December 18, 2014 Session Report

With the Holidays (Christmas and New Years) coming up, this would be our final session of 2014. Total attendance of nine, consisting of Mike, Patrick, Greg, Ben A, Lina, Tim, Rembert, Will (back for his third session) and myself, having recovered from some necessary surgery the prior week. We played the following games: Camel Cup, Russian Railroads, and Uruk II. Some details follow.

Camel Cup (which Patrick brought) was kind of a fun, quick-playing lighter game built around the theme of betting on camel races. No tiebreaker in the rules on this one, so it was a shared victory for John and Rembert (19), followed by Lina (17), Greg (16), Patrick (12), Ben (9), Tim (8) and Mike (5). By this time Will had arrived, so we split up into two games for the rest of the session. Russian Railroads was a three-player, won by Mike (264) just ahead of Tim (262) with Ben not that far behind in third (227). Uruk II is a card-based civilization game that I had brought that did not quite make it to the finish. Once we got close to 9 PM, we scored after everyone had an equal number of turns, and the winner on this basis was Patrick (15), with the rest of us not far behind: Rembert and Will (at 14), then John and Lina (at 13). Our next club session will not be until next year: Thursday, January 8th, 2015. For those of you looking for some gaming at other locations, particularly on the weekends, these coming events (all with no admission charge) are highly recommended: Brunswick Games Day, all day, Saturday January 3, 2015 (check link on GCOM website for more info) GCOM Winter Game Fest, two days, Saturday and Sunday, January 17, 2015 (also a link on GCOM website with more info) Unpub 5, Saturday and Sunday, February 8-9, 2015 (click link at unpub.net for more info) Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone!

December 11, 2014 Session Report

I didn't make it to this session but plan to be back next week for what will be our last club session of 2014 (Christmas and New Years to follow, meaning the CC will be closed the following two Thursdays). Quick report from co-Host Mike: Attendance of 9. Games Played: Sushi Go, Concordia and Castles of Burgundy. More details to follow later (hopefully). And here are some more details from Mike on this session. Attendees: Mike, Lina, John Wittkamper, Ben A, Greg, Rouslan, Dave (back for his third session), Rembert and Will (back for his second session). Sushi-Go: One round completed with four players (Mike, Lina, John and Ben) and then the game was abandoned after more folks showed. Then, Concordia was played to the finish. Scores: Mike 113, Ben 101, Lina 87, Rembert 54. Castles of Burgundy was a four-player with John W, Greg, Rouslan and Dave; the game did not finish and unfortunately, Will did not get in a game (something that would be corrected the following week).

December 4, 2014 Session Report

Back after the Thanksgiving break, and this was another good week for first-time club attendees, as we had three newcomers (Moon, Jake and Will) plus Dave (back for a second time) along with club regulars Mike, Doug, Patrick, Tim, Eugene, Rembert and myself. We played a total of four different games: Colt Express, Power Grid Deluxe (North America map), Bruges and Concordia, and the last two games did not quite make it to the finish line before the 9 PM close time. Colt Express is a new release that Patrick brought where players take on the role of train robbers trying to gather more loot while avoiding getting shot and other disasters over the course of the five rounds of play. Somehow, I managed to win, having score a big bonus for being the only player to earn the "Gunslinger" award after having unloaded all six bullets before the end. Final scores: John 2250, Patrick 1750, Moon 1650, Jake 1550, Tim 1000, Doug 550. The other game was Power Grid Deluxe, the new version of Power Grid, using the North America map, which adds the special rule that the lowest number plant has an automatic minimum bid of 1. This causes the plants to cycle through a bit more than normal. This game came down to the money tiebreaker between Eugene and Mike, with Eugene coming out on top. Final scores: Eugene 17 (44 cash), Mike 17 (15 cash), Dave 16, Rembert 15. The other two games were Bruges and Concordia, neither of which made it to the end-game condition. We scored at the end of a particular round as if each game had finished. In Bruges, the score count was Jake 37, John 31, Doug 26, Patrick 23. Concordia, it was Moon 41, Will 36, Tim 29. Good job by Jake and Moon, who were new to both games.

November 20, 2013 Session Report

Circumstances have caused me to miss the last few sessions. No report for Nov. 13 (likewise for Nov. 27 -- CC was closed due to Thanksgiving). But my co-Host Mike has provided this report from Nov. 20: On the 20th, we had pretty good attendance. At the club that night was me, Patrick, Lina, Claire, Matt, Evan, Neville, Eugene and, for the first time, David. The night started with Patrick, Lina, Matt and I playing Machi Koro. The game was competitive but Matt pulled out the win with never rolling more than 1 die. Neville, Evan, Claire and Eugene played a few hands of Love Letter but they wrapped up early to start the later games. We shuffled the groups and broke into 2 games. Eugene, Evan, Dave and I played Russian Railroads. This was Dave's first play but the rest of us played before. Eugene miscalculated (how often do you get to say that) the first player marker allowing me to get the engineer bonus but still pulled out the win in the end with 356 points. Evan came in second with 346 maxing out the second railroad line and I came in 3rd with 332. Dave brought up the rear with 234 points. The other table played Settlers of Catan. Matt won his 2nd game of the night by stealing longest road and scoring 10 points. Lina was close with 8 pts with Patrick a distant 3rd at 4 pts and Neville only eked out 3 points. Everyone started heading home but we got one more game of Sushi Go! in. Evan easily won with 47 points with Eugene, David and I scoring 32, 31 & 30 points respectively.

November 6, 2014 Session Report

Group of 11 for this week:  Mike, Patrick, Greg, Rouslan, Neville, Tim, Evan, Eugene, Rembert, Helen and myself were the attendees.  Games played:  Diamonds, Power Grid Deluxe:  North American, Russian Railroads, Machi Koro, Yellow Jersey and Pandemic:  Contagion.

