Next round of games, and Greg and Mike won again to go undefeated for the evening.

Fresco, no scores, it was Greg, Doug, Eric and Rembert.

Black Friday, scores were Mike 20 John 16 Neville 14. John bailed out of all his stocks too soon which enabled Mike to coast to a comfortable win.

A reminder that EuroQuest is now less than two weeks off, we will have a session next week and, while the club will be open the Thurs. of EuroQuest, it's possible there may not be that many in attendance that night, Thursday Nov. 3.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

October 13, 2011 Session Report

There were eight of us for this week's session: Doug H, Mike, Tim, Patrick, Greg, Eric S, Neville and myself. We played three different games: Pastiche, Princes of Florence and, for the first time at the club -- Belfort.

One group played the two "P" games: Patrick narrowly won Pastiche, 36 points to 35 for Doug and then 32 for Greg and Eric. Then the results were reversed in Princes of Florence, won by Eric with 71, followed by Greg (66), Patrick and Doug (55).

The other game was new release from Tasty Minstrel called Belfort, which I had brought. First play for everyone (although I had a solo play under my belt to get the rules down.) That one experience stood me in good stead as the game has a bit of a learning curve. Score count was John 43, Neville 36, Mike 30, Tim 29.

A reminder that the EuroQuest pre-reg deadline is less than one week away, on October 20th, next Thursday. Walk-in rates are $5 per day or $10 (for all four days) higher. Check out the website at:

http://euroquest.gamesclubofmd.org

Friday, October 7, 2011

October 6, 2011 Session Report

We had seven regular attendees tonight -- Patrick, Doug H, John, Tim, Alex, Eric S, Neville and myself -- and we were briefly joined by two ladies (Alicia and Ant) who played a quick couple of games of Connect Four. Other games (which took much longer to complete) were: Alien Frontiers, Age of Empires III, Pastiche, and Tsuro. Actually, Tsuro didn't take all that long (it was a two-player) but Pastiche actually did not quite make it to the finish line.

First up was Alien Frontiers which Patrick had brought, back for a return appearance t the club. Four-player game, turned out to be very close, won by Neville. Final scores were Neville 8, Tim and Patrick 7, Doug 6.

Meanwhile, three of us tackled Age of Empires III which took up most of the session time. Another close finish, at least for two of us. Final scores: John 108, Eric 106, Alex 81. Alex got a little behind the curve on income generation, but he was the king of the exploration and discovery part of the game.

Neville, Tim, Patrick and Doug tackled Pastiche, which Doug had brought. Unfortunately, the game was unfinished when time ran out -- most people seemed to think Doug was close to winning. Eric and I stayed after the AoE III game and Eric won, getting some measure of revenge for the outcome of the earlier game.

Looking to see many of you tomorrow at the Congress of Gamers in Rockville.

Monday, October 3, 2011

September 29, 2011 Session Report

A nice jump in attendance to 10, doubling what we had last week. All of last week's attendees (Eric S, Mike, Neville, Tim and I) were back, along with Patrick, Alex P, Ben L, Greg and Doug M. Three games were played: Troyes (which took most of the session), Princes of Florence and Vegas Showdown.

Princes and Vegas turned out to be four-player games. Final scores were as follows. Princes: Doug M 66, Eric S 65, Greg 60, Tim 59, seems like a really close game. Vegas Showdown: Eric 80, Doug 65, Neville 54, Tim 48.

As much as I like the other two games, since I had brought Troyes and offered to teach it, I stuck with it and it turned out the two players who were totally new to the game wound up finishing 1-2. Final scores: Ben 47 Mike 39 Patrick 36 John (Alex played as my surrogate teammate) 35. I blame Alex for my low score; instead of listening to me, if he gone ahead and figured out his own moves, I am sure he would have done much better.

This Saturday is Congress of Gamers; for details and location, check out the website:

www.congressofgamers.org