Monday, October 22, 2012

October 18, 2012 Session Report

A down-week, with attendance of only six:  Tim, Jason, Doug H, John B, Rembert and me (John W).  We played just three games:  Piece o Cake, Vanuatu and Agricola, and the Agricola game barely made it to the finish line.

Piece o Cake was the warm-up game, and it was a four-player that wound up in a runaway win for Doug but very close for the rest of us.  Scores:  Doug 37 John W 26 Tim 25 Jason 24.

Vanuatu was a new game I had just bought but only played a couple of times.  Another big win for Doug, who went undefeated for the evening.  Rembert edged me for second, so being the teacher and experienced player did me no good this time.  Final scores:  Doug 75 Rembert 60 John W 58.

Agricola was also not that close as John got a really good set of cards at the start.  Final scores:  John B 49  Tim 34 Jason 16 -- it was Jason's first play.

A reminder that next week will be the last session before EuroQuest, and I hope to have some of the new Essen games on hand, and also am hoping that Alex (who went to Essen this year) shows up with some new games as well.

Friday, October 12, 2012

October 11, 2012 Session Report

Eight for tonight's session:  Mike, Ben, Tim, Jack, Jason (now up to three sessions and eligible for GCOM Associate Membership), John B, Helen and myself were the attendees.  Games played list:  Piece o Cake, Ticket to Ride - Asia, Power Grid, 7 Wonders and Straw.

Piece o Cake, a good opener which we played five-player for the first time, and the game seems to be even more difficult with a full table.  Another close one, with Tim winning by one.  Scores:  Tim 29, John W 28, Mike 26, Ben 21, Jack 15.

The two longer games of the evening were Ticket to Ride with the new legendary Asia map and Power Grid with the regular US map.  Ticket to Ride-Asia was a three-player, won by Tim by a wide margin.  He had 125 points, ending the game while Jack and I each had uncompleted tickets.  Jack took the 10-point Asia explorer bonus for the most connected cities to edge me for second, 86 to 84.

Power Grid came down to the money tiebreaker, and Helen built to 15 when she and Mike had the capacity to power 13.  Helen correctly surmised that Mike had less money, so final scores were Helen 13 (31 electros), Mike 13 (26), Ben 12, Jason 11, John B 10.  I believe it was Jason's first play, and he managed to finish ahead of an experienced player like John.

Jack, Tim and I managed to squeeze in a three-player 7 Wonders.  This was Jack's first play, and the finals scores were John W 61, Tim 48, Jack 41.  I managed to max out my military at 18, while Tim had over half his points (28) come from Science.

There was a half hour left, and we played a game called Straw, which Jack had brought, which was new to everyone except Jack.  Good quick filler, and Helen and Jack were tied for first at 86, I was next at 71, followed by Tim (56) and John B (48).  John B broke the camel's back twice, Helen never, while the rest of us each did so once in the five hands that were played.

Reminder that you have one week left (until Thursday October 18th) to pre-register for EuroQuest:

http://euroquest.gamesclubofmd.org

Pre-reg form here:

http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/registereq.htm

Friday, October 5, 2012

October 4, 2012 Session Report

Well, we were due for a bit of a down week, attendance-wise, only six (Alex, Doug, Tim, John B, Eric and myself) for this session.  We split into two groups for most of the session (although I had to be away for a bit due to a medical type emergency, i.e., getting some medicine from a nearby pharmacy).

Alex, Doug and I played a game of Piece o Cake and then two games of Timeline: Discoveries.  I managed to win another close game of Piece o Cake, 48 to 42 for Doug and 41 for Alex but really struggled at the Timelines:  Discoveries game, which seemed much more difficult than the regular game.  I missed like six straight questions and watched as Doug won the first game and Alex, the second.  I managed to finish with some momentum to come from behind to take second in the second game after getting about three or four questions in a row where I actually knew some of the answers.

Meanwhile, the other group (John B, Eric and Tim) played Power Grid and added a robot as the fourth player.  As it turned out, when I returned from my trip to the pharmacy, I was drafted as to take over the "robot" position, which was struggling and far back in last position, to say the least, having overspent on resources through the first few turns.  The game didn't last that much longer, as Tim managed to build to 17 and win it while others either lacked the capacity or were holding back for another turn.  Final scores:  Tim 17, Eric 11, John B 10 and John W 10.  I managed to tie with the other John but was far behind on money, not bad for a poorly programmed robot.

Doug and Alex had managed to complete a two-player Castles of Burgundy in record time, or at least much faster than a four-player game I played the other day.  It was a very tight finish, 168 to Alex and 164 for Doug.  Very well done by Alex in what I believe is his first time playing, but then Doug is a very good teacher of games.

We wrapped up the evening with a 6-player Bohnanza, but we ran out of time shortly after the first re-shuffle.  Final scores at that point were:  Alex 11, John B 10, John W 9, Eric and Tim 8, Doug 6.

Hope to see many of you at Congress of Gamers in Rockville this weekend.