Diamonds was the quick starter game, and we only got one hand in.  Patrick had the better card draws, so he was leading with 5, ahead of Rouslan (3), John (2) and Neville (0).

Power Grid (the new Deluxe version) was played once again, this time with the North America side of the board.  Mike and Evan built to 18 cities, with Mike winning with more money left (50 to 2 for Evan), while Greg and Tim got to 17 cities, with Greg (72 left) having more money than Tim (23).

Russian Railroads was a three-player, which somehow I managed to win against two good players who have cleaned my clock in prior games.  Scores were John 326, Eugene 310, Rouslan 269.  Kind of a low-scoring game.

Machi Koro was won by Patrick, with Neville edging Helen for second on the tiebreak, Rembert in fourth.  This same group played Pandemic:  Contagion, where -- unlike the original game -- the players are actually trying to spread disease instead of working together to stop it.  Neville (44) was the winner, ahead of Helen (40), Rouslan (36), Rembert (26).

Finally, Patrick and I tackled Yellow Jersey, and hand-made wooden game I just imported from the UK.  I managed to win the individual title, while Patrick won the team competition.

Reminder that, with EuroQuest coming up next week, many of us (including co-Host Mike and myself) will not be in attendance.  The club meeting space will be open, and if you need to get any of the club games out of storage, just ask the folks at the front desk.  I would appreciate it if someone could shoot me an attendance and games played list at jcw222@comcast.net.

October 30, 2014 Session Report

'Twas the night before Halloween, and another big turnout at the Laurel CC for gaming -- in fact, one of our largest turnouts of the year, a total of 15 with three games in play for just about the entire time.  Three newcomers (Buffy, Doug, Akshay) joined regular attendees Jeff, Rich, Mike, Andrew, Eric, Greg (whom we hadn't seen for awhile), Evan, Neville, Patrick, Lina, Rembert and myself to play the following games:  Power Grid Deluxe:  Europe, Splendor (played twice), Machi Koro, Dixit, Evolution and the Game of 49.  Some details follow.

First game up was Splendor, a four-player, won by Jeff (15), ahead of Rich and Mike at 10, Andrew at 9.  Jeff got three of the five nobles to seal the win.  This same group played Machi Koro, no scores available, but once again, Jeff was the winner.

Welcomed Greg back to the club with the new Power Grid Deluxe map.  Mike had brought it the prior week to play the North America side, so this week we tried the Europe side.  Eric, Neville and myself were the other players in what proved to be a very close game right to the end.  Greg had not lost his toouch at the game, winning with 17 cities while the rest of us could only build 16.  A key moment was the endgame power plant bidding, where Greg bid both Neville and I to over 70 while he got his cities powered for alot less.  Money tiebreaker for second was John ahead of Eric ahead of Neville, all one city short.

The third table played a six-player Evolution, a recent North Star games release of a game that originally came from Russia but was re-designed with some larger graphics, nicer components and I assume (since I have not played the original) smoother rules.  Winner was Evan, but a wide margin.  Scores:  Evan 58, Doug 28, Rembert and Patrick 26, Lena 20, Buffy 11.

By this time Akshay arrived and he got into a couple of games:  Dixit, won by Andrew (30) ahead of Mike and Akshay (25), Rich (24) and Jeff (17), and a second game of Splendor, with Mike (19) winning ahead of Jeff and Rich (12) and Akshay at 9.

Finally, three of us in the Power Grid game wrapped up with a quick game of 49.  It barely finished before 9, and I managed to win, getting 4 in a row while Eric and Greg, each with 7 chips on the board, had done well enough to reach the maximum payout level.

One more session next week before EuroQuest the following week.  Expect to see a couple of more new games on hand for next week's session.

October 23, 2014 Session Report

Sorry for the delay in posting, I had mispaced my notes but just located them last night ...

13 in attendance for this week's session:  Eugene, John W, Mike, Alex, Doug, Neville, Alec, Ben H, Lina, Rembert, Jeff, Rouslan and myself were the attendees.  Games played:  Vegas Showdown, Power Grid - North American (the new Deluxe edition), Heroes Wanted, Bruges and Top Promoter.  Some results and details follow.

Eugene was looking for a reasonably short game so Vegas Showdown was first up.  I was set up with a Fancy Lounge and just enough to get the Theater when Eugene (who had more money and no Fancy Lounge) bought it from me but had to keep it off to the side, where it stayed for the rest of the game.  Turned out both of us were losers in the end, tied for last (actually Eugene had more money) while Alex, who won, played a fine game (he might have beat me even if I had got the Theater).  Scores were Alex 50, Doug 44. Ben 42, Eugene and John 36.

Power Grid-Deluxe has just come out, and Mike introduced the new version to Jeff, Lina and the other John W.  Mike managed to win while building to 17 when everyone else was holding back, waiting for another turn.  Scores were Mike 13, Jeff and Lina 12 (Jeff was second with more money), John W 10.

Alec, Neville, Rembert and Rouslan played Heroes Wanted, which Neville had brought.  Rouslan ran away with the game, 34 points to 25 for Alec, 23 for Rembert, 16 for Neville.  Didn't get a good story how Neville, the teacher, came in last, maybe he was unlucky or he's just a good teacher.

Doug, Alex and I played Bruges.  Doug taught the game, which I hadn't played for awhile, while the game was totally new to Alex.  I got a really good card, the Jailer, which removed six threat tokens at a key moment, and managed to win, 53 to 41 for Doug and 39 for Alex.

