Thursday, September 25, 2008

September 25, 2008 Session Report

We had a total of six for tonight's session: Don was back for the third week in a row (making him eligible for Games Club of Maryland associate membership), joined by Clayton, Paul, Nick, Ben and myself. We played a total of six different games: Lost Cities, R-Eco, Pandemic (twice), Monastery, Vegas Showdown and Cloud Nine.

Paul and I arrived first and got in one hand of Lost Cities. Can't remember much about the game, it was reasonably close and kind of low scoring, I won by something like 35 to 26. Nick, Clayton and Don joined up so we played another quick game, R-Eco. Nick won with a high score of 10 compared to 7 for Paul, 6 for John then 3 each for Clayton and Don.

We then split into the two groups. I had a new game, Monastery, which was played for the first time. Nick, Ben and I had our monks running around gaining blessings, constructing buildings, praying, studying and toiling, winning abbot elections, and finishing out words that were part of the Lord's Prayer in Latin. Turned out to be a really, really close game, with Nick at 26, Ben and I at 27. We checked the tiebreaker, and it favored Ben (based on starting position) but this one has to have a big asterisk as we determine too late that one of Ben's tiles was illegally played. Kind of an unusual game that all of us had trouble getting our heads around.

Meanwhile, at the other table, the good guys (Don, Paul and Clayton) were busy saving the world from plague and pestilence, winning two successive games of Pandemic starting at the 4 level. Well done, guys.

The last two games of the evening were Vegas Showdown, won by Nick after Ben got off to an early points lead but never got his income up. Finally, we found an old favorite, Cloud 9, after much trash talking it wound up a tie (51 each) for Nick and Paul.

Saturday, September 20, 2008

September 18, 2008 Session Report

We had a total of seven gamers for this week's session: Doug, Don, Paul, Clayton, Ben, Sarah (welcome back to Sarah) and myself. We had two tables going for most of the time and played a total of seven different games: R-Eco (twice), Vikings, Settlers (using a new variant idea I came up with), Ticket to Ride - Nordic edition, Sticheln, Power Grid - Korea map and For Sale.

Don had brought Vikings and was itching to give it a go, and since Doug was familiar enough with the rules to do the teaching, four of us (Paul, Don, Doug and myself) played. It was a fairly close contest among three of us (Don, Doug and myself) until we got to the endgame scoring and realized how important getting those little blue guys was. Doug pulled away for a comfortable win, with 53 to 45 for me, 41 for Don and 27 for Paul as he was the only one to feed all his guys.

Ben, Clayton and Sarah tried out my new Settlers variant, which was to roll four dice (Can't Stop style) and then pair them together for two production numbers (with perhaps a robber or two thrown in). I was surprised by how quickly the game ended, perhaps because there was all that extra production. Ben won, getting a couple of cities up early. The game took around a half hour and there was very little trading that took place.

The Vikings group had started early and we played one hand of Sticheln which barely finished while the Settlers game was being cleaned up; Doug had high score of 11 and everyone was positive even though some took some tricks with negative scores. Sarah, Doug and Clayton played a couple of quick games of R-Eco (both won by Doug, although one was really close between Doug and Sarah) while Paul, Ben, Don and I tackled the new Power Grid-Korea map which I had just brought. Main feature of the map is two separate resource markets, one for North Korea, a different one for South Korea, you can only buy from one each turn. I managed to win by building to 17 when I had the plants and resources to power 15 while no one else could get to more than 14. Ben tried an interesting strategy of building all four of the cheap connections in Seoul on the first turn; he eventually got blocked in though, hurt by the fact he was going last in subsequent turns. Need to try the game some more to see whether or not this is a viable strategy; my guess is that it is not.

Meanwhile Doug, Sarah and Clayton broke out another new game, Ticket to Ride - Nordic Edition, which I had managed to obtain at the Family Game Store in Savage (big plug for them -- they are now an official GCOM location, hosting sessions every Saturday night). Another close game, won by Doug with 99 to 95 for Sarah. After this game and Power Grid finished, there were only about 20 minutes left in the session, and those of us still left played a quick game of For Sale to wrap things up. Final scores: John 60 Ben 55 Paul 53 Doug 39 Clayton 38. See everyone next week, and don't forget about Congress of Gamers this weekend.

Friday, September 12, 2008

September 11, 2008 Session Report

We had a total of seven gamers in attendance: Paul, Doug, Clayton, Nick, Rodney and myself were joined by Don Tatum, who was attending his first session here. Good seeing you Don and hope you can make it to future sessions.

I decided to unveil this out-of-print cycling game I got from Europe for a pretty penny. Name of the game is Maillot Jaune. It's a fairly heavy duty cycling sim, and it ran a bit longer than I would have anticipated. The protagonists (after a couple of dropouts) were Nick, Clayton, Don and myself. We each had a team of eight cyclists. The course was not an easy one, including three major climb sections which slowed most of the cyclists down. Nick tried a strategy of holding back, then coming on strongly at the end. Clayton had one of his guys in the lead, but he got caught by a large group and, by the end, we all had a chance to win after Nick failed a 50-50 roll on a late breakaway attempt. So, in the bunch sprint at the end, justice prevailed and Nick managed to win after failing his breakaway roll.

