March 21, 2013 Session Report

I had to miss this week's session, but co-Host Mike has provided the following report:

"At last week's session we had seven people. While we were waiting for more people to show up, Jonathan, Alex, Doug and I started with a game of Timeline on my iPad. I won the game fairly quickly. While we were playing Stephen and Rembert showed up and we played an oldie, but with the newest edition, Acquire. Alex managed to get some early bonuses and easily cruised in for the win. The final scores were Alex ($41,700), me ($34,100), Rembert ($30,200), Stephen ($27,500), Doug ($25,400) and Jonathan bringing up the rear with just a bit more than $16,000.

While we were playing, Helen arrived. Jonathan ducked out and we played a game of Transamerica to wrap up the night.  Helen won with 9 pts. Behind her (or in front of her as the game is scored) came Doug with 8 pts, Alex with 7, me with 6, Rembert with 5 and Stephen ending the game with 1 measly pt."

March 14, 2013 Session Report

Ten for this week's session, including one first-time attendee (Johnny V.) along with Alex, Patrick, Mike, Doug, Tim, John B, Rembert, Helen and myself.  We played a total of five games:  Piece o Cake, Tzolk'in. Thurn and Taxis, Imperial and Fresco.

Piece o Cake was the warm-up game played while waiting for people to show.  Relatively close, final count was John W (me) 33, Doug 30, Alex 27, Mike 15.

We wound up in three groups for most of the rest of the way.  Four of us (Patrick, Tim, Johnny and I) played Tzolkin, which all but Tim had played before.  I used my use temple-building strategy and managed to return to winning form, but Johnny had all six workers in play and made a nice comeback after falling behind early.  Final  scores:  John W. 73, Johnny 58, Patrick 51, Tim 39.

John B, Mike, Alex and Doug got in a game of Thurn and Taxis that ended on carriages when everyone had plenty of houses in stock, indicating a low-scoring game.  Winner as Doug (11), Alex (10), John B (8) and Mike (7).  There was still plenty of time left in the session, so Mike, Alex and Doug got in another game, a three-player Fresco which was won by Alex by just one point (88 to 87) over Doug with Mike in third.  Mike did observe that his performances tonight were a model of consistency (last in every game).

One more game was played but picked up early because of the time constraint.  Rembert and Helen, the two latecomers, were joined by John B in a three-player game of Imperial.  When the game was picked up, it was John B 30, Rembert 28, Helen 26 but of course the game was far from over, so anyone's game at that point.

March 7, 2013 Session Report

Biggest turnout in a long time, a total of 11 for this week's session.  This included Steven, a first-time attendee at the Laurel club, along with Mike, Doug, Alex, Tim, Ben, Eric, Rembert, Patrick, Helen and myself.  We had three games going most of the time.  Games played were Suburbia, Attika, Too Many Cooks, Tzolkin:  The Mayan Calendar and Myrmes.

The group of Doug, Eric, Ben and Tim got in three games.  First up was Suburbia, which was a win for Doug.  Scores:  Doug 98, Eric 85, Ben 84, Tim 70.  Then they played Attika which turned out to be relatively short, as Tim won by connecting two shrines, something the other players should have done a better job of preventing.  Anyway, that gave everyone a chance to play a third game, which was Too Many Cooks.  This one was scored just as the room was being cleared, and Eric won with Doug a close second.  Scores were Eric 27, Doug 25, Ben 11 Tim 3.

The other two groups just played the one game.  Tzolkin was won by Steve, who wound up with two monuments and six well-used workers.  Scores were Steve 84, Mike 69, Alex 53, John 50.  (I tried a different strategy and focused on technology which didn't work too well.)  The other game, Myrmes, didn't quite make it to the finish line.  With a couple of rounds to go, the scores were Patrick 14, Helen 12, Rembert 10.

February 28, 2013 Session Report

We had eight for this week's session:  Patrick, Mike, Ben, Helen, Tim, Rembert, Peng and myself were the attendees.  Games played:  Power Grid (using the new Quebec map), Clash of Cultures and Piece o Cake.

The Power Grid game was a four-player, consisting of Mike, Helen, Ben and Rembert.  It came down to the wire when Helen built to 17 when she could only power 15.  Mike, who could also power 15, had more money.  Ben and Rembert powered one city less (14) and were one dollar apart in money.

The rest of us played Clash of Cultures which lasted the entire session and, in fact, we only got through three full turns of a scheduled four.  Scores at that point were Tim 19.5, John 17, Peng 13, Patrick 12.  Tim and Peng were playing the game for the first time.

Helen and Rembert played a two-player Piece o Cake game after the Power Grid game finished.  Helen won that one by a score of 42 to 33.

A reminder that the special Saturday Beltsville Games Day event is now less than two weeks away, Saturday March 16, at the Beltsville Community Center, from 9 AM to 4 PM.  There will be refreshments and game prizes.  See flyer at:  http://beltsville.com/events/Games%20Day%20Flyer%20UPDATED_v2-2.pdf