July 30, 2009 Session Report

We had a total of eight gamers for this week's session; Mike brought a newcomer to the club, his daughter Gillian, and the two of them joined Clayton, Greg, Sarah, Alex, Christie and myself for the gaming festivities. Games played: Cheeky Monkey (x2), Ticket to Ride, Ingenious, Ra, Spoons (more often than necessary), Wits and Wagers, Blokus and Cloud Nine. Details on the games (where I have them) follow.

First up was Cheeky Monkey, a game I had learned about at the Main Street Festival. Everyone liked it so we played two games in succession. First game was won by Greg (28) ahead of Gillian (20), Mike (16) and John (7) and Clayton (6) brought up the rear. Second game, Gillian turned the tables on everyone and won with 31 to 27 for Clayton. Mike was third with 17, followed by Greg (11) and I brought up the rear with just three animals at the end of the game.

Sarah, Alex and Christie had arrived by this time and played a very close 3-player Ticket to Ride using the original game components, Christie was the winner (125) to 118 for Sarah and 102 for Alex. Next up for this group was a series of games using the regular card deck called "Spoons," which involved not being the last to collect a spoon after one player went "out" by collecting a set of four cards of the same rank. Lacking plastic spoons, the game was played with plastic knives instead. Meanwhile, at the other table, it was a five-player Ra, a very close game won by Greg over Gillian on the tiebreaker. Each had 39 points, I was one back but third with 38, Clayton had 30 and Mike brought up the rear with 28.

Christie, Alex and Sarah also fit in an Ingenious game, and Christie managed to win that one with a score of 15 (after getting all her other colors to 18). It was close for second, Sarah had 10 to 9 for Alex.

Then everyone got in the act for a Wits and Wagers game, with Mike and Gillian acting as teammates. Alex, Christie and I seemed to be the only ones making any money with correct answers and winning wagers for most of the game. There was an easy basketball question involving Larry Bird and Magic Johnson that put me ahead, and I hung onto win through the last question. Three of the seven players ended with no money.

We juggled the groups for the final two games of the session, with four of us (Gillian, Greg, Christie and I) playing Blokus while Clayton, Mike, Sarah and Alex played Cloud Nine. Greg and I tied for the win, getting all our pieces down except for the four-piece square. Don't have the scores for the Cloud 9 game, but rumor has it that Clayton "dominated" all the way.