August 18, 2016 Session Report

Attendance of 12 for this week's session, including one first-time attendee (Chris) along with Mike, Jason A, Ben K, Greg, Arnold, Lina, Tim, Rouslan, Rembert, Neville and myself. This week we were in a different location (the gaming room) and had three tables going for most of the session, including a game on the Ping Pong table. Games played were Keyflower, The Networks, Switching Tracks and Sanssouci.

Keyflower was won by Tim (56) ahead of Mike (53), Jason A (41) and Chris (23). Game notes indicate that not a single green producer or shipping tile ever came out, a rarity.

The Networks produced an exciting finish, with Neville coming from behind to eke out a close win over Arnold and Greg. Scores were Neville 245, Arnold 243, Greg 242, Lina 222 while I brought up the rear at 205. I got dinged pretty hard by some last turn events (Network cards) and am thinking the main reason I came in last was I didn't invest in taking those Network cards during the game.

The third group -- at the Ping Pong table -- got in two games. First was Switching Tracks -- scores were Rouslan 4, Ben K 4, Rembert 3 -- then Sanssouci, final scores were Rouslan 86, Ben K 76, Rembert 74.

August 11, 2016 Session Report

Eight for this week's session: Jason B, Mike, Jason A, Rouslan, Eugene, Arnold, Rembert and myself were the attendees. Games played: Cockroach Poker, The Networks, Keyflower, Seeland and Pyramix. Some results follow.

Cockroach Poker was the warmup game that ended quickly when the first player -- me -- was eliminated. We then split into two groups for the longer games. One group chose Keyflower, which was won by Eugene (69) ahead of Mike (56), Jason B (50) and Rembert ((39).

The other group played The Networks, a new game which I had brought. Winner was Rouslan (242). I managed second (235) ahead of Arnold and Jason A who tied for third at 221 (Arnold had more money and would have placed ahead of Jason on the tiebreaker).

Late games were 3-player as some people left early. These were Seeland, won by Rouslan (175) ahead of me (149) and Arnold (106); and Pyramix, won by Jason B (27) ahead of Mike (24) and Rembert (20).

Good to be back after missing a couple of weeks.

August 4, 2016 Session Report

I had to miss this session, but Co-Host Mike provides this report:

"Attendees: me, Jason, Jason Abovsky, Greg, Dave, Rouslin, Marian, Patrick, Ben, Tom, Rembert and one other person I forgot to record (sorry!)

We broke into 3 groups for the evening. The first table was me, Dave and the two Jasons. We started with New Bedford, a game that arrived during WBC. We had a couple rule issues with payouts but once we got started, two strategies appeared. I started whaling as quick as possible and the rest went with buildings. Over the course of the game, everyone else started whaling except Jason A. who just built stuff. In the end, he dominated the scores ending with 34. Jason B got 27, Dave got 22 and I wound up last with 17. I'm still not sure we played everything right but looking on BGG afterwards didn't show any errors.

The four of us then played a Vegas Showdown game. The game was new for both Jasons with Jason A once again winning after Dave completed filled his board completely. Jason A won with 64 pts, I had 54, Dave had 41 and Jason B ended with 39.

At the second table was Ben, Rouslin, Patrick and Tom (I don't recall see seeing him before). They started a full Machi Koro with both expansions. The game went over 2 hours with Tom finishing his city after a long, drawn-out fight. That table finished up by playing Cockroach Poker, with Rouslin being the first player eliminated.

The rest of the players played Switching Tracks. I don't know anything on how that game finished."

Hope to be back tonight for the August 11 session.

July 28, 2016 Session Report

As previously reported, Mike and I attended WBC convention this past week and missed the club session as a result. However, Jason ably filled in for us in terms of the hosting duties and reports the following:

"Attendees: Jason B.,Alex P.,Patrick C., Rembert S.

Games: Matcha (Jason 1, Alex 0), Imhotep (Jason 36, Alex 32, Rembert 31, Patrick 27), Mystic Vale (Jason 43, Patrick 19, Rembert 18)"

Curious as to people's thoughts on these new games, none of which I have played yet (have heard alot about the last two, not much about Matcha which I guess was a quick starter game).

Obvious reason for the low attendance was the conflict with WBC (and perhaps vacation plans for many regular club attendees). In addition to Mike and myself, I saw Tim, David, Eugene and Moon at WBC and, since it's a rather large convention, I may have missed some of you who were there. Congrats to Moon who won two tourneys (Castles of Burgundy and Tzolkin) at her first WBC, but since results aren't religiously posted I have no idea if there are other winners from among our group. Speaking for myself, the closest I came was semis in both Tin Goose and Churchill, but no plaques and probably no laurels as my second place in the Tin Goose semis was probably not among the closest seconds to place me in the top six.