Finally, Neville had brought a new boxing management game, Top Promoter, that he recently acquired via Kickstarter.  It was lots of fun and, although we didn't finish, I was ahead after two rounds of fights, 13 to 9 for Rouslan, 7 for Neville, 6 for Doug.  I liked the game so much I ordered it a few days later.

October 16, 2014 Session Report

Big turnout of 14 for this week's session.  Mike, Patrick, Doug, Ben A, Lina, Neville, Andrew, Jeff, Rich, Evan, Rembert, Rouslan, first-time attendee Moshe and myself were the participants.  We had three tables of games going for most of the session.  Games played were Coup:  Reformation, Black Fleet, Praetor, Concordia and Love Letter.

Coup-Reformation was played while waiting for folks to show, and we actually wound up with eight players.  In order of finish, it was Ben winning, ahead of Jeff, Mike, Lina, Andrew, Neville, myself and Doug who was first knocked out.  Thanks to Andrew for clearing up a couple of rules I had messed up.

We then split into three groups for the rest of the evening.  At one table, Black Fleet was played, with Evan winning.  He had the only positive score (+6) while the three other players (Patrick and Rich at -10 and Rembert at -15) had negative scores.  Later on, the group was joined by Moshe and played Love Letter, with Moshe winning (3 to 2 for Rembert and 1 each for Evan and Rich).

Doug had brought Praetor, and Rouslan, Lina and I joined him.  Lina and I battled for the lead, but in the end I pulled away.  Final scores were John 110, Lina 87, Doug 67, Rouslan 58.  I believe we had to pick up the game a round earlier, and everyone thought Rouslan was in a good position to improve his standing if the game had lasted longer.

Finally, a five-player Concordia game barely made it to the finish line.  Final scores were Mike 126, Neville 98, Andrew 96, Ben 93, Jeff 83.

October 9, 2014 Session Report

Eight for this week's session:  Mike, Alex, Ben H, John W (back for his second session), Rembert, Neville, Lina and myself (John, to distinguish from the other John with the same last initial) were the attendees.  Four games were played:  Machi Koro, Splendor, Viva Java:  The Dice Game and Legendary Encounters.  Some details follow.

We had two groups of four for most of this session.  At one table were John W, Mike, Alex and myself.  First game up was Machi Koro, which Mike had brought.  Alex raced to an early lead, had some good die rolls, and looked like the sure winner but the game did have a catch-up mechanism, and Mike and I began to pull back some ground.  I finally managed to eke out the win (first to complete all four advanced cards).  Mike and Alex had three of four, I believe John W. had only two.  Then we played Viva Java Dice, using just the base research board.  John W. had the early lead, and proved tough to catch although Mike had the double block which he used effectively.  Unfortunately, John W was too far ahead and managed to claim the victory.  Scores were John W. 21, Mike 16, John 15, Alex 8.

At the other table it was Splendor, and three of the four players made it to 15.  Final scores:  Ben H 19, Lina 17, Rembert 15, Neville 13.  The group then tackled a co-op, Legendary Encounters, which Neville had brought.  The game-system turned out to be a bit too tough, first claiming Neville and then Rembert.  The game had to be picked up at 9 but it looked like the bad guys (the aliens) were winning.

Alex is heading off to Essen next week, so hopefully he has a safe trip and brings back lots of cool new games for us to try.

October 2, 2014 Session Report

Ten for this week's session:  Mike, Doug, Jeff, Matt, Neville, Evan, Lina, Stan, myself plus one newcomer to the club (John Wittkamper).  We played five different games:  Coup, the DC Comics Deck Building Game, Power Grid - Australia, Ticket to Ride and Love Letter.

Coup was a three-player, between Mike, Jeff and myself.  I managed to survive and come in first, Jeff was second.  We picked the game up as more people began to arrive.

Next game to finish was the DC Comics Deck Building game.  Evan won a close one, 36 to 34 for Matt and 33 for Doug.  Neville (21) also participated.

Power Grid-Australia was a four-player, won by Mike.  Scores (no ties in this one):  Mike 17, myself 16, Jeff 15 and the other (new) John W. could only power 13 because the needed coal was unavailable to power his remaining plant.

Ticket to Ride (four player), won by Evan.  Scores:  Evan 129, Doug 96, Matt 95 Lina 40

Love Letter (unfinished):  Lina and Matt 2 Doug 1 Evan 0.  Finally, they came up with a game where Evan could be stopped!

September 25, 2014 Session Report

The group for this session was Tim, Mike, John B, Lina, Alex, Jeff, Eugene, Evan, Neville, Alec and myself; John B and Jeff were back for their third sessions and signed up as GCOM members.  Games played were King's Forge, Crude, Russian Railroads, Coup, Sushi Go, Ra and the Game of 49.  The eleven of us played at three different tables with little shuffling of the groups throughout the evening.

King's Forge was a four-player, Neville was the winner with 4, Lina second with 3, followed by John B and myself at 2.  This same group played Coup, and the results were reversed with John B winning ahead of John W, Lina third and Neville was the first one out, finishing fourth.  Then we played 49, won by Lina ahead of John B and Neville, and I was last.

Russian Railroads.was a win for Evan, who scored around 380, defeating Eugene (around 340) and Tim (around 290); scores are approximate as the results did not get reported promptly.  The three of them played Ra, won by Tim (51) ahead of Evan (49) and Eugene (31). 

The remaining group of four (Alec, Alex, Jeff and Mike) played Crude, which Mike had brought.  Alex was a big winner, with 1,090 compared to 673 for Jeff (second), 460 for Alec (third) and 204 (for Mike).  Mike's notes say:  "All players start with $200.  Mike played for 1/2 [hours] and earned $4."

