August 28, 2014 Session Report

Ten for this week's session.  Attendees were Mike, Patrick, Alex, Alec, Tim, Neville, Rich, Rembert, Ben H and myself.  (Not counting Rodney who arrived late and unfortunately didn't get in a game.)  In fact, only three games were played (Game of 49, City of Iron and Keyflower) and two of these didn't make it to the finish line.

We started with the Game of 49 which was the warm-up game while waiting for people to show up.  Mike, Alec, Patrick and I were the participants.  Alec, Mike and Patrick had more chips on the board, but no one was close to winning, and we decided to start a couple of longer games as more people arrived.

Patrick brought City of Iron, which he taught to Alex, Neville and I.  We didn't finish although we did hit the second of three scoring rounds.  It looked like Alex had a good position although Patrick, being more familiar with the rules and victory conditions, was also a likely winner.  I am fairly certain I was going to come in fourth and last.

Keyflower was a six-player, and this one did wrap up right before the 9 PM close.  Scores were Ben H 59, Rich 41, Tim 37, Rembert and Mike 30, Alec 29.  I believe only Mike and Tim had played before.

August 21, 2014 Session Report

Twelve attendees this week:  Mike, Eric and sons Nathan and Ryan, Claire, Matt, Ben H, Doug, Neville, Rembert, Lina (back for the second week in a row) and myself.  We played Cheeky Monkey, the Game of 49 (3 plays), Fresco, Ticket to Ride, Spyrium and Splendor.  Some details follow.

Cheeky Monkey was won by Eric (47).  Nathan (25) was second, followed by Ryan (17) and Mike (6).

The Game of 49 (a new game that I picked up via KS at GenCon) was so popular it was played back-to-back.  First game was won by Doug, second by Claire.  Ben, Matt and I were the other players.  In winning, Doug had only three chips on the board, but they were all in a row as everyone else was low on money. 

Ticket to Ride was played with the USA map.  Surprisingly, I won.  Scores:  John 138 Matt 110 Claire 102 Doug 78 Ben 69

Spyrium was a close three-player game, won by Neville.  Scores:  Neville 75 Mike 67 Rembert 61

Fresco was won by Ryan (101) just ahead of Eric (94).  Lina (78) and Nathan (73) also played.

Finally, four of us wrapped up a third Game of 49 just as the clock struck nine.  I was the winner, perhaps with an asterisk, as neither Neville nor Mike wanted to burn all their money to stop me, and Rembert -- the other player in contention -- didn't have enough cash to top my bid.

August 14, 2014 Session Report

I was not able to attend due to an out-of-town trip, so co-Host Mike was in charge and here is his report:

"We had 7 people show up. I started by teaching Tim, Alec, Neville and Rembert Concordia. As we were about to start, Wegmen's Ben showed up and we split into two groups. Soon after, a new player, Lina, showed up. Tim, Alec, Ben and Lina played Thurn und Taxis and later Splendor. Neville, Rembert and I played Concordia (the Italian map) for the rest of the evening. The Concordia game ended with me winning at 124 pts, with Neville having 114 and Rembert at 82.

As for the other group, Alec ran away with the Thurn und Taxis game with 21 points. Tim and Ben both had 16 pts and Lina had 13. I think this was the first time anyone other than Tim played that game. After that, Alec needed to duck out and they played Splendor. Ben tried the "Jack Strategy", going for high point cards over everything else and clobbered the other players. He ended the game with 17 points. Lina had 4 points and Tim eked out 1 lonely point."

August 7, 2014 Session Report

We had a total of 11 people for this session (John C, Doug, Rouslan, Patrick, Karl, Eric, Nathan, Ryan, Alex, Claire and myself), and the following games were played:  Cheeky Monkey (twice), Civilization, Ingenious (twice), 7 Wonders, Vegas Showdown, Too Many Cooks and Cloud Nine.  A few scores and details follow.

Cheeky Monkey Game 1:  Ryan 37  Doug 29 Karl 22 John W. 8 Nathan 5 John C 3.  Ryan took over for Rouslan starting the third round and improved on an already good position to win the game.

Ingenious Game 1:  Ryan 10 Doug 9 Eric 8

Ingenious Game 2:  Eric 19 (perfect score!) Doug 9 Ryan 8

Cheeky Monkey Game 2:  Ryan 37 Eric 32 Doug 22

Civilization:  Apparently Rouslan was the winner.  The only report I got was from Patrick who said "he destroyed my city just as I was about to gain a Level 3 tech."

7 Wonders:  The players were Claire, Karl, Nathan, John C, Alex and myself.  Didn't write down the scores, I believe it was Alex first, Karl second, me third.  It was the first game for Claire, Karl and John C, so good result for Karl to come so close to winning.

Vegas Showdown:  John W 36, Karl 30, John C 28, Alex 25.  Low scoring game, surprised I won this.

Too Many Cooks:  Ryan 22 Nathan 16, Doug and Eric 12, Claire 10.

Cloud Nine (didn't finish):  Karl 42 John W 36 John C and Eric 33 Ray 24  Alex and Nathan somewhere further down the track (scoring markers removed in our rush to pick up the game by 9 PM)

July 31, 2014 Session Report

Ten for this week's session, including two first time attendees (John C and Greg), Claire (back for her second session), plus regular attendees Alex, Mike, Tim, Ben H, Patrick, Rembert and myself.  Games played:  Sushi Go (twice), Splendor, Race: Formula 90, Ticket to Ride (10th anniversary edition) and 7 Wonders.

Game 1 of Sushi Go was a close one, final scores:  John W 31 Mike Ben H and Alex 29 Tim 24.  Ben was winning until he had to give up 6 VP for least desserts.

Splendor was won by Rembert, another close one:  Rembert 15 Claire 14 Patrick 13 John C. 11.  First play for John C, I felt good about this result because I remember teaching the game to Rembert awhile back and believe this is his first win.

I brought a Formula 1 car race game (Race:  Formula 90) but it didn't go over that well with everyone and we picked it up with Ben leading but about to come into the pits for tires. Mike, Tim, Alex, Greg and myself were the other participants.

7 Wonders was played next, and my winning streak continued:  John W 61 Tim 51 Mike 47 Ben 45 Greg 31.  I went kind of big on military and this time it worked out.

Ticket to Ride was a romp for Patrick.  Scores:  Patrick 136 Claire 102 Rembert 93 John C 86

Finally, there was time for one more game of Sushi Go.  Scores:  John W and Mike 35 Tim 31 Greg 30 Ben H 29.  We checked the tiebreaker and I was declared the winner (I believe it was most pudding which I focused on this time).