For next week, I have a trip planned to an even larger convention (GenCon, in Indianapolis) so Mike will be in charge, hopefully Jason will be there to assist.

July 21, 2016 Session Report

We had 11 for this week's session and played a total of three games. Attendees: Jason, Eugene, Ben K, Ben A, Patrick, Rembert, Arnold, Neville, Tom (who was here for the first time), David and myself. Games Played: Abradawha, Fire and Axe and Manhattan Project: Energy Empire (the PnP version).

Abracadawha was the warm-up game while waiting for people to arrive. Six of us took part, and we only managed to finish one round. Patrick knocked out Ben K and wound up the winner with 3 points. Jason, Eugene, Rembert and I also participated.

The longer games were Fire and Axe and the PnP of the yet to be released sequel to Manhattan Project. Fire and Axe I had the scores reported as Jason 98, Patrick 90, Eugene 87, Arnold 82. But I also had Ben A listed as an attendee, so I believe he must have been in the game as well. I know they had a full table.

The Manhattan Project: Energy Empire was a full table of five, and I let David play my position which I took over when he had to leave. Our combined efforts resulted in 86 points, good for the win over Neville and Rembert (78), Tom (77) and Ben K (76). Due to time constraints, we picked up the game without playing the final round, and Ben K said he was about to score some major points, so things certainly could have changed. Also, I later discovered a rules miscue: Only one player could get to the final rung of the UN track. (Three of us did it in the game, which should not have been allowed.)

A reminder that next week our numbers will dwindle a bit as Mike, Eugene, David and I plan to be at WBC. The following week I plan to go to GenCon so will hope to see everyone in 2 weeks. Jason will be in charge of tracking attendance next week, then Mike should be back the following week.

July 14, 2016 Session Report

Attendance of 12 this week: Mike, Ben K, Jason B, Jason A (someone who attended a couple of years back but returned this week), Lina, Tim, Eugene, Arnold, Patrick, Rembert, David (who showed up late and didn't get into a game) and myself were the attendees. Games played: Niya, Lords of Waterdeep, and Acquistion: Empires (a prototype that Jason A had brought).

Niya (which Jason B had brought) was a quick-playing, warm-up game for just two players. Kind of chess-like, seemed like a glorified version of Tic Tac Toe. Ties were possible. In one game, Mike defeated Ben K while I drew with Jason B.

Jason A had brought a prototype of his own design, Acquisition: Empires, that eventually attracted six players. It was kind of a space travel game where you needed to make it home with a stipulated set of money, but it also had a stock market and space combat aspect to the game. Took the rest of the time, and we decided Lina was going to be the winner the next round with Rembert coming in second. Patrick got his spaceship blown up twice in combat, mostly with Jason whose special characteristic was a die roll bonus when attacking (the rest of us had various economic type advantages).

The other game was Lords of Waterdeep, and it also ended up taking most of the session time. Scores in that one were Eugene 142, Arnold 116, Tim 110, Ben K 98 and Mike 97.

July 7, 2014 Session Report

Eight for this week's session. The group included Patrick, Mike, Jason, Ben K, Tim, Marion, Rembert and myself. A total of four games were played: Here Kitty Kitty, Founding Fathers, Keyflower and Last Spike. Results follow.

Here Kitty Kitty was the warmup game. Jason, who brought the game, wound up on top with 70 points. Mike was second with 40, I managed 38, just ahead of Patrick last with 35.

We then broke into two groups. Five of us played Founding Fathers, which Jason had brought. At the start, I drew James Madison which meant I went first. Marion had William Paterson, Ben K had Roger Sherman, Jason drew Charles Pinckney while Rembert took on the role of Alexander Hamilton. Winner was Marion -- who had not played the game before. She had 24 points, with Rembert (who was also playing the game for the first time) in second with 17. Jsaon (another newcomer to the game) was third with 14, while the so-called "experts" Jason and I were fourth (12 points) and fifth (7 points), respectively. Not one of my better games, as I had Ben Franklin for the last round but Marion and others kept removing my blocks, but I thoroughly enjoyed the game anyway.

The other group, consisting of Tim, Mike and Patrick, got in two games. First was Keyflower, won by Tim (65) ahead of Mike (51) and Patrick (46). Then the evening wrapped with Last Spike, which Patrick (who brought the game) and I had played last week at the Summer PrezCon tournament. Winner was Mike (113) ahead of Tim (83) and Patrick (55).