One final game of Sushi Go, and Mike emerged victorious.  Scores were Mike 50, Jeff 43, Alec 40.  No report on who had the most pudding.

Had a great time at Congress of Gamers this past weekend.  Looking ahead to EuroQuest in November.

September 18, 2014 Session Report

An even dozen for this week's session.  Doug, Mike, Alex, Rouslan, Ben A, Ben H, Lina, Tim, Rich, Rembert, Neville and I were the attendees.   Games played:  Basket Boss, Game of 49, Power Grid, Crude and King's Forge.  A few details follow.

Basket Boss was a four-player, with only one (me) having played before.  Final scores were Lina 48, Neville 40, John 39, Doug 35.  Well-done by Lena who seems to have done well picking up new games the past few weeks.

Power Grid was won by Ben A, with 18 cities powered.  Rouslan and Rich also had 18, but Ben had more money (224 to 214 for Rouslan and 166 for Rich).  Tim, who had even more money (250) could only power 17 cities at the end.  No word on what map was used.

Crude (aka McMulti) was on by Alex, with 753 to 703 for Ben H, 694 for Rembert and 436 for Mike, who taught the game.  Credit to Mike for being a good teacher, I guess.

King's Forge (brought by Neville, with Doug, Lina and I as the other players) did not make it to the finish.  I got 3 of the 4 required rewards but was not in a good position to pick up a fourth, so a definitely asterisk on that one.

Game of 49 was a quick filler that was picked up when more people began to show up.

A reminder that the coming weekend (Sept. 27-28) is Congress of Gamers in Rockville, MD., one of the least expensive gaming conventions around.  For details, check out the convention website which is congressofgamers.org.

September 11, 2014 Session Report

Twelve for this week's session, as the group consisted of Tim, Mike, John, Alex, Evan, Rich, Neville, Eric, Eugene, Nathan, Rembert, Jeff, Lina and myself.  Rich, Evan and Lina have all been to three sessions now, which makes them Associate Members of GCOM.  Games played:  Lords of Waterdeep, Concordia, Russian Railroads and Sushi-Go.

Eric taught Lords of Waterdeep; the other players were Lina, Jeff, Rich and Eric's son, Nathan, who had to leave a bit early before the game ended.  Thus, what started as a five-player game ended up as a four-player.  It was very tight between Eric, who had played the game quite a bit, and Lina, one of the first-time players.  Final scores were Eric 157, Lina 151, Jeff 137 and Rich 129.

Concordia was a five-player, taught by Mike but I believe all but one of us had played before.  Final scores were Tim 119, Alex and Mike tied for second at 106, John 99 and Neville (the one new player) at 90.  Tim was able to pick up three different Minerva cards to contribute to his winning effort.

Russian Railroads was a three-player, with Eugene teaching two new players, Evan and Rembert.  No surprise here, Eugene won but Evan and Rembert appeared to pick up the game by the end.  Final scores:  Eugene 426, Evan 320, Rembert 265.

Finally, a few minutes left and time for Sushi-Go, which Mike had brought.  I managed another win, and once again it was  the "most puddings" tiebreaker.  Final scores:  John and Mike 38, Tim 31, Neville 30.

Just a reminder that a reasonably inexpensive gaming event, Congress of Gamers, is coming up in just a couple of weeks, Sat. and Sun, Sept 27 and 28, in Rockville, MD.  For more info, check out their website at congressofgamers.org.

September 4, 2014 Session Report

Doug, Jack, Tim, Alex, Rouslan, Lina, Ben H, Rembert and myself were the attendees for this session, for a total of nine attendees.  Games played:  Gonzaga, Panamax, Splendor (3 times) and the Game of 49 (twice).

Gonzaga was a three-player.  Scores were reported as 91 for Rouslan, 90 for Tim and 60 for Jack.

I had brought Panamax and taught the game to Doug, Alex and Lina.  The game was slow-going due to the unusual mechanics and learning curve.  Alex had to leave around 8:30 so we scored the game after two rounds.  Turned out Alex was the winner, with 57 to 43 for Lina, 40 for John and 31 for Doug.  We think there may have been some errors in mixing up personal and company money, so the game stands with an asterisk.  Alex won the award for best Managing Director after the first round but, when he couldn't pay dividends in the second round, Lina won that award.  So, not sure how it would have come out had we completed the third and final round.

Splendor was played three times:
Game 1:  Ben 19 Rembert 8
Game 2:  Jack 16 Rouslan 15, Ben and Rembert trailing
Game 3:  Rouslan 17 Ben 10 Rembert 9

Game of 49 was played twice, two-player, between Ben and Rembert.  Each one once.

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).

July 24, 2014 Session Report

Wow, a big jump in attendance to 14 (!) for this week's session.  Attendees were Mike, John B, Patrick, Tim, Alex, Matt A (a first-time attendee), Ben A, Ben H, Eugene, Eric, Doug, Rembert, Neville and myself.  This meant we have three tables of games going for just about the entire session.  Games played:  Sushi Go (x2), Cheeky Monkey, Splendor, Dream Factory, Dark Horse, Power Grid-China and Settlers of Catan.

Hard to keep track of this three-ring circus, but here goes for some details on the games played.

