Tuesday, September 24, 2013

September 19, 2013 Session Report

A good time was had by all at this past week's session. Attendees were Doug, Karl, Patrick, Tim, Ben, Rembert and myself for a total of seven.  We got in a total of four different games:  Show Manager, Puerto Rico, Augustus and Guillotine.

First up was Show Manager; we had a full table of six for this musical themed game.  Final scores:  John 52, Tim 42, Patrick 37, Karl 32, Doug 29, Ben 28.  Doug and I had played before; everyone else was new to the game.

Rembert joined us, so we split into two groups for the next round of games.  One group played Augustus, which was a win for Doug.  Scores:  Doug 78, Patrick 54, Rembert 44, Karl 34.

Tim, Ben and I played Puerto Rico.  I got the Guild Hall and came out on top.  Scores:  John 49 Ben 37 Tim 35.

Final game of the evening was Guillotine. Doug, Tim and I were the participants.  Doug edged Tim for the win (28 to 25) in this free-wheeling game of the French Revolution, while I brought up the rear with 16.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

September 12, 2013 Session Report

Only four for this week's session:  Ben, Mike, Neville and myself.  We played three games:  two games of Trains and one game of Gipsy King.

I had brought Trains a couple of weeks earlier, and Neville had been one of the players then.  In the first game, Neville and I tied at 29 while Mike and Ben tied at 27.  Tiebreaker is most train cubes on the board, don't remember who won but obviously, a close game.  Second game was not quite as close, with Ben (30) finishing first ahead of Neville (25), myself (21) and then Mike (21).  At one point I remember getting frustrated because of not being able to do anything with my turn (drawing 3-4 waste and very little money).  Subsequently, I was reminded of a rule that you can dump all your waste if you do no other actions (i.e, card buys, station or track builds, action cards, etc.)  Sorry for not remembering this.

We then played Gipsy King which Mike won with 69. Second was really close, scores were John 55, Neville 53, Ben 52.

Despite the poor attendance, everyone had a good time. I believe both these quick-playing games were well received by the group, so look to see both again.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

September 5, 2013 Session Report

We had nine attendees for this past week's session:  Patrick, Doug, Mike, Rembert, Karl, Tim, Neville, Helen and myself.  We played a total of four different games, and one game was played twice:  Gipsy King (x2), Formula De-Baltimore, Augustus and Lords of Waterdeep.

Mike had brought Gipsy King which turned out to be the one game that was played twice.  The game seemed to move rather quickly, maybe half-hour or 45 minutes.  Results of game 1:  Mike 66 Tim 63 Karl 57 Doug 44.  Game #2:  Doug 57 Mike 53 Tim 53 Karl 41, with Mike finishing 2nd ahead of Tim on the tiebreaker.

Patrick had just been to the real-life Baltimore Grand Prix the weekend before, and he brought the new Formula De track.  We only got in one lap, and the winner was Helen.  Patrick took second, Neville third, Rembert fourth.  I went off the track and did not finish, but some excitement for the fans.

The other games played were Augustus (which can best be described as "Roman Bingo"), which was won by Patrick (70) by a wide margin over Helen (47), Neville (46), John (45) and Rembert (17), and Lords of Waterdeep (I assume with the new expansion), final scores were Karl 129, Tim 126, Mike 125, Doug 119.  Congrats to Karl for what I believe is his first win at the club, and in a very close and competitive game, judging by the scores.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

August 29, 2013 Session Report

Final session before Labor Day, and we had a total of six for this week's session:  Neville, Tim, Alex, Karl, Helen and myself were the attendees.  We wound up playing a total of three games, including two new games: Libertalia, Trains and the Agricola - 2 Player.

First up was Libertalia, which Neville had brought.  It features a mechanic I like with simultaneous card play, but the game did not go well for me.  As usual, the master of new games, Alex, was the winner, but it was a really close finish, top to bottom with me on the bottom:  Alex 83, Tim 81, Karl 79, Neville (who did a nice job teaching the game) 78 and John 74.  It was a fun game and I would be happy to play again.

By this time Helen arrived and we split into two groups.  Four of us played Trains, a Dominion knock-off with a train-building theme that gives you points from building to certain locations as well as for drafting certain cards during the course of the game.  Once again, Alex came out on top and (like the first game), I was in last.  Scores:  Alex 41 Neville 37 Helen 34 John 30.

The other game was an Agricola 2-player played by Tim and Karl, but I didn't get a report on what happened on that game. I recall Tim going to his car to get the game, then later I heard they played some computer version. Sorry, I was so engrossed in our Trains game, that I wasn't able to keep up and provide a fuller report on what happened.