Monday, February 27, 2012

February 23, 2012 Session Report

This report is courtesy of co-Host Mike Brazinski, who kept track of everything while I was away at PrezCon. Thanks, Mike!

"We had pretty good attendance. Including me, we had Ron, Neville, Greg, Tim, Rembert. Jay returned for a second week. John Schussler, a GCOM regular at other locations, visited our humble club for the first time too!

Before Tim and Rembert arrived, we started with a game of "The Resistance", a game that falls right in between Werewolf and Battlestar Gallactica (okay, more on the Werewolf side.) Greg and I were the Government spies. I was pretty quickly discovered but Greg managed to evade detection and led the spies to victory in the last round.

We then broke into two groups. Neville, Greg, John and I played "Last Will". As this was the first play for all of us, it was a bit rough in the beginning but things started to gel for us as we played. It looked like Greg was going to run away with game but Neville managed to sneak in and pull out the win. The final scores (with the goal being the lowest amount of cash) were Neville with -$12, Greg with $4, John with $9 and yours truly failing to spend, ending up with $24. Now that we figured out the game, we're looking forward to trying again.

The second group (Tim, Jay, Rembert & Ron) played Power Grid with the German map. I was only partially watching that game but as 9pm started to arrive, the game got into a gridlock I've never seen before. It was towards the end of Phase 2 and all four players had 14 cities. No one was able to expand until the Phase 3 card was pulled and the power plants were all low values. The game had to be called. Jay had the most cash on hand as time ran out but I don't think we can really call a winner on that one."

Glad to hear there was good attendance and, even in my absence, someone named John was present. Hope to see everyone this Thursday.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

February 16, 2012 Session Report

Seven in attendance, and a total of four different games were played at this session. Jay (who was attending for the first time) joined club regulars Mike, Doug, Ron, Tim, Rembert and myself.

We started off with a quick game of Cloud Nine. The Gods seemed to be on the side of the balloonists this evening, as there were some fairly successful trips which meant a short game. Winner was Ron (56) followed by John (43), Mike (27), Doug H (22), Jay (19). I made the mistake of bailing out early when in second place, allowing Ron to float a bit higher and cinch the win as everyone else was too far back to catch him.\

Jay had brought Shadow Hunters, which we played with a full table of seven. I got lots of clues but had trouble figuring out who was who right until the end. Doug revealed himself to be a 14-point shadow, but everyone took shots at him. I was a neutral and my victory condition was to take out a high-hit guy, so I went after Mike who was a 14-point hunter because Doug had some defensive ability, but the dice foiled me. Jay, who was revealed as a Shadow, was taken out, and then Mike managed to take out Doug, who was the last remaining Shadow, so the Hunters (Mike and Rembert) won. At least that's what my notes say. In addition to the fact that Tim, by remaining alive until the end, was a winning Neutral.

We split into two groups for the rest of the evening. One group played Puerto Rico, with the new 10th anniversary edition. The four-player game was won by Mike (56) who executed a big shipper strategy with lots of corn, a warehouse, no wharf, but yet he rarely got blocked out of the boats. Jay (49) had three large buildings to place second, while John (39) and Tim (33) brought up the rear. The other game was Roll Through the Ages, and the result there was a very close game, won by Rembert (28), just ahead of Ron (27) with Doug (20) in third. I believe it was Rembert's first play against some experienced players, so well done by Rembert.

Next week I am planning to attend the PrezCon convention in Charlottesville, so Mike (the official Co-Host) will be in charge of tracking attendance and games played.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

February 9, 2012 Session Report

Seven in attendance for this session: Doug H, Mike, Greg, Neville, Tim, Rembert and myself. We played four games: For Sale, Flash Point, Power Grid-Robots and San Juan.

Started with a quick game of For Sale while waiting for everyone to show. Greg was the winner. Scores: Greg 61K, Doug 55K, John and Neville 45K, Mike 42K.

We then split into two groups. Four of us (Doug, Greg, Neville and myself) played a cooperative game, Flash Point, where the players play the role of firefighters putting out a four-alarm blaze. Neville was the fire captain and had some very bad die rolls, usually hitting a hotspot and spreading more fire rather than putting it out. We lost when the last damage cube was placed after having done a fairly good job rescuing victims.

The other group (Mike, Tim, Rembert) played Power Grid with the Robots expansion. It was played on the Germany map with the robot taking over the role of a dummy fourth player. Didn't get a report on the result, think the game didn't finish in part because the robot made life more difficult for the players.

The Flash Point game finished with about 45 minutes left in the session, so we broke out San Juan. Please to report I was the winner, getting three "6" builds down. Final scores: John 41 Greg 33 Doug 31 Neville 27. It was Neville's first play of this Puerto Rico spin off.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

February 2, 2012 Session Report

Seven us of attended this session. Roll call: Mike, Doug H, Patrick, Neville, Greg, Rembert and myself. We split into two groups and played a total of three games: Power Grid - First Sparks, Walnut Grove and Expedition Sumatra.

The PG-First Sparks game had four players, and it was won by Doug (13), followed by Greg (11), Rembert (10) and Mike (7). The comments on the game suggest Mike made a fatal error at the beginning that left him hopelessly out of the running. This same group played a second game, Expedition Sumatra, which Doug had brought. Greg won that game by a point. Scores: Greg 18 Mike 17 Doug 13 Rembert 9.

Neville, Patrick and I played Walnut Grove, which Patrick had brought. I had played once before, it was Neville's first time. Scores were fairly close at the end: Patrick 27, Neville 24, John 21. I had got alot of guys early, but Neville and Patrick got going on the bonus tiles and hence that strategy paid off. Patrick claims not to have lost at the game.