Sushi Go:  John B 37, Ben A 36, Tim 33, Alex 32, Mike 31.
Cheeky Monkey:  Eugene 30, Matt 24, John W 12, Doug and Patrick 9, Eric 3
Splendor:  Ben H 17, Neville 15, Rembert 11
Dream Factory:  John W 70, Doug 68, Eugene 67, Matt 66, Alex 44
Dark Horse (unfinished):  Ben H 13, Patrick 11, Rembert 9, Neville 7
Power Grid-China:  John B 16 (12 money), Eric 16 (6 money), Mike 15, Tim 12 (68 money), Ben 12 (4 money)
and a second game of Sushi-Go:  Mike 42, John B 37, Tim 27, Eric 26

July 17, 2014 Session Report

Eight for this week's session; Tim, Mike, Alec, Rouslan, Neville, Rembert, Alex and myself were the attendees.  We played the following games:  Splendor, Coup, Power Grid:  Korea, Quantum and Cloud Nine.

Splendor was 4-player, won by Mike.  Scores were Mike 16, Rouslan 15, Alec 12, Tim 6.

Coup was a 3-player, won by Neville, with Rembert second, I was last (knocked out first).

Rouslan joined us for Quantum, and he won -- first to five -- while the rest of us (Neville, Rembert and I) tied for second with 4.

Alex joined in for Cloud Nine.  Neville was the big winner, benefiting from a couple of the "Wild" cards.  Scores:  Neville 56, Rembert 41, John 34, Rouslan 27, Alex 25.

Last game to finish was Power Grid:  Korea, three players plus one of the tougher Robot configurations.  Final scores:  Tim 17 (winning on the money tiebreaker with 40), Mike 17 (with 26 money), Robot 16, Alec 15.  The robot, which was instructed to build three cities, triggered the end of the game and managed to finish ahead of one of the human players ... first time I have seen that happen.

July 10, 2014 Session Report

Good group of nine for this week's session.  We had one first-time attendee (Clair) along with Mike, Ben H, Tim, Alex, Rembert., John B, second-time attendee Rich, and myself.  We played four different games (two of them three times), for a total of eight games in all:  Splendor (x3), Puerto Rico, Gipsy King and Money (x3).  Results follow.

Splendor Game 1:  Mike 16  John W 10 Claire 5 Ben H 4
Puerto Rico:  Alex 51 John B 48 Tim 47 Rich 32 Rembert 28
Splendor Game 2:  Mike 15 John W 13 Claire 5 Ben H score withheld
Splendor Game 3:  Tim 16  Rembert 13 John B 12 Rich 8
Money Game 1:  Ben H 710 Mike 500 John W 470 Claire 350
Money Game 2:  Ben H 620 Rich 440 John W 210
Money Game 3:  Ben H 940 John W 820 Rich 500

In the last money game, I  finally have a score that would have beaten Ben in games one and two, and he still manages to come out on top!

July 3, 2014 Session Report

Eleven for this week's session, with regulars Mike, Patrick, Eric, Ben H, Jack, Alex, Matt and myself joined by three first-time attendees:  Jeff and two more Mikes who shall be known as Michael and Mike Brown to distinguish them from Co-Host Mike Brazinski.  Games played:  Settlers of Catan, Power Grid:  Northern Europe, Match of the Season, Homesteaders and two more games of Splendor.

Results of the games:

Settlers was a quick win for Ben H.  Scores:  Ben H 10, Matt 4, Patrick 3.  Patrick had some bad die rolls, I was told.
Power Grid - Northern Europe (the one version where you switch out the regular plants with some others) was a win for Jack.  Scores:  Jack (13/62), Jeff 2d on the money tiebreaker (13/23) with Eric and Mike with just 10 plants powered but alot more money.  Someone (Jack probably) must have built out to win.

I was pleased to get in a game of my soccer-themed game, Match of the Season, which puts the players in the role of coach and general manager of a soccer team.  We got in two seasons, and Michael and I tied with 6 pts with Alex (who won the league in the 2nd season) next with 4 followed by Mike Brown at 2.  Michael did well to get into the semis of the Euro Cup in the second season, so I declared him the winner although there was no tiebreaker specified in the rules.

Ben H continued his winning streak in the second round of games, winning Homesteaders which Patrick had brought.  Final scores:  Ben H 46, Patrick 36, Matt 34.

Seven of us split into two random groups to play Splendor (fortunately we had two copies on hand) -- note, in the past, all seven might have played 7 Wonders but Splendor seems to be the quick-play game of choice in recent weeks.

Game 1 -- Eric 16 Alex 9 John 5
Game 2 -- Jack 17 Mike Braz. 11 Michael 8; Mike B 5

Looks like Ben H and Jack were the big winners on the night, with Jack probably becoming the first player to defeat three Mikes in one game at the club, probably a dubious distinction.

June 26, 2014 Session Report

We had a good group of eight for this week's session.  Ben H, Mike, Tim, Patrick, Neville and myself were joined by first-time attendee Rich, along with Matt (back for his third session).  Games played included Splendor, Agricola, Trains and Stations, Coyote and Money.  Some details follow.

Splendor was the opener, turned out to be a three-player, won by Mike (17).  Ben, who gave up his seat to Rich to learn Agricola, had 12.  I was second with 13.

The Agricola game, which took the rest of the session, was won by Tim (39), ahead of Ben (33), Patrick (30) and Matt (19).  Good result for Ben in his first game against a couple of experienced players.

The rest of us played some shorter games:
Trains and Stations, won by Mike (44) ahead of John (35), Neville (34) and Rich (15).
Coyote, came down to a final showdown between John and Rich.  I had 2 coyotes by then, Rich had won, but I managed to win three in a row to pull off the win.  Neville and Mike were knocked out early.
We played a couple of hands of Money, which Mike had brought again.  Scores seemed a bit higher than in the prior game.
Hand 1:  Mike 610 Rich 500 John 480 Neville 410
Hand 2:  John 760 Mike 700 Neville 380 Rich 140

A reminder that the deadline for signing up for the GCOM Family Picnic is coming up soon.  The event is FREE to all GCOM members but just $10 to anyone else, but YOU MUST PRE-REGISTER in ADVANCE.  Check out the GCOM website at gamesclubofmd.org and click on "Family Picnic" for details.

