April 19, 2012 Session Report

Eight for this session, with Alex, Doug, Rodney, Jay, Patrick, Neville, Rembert and myself in attendance. Jay had just bought Eclipse, one of the "hot" recent games, and was eager to give it a try. Patrick, Neville and Rembert joined in, and the report I got was that the game did not finish. Patrick was reportedly winning after about six of nine turns, with Rembert in second. Jay claimed to have a great long-term strategy that was going to take effect some time.

The rest of us played some shorter games. First up was Martian Dice, which turned out to be a win for Alex in a very close, tense and fairly low-scoring contest. Final scores: Alex 23, John 16, Doug 15, Rodney 13. (We played to 20 instead of the 25 in the rules, in order to get more games in.)

Rodney had brought Power Grid: First Sparks, which was the next game played. It was another nail-biter at the end. Going into what Rodney said would surely be the last turn, both he and Doug were at 11, two short of the endgame condition. But then the two of them were unable to add more than one to their tribe. I, too, was stuck at 12, but Alex moved up from last to first, winning with 13. Rodney won the tiebreak (most remaining food) for second.

Alex took his leave at this point, but Rodney, Doug and I still had time to get two more games in. Planes, Trains and Automobiles proved to be a bit more confrontational in the early going, as the nasty cards flew back and forth. In the end, Rodney was first, getting the necessary 7 destinations for the win. Doug (with 6) was a close second. I had 4, making me a distant third and last. We wrapped up the evening with Volcanic Disaster, which Doug had brought. Barely managed to finish, with Rodney completing five volcanos worth around 20 points. Doug had a negative score, I was barely positive, but there was alot of back and forth jockeying earlier in the game.

Next week is Game Days, which starts on Thursday the 26th. I plan to be at the Club Thursday night as usual but then will be at Game Days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hope to see you there.

Game Days information: http://gamedays.gamesclubofmd.org

April 12, 2012 Session Report

Nine for this session, attendees were Rodney, Alex, Jay, Mike, Neville, Doug H, Greg, Rembert and myself.

We played a short warm-up game, Resistance, that went the way of the "bad guys" (Jay, Greg and myself) with one round left to go as Jay did an expert job of reeling the other guys end by letting the first mission succeed and then pointing the finger at a couple of other players who really were "good guys." Everyone else but Rembert participated as this was an eight-player game.

We then split into two groups for the two main games of the evening, which were two recent releases that both used a worker placement mechanism: Lords of Waterdeep and the Manhattan Project. Lords of Waterdeep had five players, final score counts were Doug 148, Mike 133, Alex 127, Jay 121, Rodney 103. Mike's comments on the game: "All players considered it a fun worker placement game; good to teach the mechanism to new players." According to Mike, Doug says "best game ever."

The rest of us played the Manhattan Project, where you are racing to a specific points goal by hiring scientists, engineers, contractors to build bombs, while also obtaining uranium yellowcake and turning it into plutonium or uranium fuel. Greg won this game after Neville seemed to be off to a good start. Greg attacked my position earlier and then coasted to victory; my bombs touched up his bomb-producing ability a couple of turns too late.

In the 20 minutes or so left in the session, we played a quick six-player game of Tsuro, which was won by Jay who I believe was playing the game for the first time. Rodney, Doug, Greg, Rembert and I were the other five players.

In the days since last week's session, I noticed a couple of BGG posts comparing these two games, see links below, indicating once again that the Laurel Club is on the cutting edge of gaming these days.

http://boardgamegeek.com/blogpost/9636/showdown-lords-of-waterdeep-vs-the-manhattan-pr

http://boardgamegeek.com/thread/782440/manhattan-project-vs-lords-of-waterdeep

April 5, 2012 Session Report

Sorry for being a little late with the session report from last week. We had an attendance of eight (Neville, Greg, Patrick, Mike, Doug, Jay, Rembert and myself). Two games were played and, unfortunately, both took the entire session time and neither game finished.

Patrick, Doug, Neville and I played Vinhos, a game Patrick had bought recently that was a favorite of mine from last year's Essen releases. However, the game has a number of very intricate rules, and it takes awhile to see how everything fits together. We managed to get through five of six turns and two of the three wine fair competitions, and then scored the game as if it had ended. Doug was ahead at that point, but everyone seemed to think that, with another turn, Neville (who had won both the wine fair competitions) was in a good position to win after another turn.

Poseidon was the other game. We've played it before, and it's a tight fit to get it done in three hours. Greg, Mike, Jay and Rembert were the players; only Greg and Mike had played before so it was a learning curve for Jay and Rembert. Sorry, I didn't get a report on who was ahead or who was winning from the participants.

March 29, 2012 Session Report

We had a total attendance of eight for this session: Greg, Mike, Patrick, Jay, Eugene, Rembert, Alex and myself were the attendees. Three games were played: Martian Dice, Empire Builder and a new game (courtesy of Patrick) called Dark Horse.

Martian Dice was the warm-up game played while waiting for more people to arrive. We played two rounds with six players. Patrick scored 10 on his first set of rolls, then 6 on his second. Eugene was second at 7. Greg and Mike each had 5. Jay and I failed to score.

We then split into two groups. Greg, Mike, Alex and Rembert played Empire Builder. Unfortunately, the game did not finish. According to Mike, Greg and Alex had established good routes while Rembert had a poor start and was hurting for funds.

Patrick, Jay, Eugene and I played Dark Horse. It was a worker placement game using dice that reminded me alot of Kingsburg. The setting is the Wild West and you are trying to develop settlements and towns (a la Settlers) by connecting them to each other and worthwhile resources. I found the game to be quite interesting and challenging. The final scores were close, but Patrick prevailed: Patrick 15, Jay 13, John 12, Eugene 11.

Hope to see everyone at the next session.