The other group of Rodney, Doug and Paul played Stone Age, which Rodney had brought. No details on the game, but I heard Rodney won. Stone Age was just added as Wild Card game at EuroQuest this fall.

There was still time for more games, so we played a four-player Hollywood Blockbuster and a three-player Ra. The Ra game (with Clayton, Rodney and Paul) was won by Rodney; the Hollywood Blockbuster game (featuring Don, Doug, Nick and myself) was won by Doug with a very impressive score of 101. I edged Nick for second while Don's excuse was it was his first time playing the game.

Once again, a plug for some upcoming events, Congress of Gamers in Rockville is weekend after next and EuroQuest is later this fall.

Friday, September 5, 2008

September 4, 2008 Session Report

We had a total of five gamers for last night's session, with Doug, Clayton, Ben and Greg joining me as we returned to the 6 to 10 PM post-Labor Day four-hour session times.

We played a total of four games. Doug and I arrived first and played a hand of Lost Cities. Low scoring game, I had 37 to Doug's 28 as none of our double-handshake colors panned out for big points. Ben and Clayton joined us and we played my playtest copy of Homesteaders. Ben continued his winning streak at this game, getting the Church when I was one action short but could have outbid him. Ben had the actions but was short on cash and had to take on much more debt that he would have liked. Fortunately, he had the Bank that let him retire one debt a turn (dipping into the till, so to speak). Final scores were 10 points top to bottom (a close game) with Ben winning with 53, I had 47, Doug 46, Clayton 43.

Greg wanted to learn a couple of games that were recently added to the club's collection, so we played Pandemic, a four-player game but Clayton and I played as teammates. Since it was a cooperative game anyway, we played with open hands and tried to fight the diseases. We managed to cure three of them but came up short as the unwanted final epidemic came out right before we had the cards to cure the fourth and final disease. Tough game.

Finally game was the new Cartagena II, which we finally worked into the schedule. Unfortunately, it we didn't quite finish the game by 10 although it looked like Greg and Ben were closest to winning. Clayton, Doug and I also played.

Hope to see more of you next week. A reminder that the Congress of Gamers game convention is coming up in two weeks, here's a link to the website:

http://www.congressofgamers.org

Friday, August 22, 2008

August 21, 2008 Session Report

Before getting to last night's session report, here's an important notice: NEXT WEEK's SESSION, scheduled for Thursday, August 28, has been CANCELED. The Community Center will be closing early for some renovations over Labor Day Weekend this year. Our next session, which will return to the regular 6 - 10 PM time frame, will be Thursday, September 4th.

Last night we had a total of seven in attendance: Doug, Paul, Nick, Clayton and myself were joined by Mark Love, who was so inspired by our Decathlon replay effort that he even brought a nice prize for the winner. (Later we were joined by Rodney, who arrived a bit too late to get in on the decathlon, but helped "roll" during the 1500 meters so we could finish the event a bit faster.) We wound up dropping the Russian athlete, Kuznetsov, after his miserable first day performance (due no doubt to the person rolling the die, because I have a book at home quoting Track and Field News in 1962 talking about how Kuznetsov was "the most consistent Decathlete of them all.") Paul once again took control of Milt Campbell, I was Rafer Johnson, Nick once again tried to direct Jim Thorpe's efforts, while Mark took over with Bill Toomey, Doug was Bob Mathias, and Clayton did his best C. K. Yang impersonation.

Campbell pulled ahead with a strong effort (14.3 time) in the hurdles (which was equalled by Thorpe), but then gave it all back and more in the discus, where Johnson hit on a huge (187 foot) throw to pull out a 100-point plus lead in the overall standings. Then C. K. Yang did his thing in the pole vault, as he was the only decathlete to clear 15 feet. Mathias and Yang were the only two to go over 200 feet in the ninth event, the javelin. So it all came down to the grueling 1500 meter run where, with the help of Rodney's die rolling, we got through the event, with my man (Rafer Johnson) coming home last reflecting some tiredness due to taking an unnecessary eighth attempt in the pole vault and paying for it.

As expected, Thorpe and Toomey dominated the 1500 meters, but it was not enough for them to claim the Gold after factoring in the handicaps. Here's a summary of the final results:

Rafer Johnson 8205 (0 Handicap) 8205
C. K. Yang 8010 (+190 Handicap) 8200
Bill Toomey 7935 (+240 Handicap) 8175
Milt Campbell 7905 (+120 Handicap) 8025
Bob Mathias 7810 (+95 Handicap) 7905
Jim Thorpe 8240 (-345 Handicap) 7895

So, Thorpe pulled ahead on the raw scores with the last event but wound up sixth of six after factoring in the handicaps we agreed to use. Looks like an even closer finish than the 1960 Rome Olympics where Johnson and Yang -- who were teammates at UCLA -- finished 1-2. I decided to award Mark's "prize" to Clayton, who made up alot of lost ground after taking over Yang for the second day of the competition.