June 19, 2014 Session Report

We had an even dozen for tonight's session:  Patrick, Tim, Mike, Ben A, Neville, Matt, Rembert, Ben H, Evan, Rouslan, Alex and myself.  We played the following games:     Agricola, Splendor (played four times), Kemet, Settlers of Catan and Money.

During the first part of the session, one group split off to play Agricola while two games of Splendor broke out.  The Agricola game was won by Evan (41) ahead of Tim (36), Ben A (35) and Patrick (29).  Splendor game #1 was a win for Mike (16) ahed of Neville (13), Matt (10) and yours truly (9) last.  Splendor game #2 began as a two-player when Rouslan joined late.  Winner was Ben H (17) with Rembert (10) second while Rouslan (playing with an obvious handicap) was a distant third with just 1 point.

We then mixed up the groups for the next round of games, with the Agricola game still going on.  Neville, Rembert and I played Kemet, which Rouslan had brought and got played for the second week in a row.  This game consumed the rest of the session time and we came close to finishing with the goal of reaching 8 points.  Rouslan had got to 8 but got knocked down one when Neville successfully attacked one of his Pyramid VP locations, so we picked it up with Rouslan and I at 7, Neville and Rembert at 4.

Settlers turned out to be a very quick three-player, as Ben H won once again, steamrolling Matt and Mike.  Scores were Ben H 10, Matt 7, Mike 4.  By this time Alex had arrived, and another Splendor game broke out, this being the closet of the four played, three points separating the entire field.  Scores were Mike 15, Alex and Matt 13, Ben H 12.

Finally, two more games to report.  Mike brought Money and taught the game to Ben H and Alex.  Scores were Mike 900, Ben H 680, Alex 250.  Finally, three of the four Agricola players wrapped up with a fourth game of Splendor.  Result?  Another win for Evan:  Evan (18), Patrick (7), Tim (3).  I believe Evan has yet to lose in his two times at the club.

June 12, 2014 Session Report

The good weather and good attendance trend continued, as we had 10 show for this week's session:  Ben A and Amy, Alex, Matt (first time attendee), Tim, Neville, Rembert, Rouslan, Ben H and myself.  A total of five games were played:  Village, Kemet, Settlers of Catan, Vegas Showdown and Dream Factory (originally known as Traumfabrik).

Village was a four-player, won by Ben A (48) followed by Alex (45), Amy (42) and Tim (33).  This same group then played Vegas Showdown, which turned out to be a runaway win for Alex.  Scores of the Vegas Showdown game were Alex 82, Tim 57, Ben A 51, Amy 47.  I believe it was the first time play for both Ben and Amy, but everyone had played Village before.

Four of us played Settlers.  A big win for the other Ben, Ben H, although the game swung back and forth as Rembert grabbed longest Road and I tried to do my best after getting hemmed in with limited spots for new settlements.  Final scores were Ben H 10, Rembert 8, John 7, Matt 6.  The four of us then played Dream Factory.  I was the teacher as none of the other three had played before, and I managed to come away with the win:  John 88, Rembert 79, Ben H 75, Matt 59.

Finally, Rouslan and Neville played a game that Rouslan had brought, Kemet, that had been discussed in prior weeks.  I have a result of 9 for Rouslan to 5 for Neville, not sure if that represents a complete game or not.

June 5, 2014 Session Report

Had a really good session this week with 11 gamers attending (including four first-timers).   Six different games were played, three of them twice, as we had three tables going for just about the entire session.

Attendance list:  Mike, Jack, Doug, Rouslan, Tim, Neville and myself plus four newcomers:  Ben (who shall henceforth be known as Ben H or Ben Harold to distinguish him from the other Ben, Ben A); Evan, and Mike (whom we shall refer to as Mike J) and Melanie.

Ticket to Ride-Asia teams matched the team of Jack and Ben versus Doug and myself.  After some initial struggles, Doug and I managed to complete some high scoring tickets which gave us the win by a wide margin (we had more total points that Jack and Ben before counting points for track on the board).  Ben wanted an immediate rematch, with the same teammates, so we played again, and this time Jack and Ben were the winners, estimated score of 200 to 161 for Doug and me.

Meanwhile, Evan won a three-player Puerto Rico, defeating Tim and Mike.  Scores were Evan 46, Tim 42, Mike 39.  Mike's comment on the game was he should not have bought the Factory.  Rumor has it that Evan is a bit of a Puerto Rico shark, so we'll have to monitor future games.

While the Ticket to Ride team battle extended into the second hour of the session, everyone else joined in for a game of 7 Wonders.  Rouslan came out on top in a close game.  Scores:  Rouslan 56 Evan 54 Neville 53 Mike J. 49 Mike B. 46 Tim 44

The third table played Tobago, which ended in a tie:  38 each for Mike J and Rouslan, 36 for Neville and 30 for Melanie.

Next round of games saw everyone wanted to play Splendor and, fortunately, someone other than me had brought a copy, so there were two games.  In one of these, Evan continued his winning ways.  Scores were Evan 17, Mike 13, Tim 11.  The other game was closer, won by Jack:  Jack 15, Doug 14, Ben H 10.

Meanwhile, I joined Rouslan and Neville to learn a game that Neville had brought, called Gravwell.  It was a race game featuring card draftring, simultaneous card play but you had to deal with the pull of gravity that had a definite "drag"on being out in front.  First game ended with Rouslan getting to the end of the track, Neville and I were far back.  The second game we had to pick up at 9 PM, with Neville slightly ahead.

Excited to have so many new people, hopefully we can keep it up with another big turnout next week!

May 29, 2014 Session Report

Nine in attendance this week:  Mike, Tim, Jack, Alec (back for his third session), Ben and his wife Amy (Amy's first time at the club), Rembert, Helen and myself were the attendees.  Four games (Ingenious, Puerto Rico, Splendor and Caverna) were played.

Ingenious was a four-player, won by Ben.  Final scores were Ben 17 (one short of perfect), Jack 12, Rembert 11 Amy 10.  Puerto Rico (also a four-player) resulted in another win for Ben.  Scores:  Ben 41. Helen 37, Amy 36, Rembert 26.  Splendor was a two-player, won by Helen (16 to 8) over Rembert.

The other game, Caverna, took up the entire session and then some as we ran overtime putting the game away.  Mike, who had brought the game, came away the winner.   Scores were Mike 78, John 72, Tim 53 and Alec (playing for the game for the first time) 48.

May 22, 2014 Session Report

We had 10 attendees for this week's session:  Rouslan, Ben, Tim, Mike, Patrick, Alex, Alec, Helen, Rembert and myself.  Five different games were played, one of them twice:  Splendor (x2), Coal Baron, Village, Ra and Love Letter.

Splendor was the first game played, and I managed to pull out a win using a strategy similar to the one used by Patrick last week:  concentrate on just a few colors and go for the high point value cards on display.  Final scores:  John 20, Rouslan 15, Ben 7, Tim 3.  The reason my score was that high was because I completed a bonus tile during the final round.

Coal Baron took up most of the session, and it was a four-player.  Mike, once again, was the teacher, as he had been at EuroQuest and on several occasions since.  Very, very close game, judging by the final scores: Alec 112 (continuing a winning streak from last week), Patrick 109, Alex 103, Mike (ever the good teacher) last at 101.

The Village game (a three-player) was even closer.  Rouslan won with 66, while Tim and Ben each had 65. 

Helen, Rembert and I played Splendor and Ra back-to-back.  Helen won both of these:
Splendor game 2:  Helen 17 John 13 Rembert 8
Ra game:  Helen 47 John 40 Rembert 26

Final game of the evening was the usual filler, Love Letter.  Players were Rouslan, Helen and myself.  Rouslan was start player and manage to pile up a couple of quick wins.  Final scores (time ran out):  Rouslan 3 Helen 1 John 0

So, looks like Rouslan, Helen and Alec were the big winners in this week's games.

May 15, 2014 Session Report

A dozen in attendance for this session, including one first-time attendee (Alec) along with Mike, Doug, Patrick, Tim, Alex, Ben, Rembert, Rouslan, Neville, Helen and myself.  We got in a total of four games:  Splendor, Nations, Power Grid-Brazil and Russian Railroads, although one of these (Nations) did not quite make it to the finish line.

First up (the warm-up game while waiting for more people to show) was Splendor.  Patrick was the runaway winner, with Doug (11) a distant second while Alex and I trailed with 10.  Patrick won by focusing on just two colors, going for some high point cards while ignoring the bonus titles completely -- could this be the recipe for a winning strategy in future games?

Power Grid-Brazil was a four-player, first time play for Alec, who came away the winner in a close game.  Scores were Alec 18, Mike (17+52 money), Rembert (17+10 money), Ben 16.

Russian Railroads finished up right before the 9 PM witching hour.  Close game with Rouslan (351) edging Neville (339) for the win.  Helen (286) and Tim (266) were the other participants.

Finally, Nations only made it through two of the four ages.  We scored it anyway, as if the game had ended.  On this basis, Alex (22) came out on top, ahead of Patrick (20), Doug (20) with yours truly (16) bringing up the rear.

Kudos to Tim for the "nice guy" award, giving up his seat twice to move to another game so people had a chance to play their favorites.

May 8, 2014 Session Report

Best crowd we've had in awhile at this week's session:  we hit double-figures in attendance (10) and had to ask for a third table to accommodate everyone so we could play three games at once.  Mike, Tim, Alex, Ben, Neville, Rembert, Patrick, Helen, Rouslan and I were the attendees.  We got in a total of six games, including one repeat:  Splendor, Star Realms (played twice), Russian Railroads, Lords of Vegas (with expansion) and Formula De (using the Sochi track).

First up was Splendor, one of these quick-playing games that has just come out recently and become quite popular (well, at least it got alot of play at Game Days last weekend).  Mike breezed to the win in his first play, while I scored 8 pts in one turn to come home second in a close race for the runner-up spot.  Final scores:  Mike 18, John 14, Alex 13, Tim 11.  First play for Mike and Alex.

We split into three different groups as more people arrived.  Four of us (Neville, Ben, Patrick and Rembert) played Star Realms, which Neville had brought, but the game broke up shortly after the Splendor game had finished without a final result as people were interested in playing longer games.  One of these was Russian Railroads, won by Roulsan (361) in a very close three-way battle, followed by Mike (338) and Alex (331), with Tim (264) bringing up the rear.

Lords of Vegas was a three-player.  Ben opened up an early lead and ran away with the game.  Neville came home second.  It was my first play, but I was the first to use the "Raiser" option incorporated in the new expansion.  Final scores:  Ben 54 Neville 44 John 26.

Two other games had to be called as  time ran out.  Helen came home 1-3 to win Formula De.  Patrick was second but his #2 car suffered a crash.  Rembert came home 4th and 5th.  In the other game, a two-player Star Realms, I managed to take advantage of the fact that Neville was such a good teacher to pull ahead, 28 to 8,. in remaining life points.