I am going to probably put this game away for about four years now but will try going through the game once this weekend during the final few days of the real Olympics, using more athletes (like Bruce Jenner and Daley Thompson) with new files and charts downloaded from the game's page at BoardGameGeek. I will try to post a session report there with the results, for those interested. And, as I said, for those who don't care, the good news is you won't see me bringing the game to a session for another four years.

We still had time after the Decathlon for several other games. Rodney, in particular, made up for lost time by going undefeated the rest of the evening, winning a three-player Race for the Galaxy with Paul and Mike, and then besting Paul in a two-player game. At the other table, Clayton, Nick, Doug and I played a certain prototype card game with alot of shuffling, which I won after several of the players seemed "cursed" alot. The real version of the game is scheduled to come out later this year. By then Mark had left and Clayton was taking a break, so we ended with a five-player For Sale game, also won by Rodney who as I said was undefeated for the evening.

Once again, no session next week so see everyone in two weeks' time (Doug wanted me to remind everyone that next week the Rockville-South group will meet for gaming at the Dream Wizards store, 7 -11 PM).

Friday, August 15, 2008

August 14, 2008 Session Report

Wow, a great crowd tonight, perhaps no small credit due my co-host Nick, who had a group arrive with an after-session party for birthday boy, Abe, who was also among those present. Also, good to see Pete coming from Pennsylvania which also helped boost our numbers. Final attendance count was 13, our best session attendance since last February and one of our best Thursday night sessions ever. The total group included Paul, Clayton, Doug, Ashley, Gabe, Nick, Ben, Abe, Brandon, Brian H, Mike S, Pete P, and myself. We played a total of six different games: Decathlon (the old AH/SI game), Race for the Galaxy, Tumblin' Dice, Kingsburg, Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix and Kingsburg. We had a bunch of nice-looking games on display, as Nick brought his Tumblin' Dice and Heroscape while I brought some of my highly prized out-of-print cycling games from Europe that I am still trying to figure out how to play.

First up, in honor of the Beijing Olympics, we played a suitably themed game, Decathlon (which was originally a Sports Illustrated/3M game from the 1970s that was re-printed by Avalon Hill). The game uses features several all-time Decathlon greats and performance numbers (through die rolling) roughly based on actual results. To get through the game quickly and to maintain excitement, we only ran through the first five events and plan to wrap up at next week's session with the final five events with the medals at stake. Standings after five events (final number in parens is the handicap to be added or subtracted to that athelete's final score):

1. Rafer Johnson (John) 4425 (0)
2. Milt Campbell (Paul) 4405 (+240)
3. Jim Thorpe (Nick) 4280 (-345)
4. C. K. Yang (Brian) 4275 (+190)
5. Bill Toomey (Ashley/Gabe) 4190 (+240)
6. Bob Mathias (Brandon) 4175 (+95)
7. Vasily Kuznetsov (Pete) 4010 (-90)

Factoring in the handicap, right now the favorite would be Paul (Milt Campbell). Jim Thorpe, who should be running away with it, distinctly underperformed, perhaps due to some poor strategy calls by his coach, Nick. Yang and Toomey are still in it, as they have some good events coming up (Yang briefly held the world record in the pole vault) and good handicap numbers. Can't same the same for Pete's athlete, the Russian Kuznetsov, who suffered an injury and is pretty much out of it at this point. Next week people can reclaim their athletes, and it will be first come first serve for athletes for those who don't return.

Other games, don't have a report except for Kingsburg, which I taught to Pete and Ashley (with Gabe's help). Final scores were John 43, Pete 34, Ashley 33, Paul 28, Gabe 19. Gabe got nicked by the Enemies right after building an early Farm (which then burned down and had to be rebuilt). I won by moving on the Embassy Row, but a very low help from the King die roll would have given the game to Ashley, as it was much closer than the final scores indicate.

I know Doug, Ben, Clayton, Brian, Nick and Brandon played Det-Cleveland Grand Prix, Ben, Doug and Clayton played Race for the Galaxy, and just about everyone but the five-player Kingsburg group was involved in Heroscape, which saw two different scenarios being contested.

Looking forward to wrapping up the Decathlon and more fun and games next week. Only a couple of more sessions in August, then after Labor Day we will return to the 10 PM closing time.

Also, want to wish one of this week's attendees, Brian Hahn, well. In a week or so, Brian is scheduled to ship out for his second tour of duty in Iraq.

August 7, 2008 Session Report

This was a session that several of us missed because of attendance at the WBC in Lancaster, PA.

Three attendees for this session: Clayton, Doug and Paul. Games played: GemLock (brought by Doug, first time played at the club, Doug won the game); Qwirkle (Paul won the game); Pandemic (cooperative game; the players lost); Ticket to Ride (Paul) and finally Target (two-player, Doug and Paul, not sure who won). All other games except Target included Clayton.

Thanks to Doug Hoylman who kept track of the attendance and games played.

For those interested, here's a link to my personal recap of WBC activities:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/33774

Will follow up with last night's report shortly.