Hope to see many of you at the Laurel Main Street Festival at the GCOM booth near 5th and Main on Saturday.  Parade starts at 9, event ends at 4 PM.  Unfortunately, weather forecast calls for isolated showers but we'll see what happens.

May 1, 2014 Session Report

Given this session was up against the first day of the GCOM Game Days event, perhaps it's understandable we have a slight dip in attendance.  At any rate, it was a group of five (Tim, Neville, Rouslan, Rembert and myself), and we played a total of just two games:  Fleet (with the Arctic Bounty Expansion) and 7 Wonders.  Tim emerged as the winner in both games.

Fleet, final scores were Tim 95, Rouslan 90, John 67, Neville 63, Rembert 59.  Tim won by getting more boats and more fish than anyone else.  Rouslan had the highest value fishing licenses.

7 Wonders:  Tim 56  John and Rembert 45 Rouslan 38 Neville 36.  Kind of a low scoring game to wrap up the evening.

Next week's session I hope to have on hand the quick-playing new game, Splendor, which was in constant play at Game Days.  Also, this coming weekend, Saturday, May 10th, will be the Laurel Main Street Festival, and GCOM will once again have a booth near the corner of 5th and Main.  The event runs from 9 AM to 4 PM.  Rodney (the host at the other Laurel location, GCOM Middle Earth) and I will be running the booth for GCOM and promoting the two Laurel clubs.  We will have several tables with some entry level games set up to hopefully encourage some newcomers to the hobby.  Anyone is welcome to join in!

April 24, 2014 Session Report

Group of seven for this week's session:  Neville, Alex, Tim, Rouslan, Rembert, Helen and myself.  We got in three games:  Lords of Waterdeep, Manhattan Project (with the Nations expansion) and 7 Wonders.

Lords of Waterdeep was a three-player, won by Tim.  Scores:   Tim 177 Helen 143 Rembert 137.

Manhattan Project was a four-player that took up just about the entire session time.  I managed to win the game although, while we were counting points, Neville forgot that he could have won on his turn without having to save up for the five points for loading the final bomb.  So, a win with an asterisk.  Final scores (as reported) were John 51, Rouslan 39, Neville 26, Alex 19.  Alex took some severe hits from some of Rouslan's air strikes and never recovered.

The other game was 7 Wonders, which was another win for Tim.  Scores:  Tim 55 Helen 51 Rembert 46.

A remember:  this coming week is Game Days, which lasts from Thursday thru Sunday (May 1 - 4).  However, the Laurel club will be open Thursday night, May 1, for our regular club session.

April 17, 2014 Session Report

Only six for this week's session:  the group was Neville, Andrew, Tim, Stan, Rouslan and myself.  With just one table going, we managed to get in just two games:  Alien Frontiers and Fleet.

Alien Frontiers was another close game, with different people bouncing up and down the leaderboard until it finished as a battle between Stan and Tim.  Tim, who had the advantage of few plays under his belt, managed to win his second game in as many weeks.  Final scores were Tim 8, Stan 7, Neville 5, while Andrew and I had just 4 at the end.

Fleet was a four-player, and the game had to be picked up before reaching the finish line.  We were about two-thirds through the game, and Neville was winning.  Scores at that point were Neville 38, Tim 31, John 27, Rouslan (in his first play) 26.  Rouslan had gone big for the processing licenses, outbidding us for three of the four that came up (Tim got the fourth one).

April 10, 2014 Session Report

Once again, in the better late than never category, with the time for this week's session rapidly approaching, here is a report from last week's session.  Attendance held steady at eight, as we welcomed Alex whom he hadn't seen for awhile, along with Rouslan, Patrick, Tim, Neville, Rembert, Helen and myself.  Four games were played:  Samurai Swords, Vegas Showdown, Alien Frontiers and Bang:  The Dice Game.

Samurai Swords was somewhat similar to Bang in that each player had a role that supported one side or another in a three-sided conflict.  The more difficult sides had a favorable score multiplier.  In this game, the Shogun/Samurai side of Rouslan, Tim and myself won with 9 points, most of which were scored by Rouslan who was the Shogun (kind of like the Sheriff in Bang).  The Ninja team (Neville, Alex and Rembert) was second with four points.  The Ronin (Patrick) had a favorable multiplier of 3 but 3 times zero is still 0.

Other games:  Vegas Showdown was a win for Alex.  Scores:  Alex 59, John 52, Helen 45, Rembert 35.  Alex pulled ahead in the endgame scoring with higher revenue and population than anyone else.  Alien Frontiers was adjudicated as a win for Tim:  Tim 8 Neville 7 Patrick and Rouslan 6.  The other game, Bang:  The Dice Game, was a three-player, and Helen won as the Renegade, Rembert second as the Outlaw and yours truly was first eliminated as the Deputy.  Interesting, in the three-player you get to see everyone's roles and each player has a target to eliminate.  In some ways, a bit more interesting than the regular game but still with a lot of luck on the die rolls (I got hit with tons of Arrows which was my big problem leading to an early demise for my character).

April 3, 2014 Session Report

Mike, Doug, Neville, Ben, Rembert, Helen and myself were the attendees for a total attendance of 7 this week.  Games played:  Go For It, Russian Railroads, Alien Frontiers, For Sale and Gypsy King.

Go For It was the quick starter game while waiting for people to show up.  It was a five-player dice game where you were matching numbers to collect points from cards.  Doug collected more cards, but I managed to win because I collected more high value cards.  Actually, we called the game after a certain number of rounds (normally you play to 40).  Scores:  John 25, Doug 24, Ben and Neville 10, Mike 7.

At this point we split into two groups.  One group (Doug, Mike and myself) played Russian Railroads which everyone had played at least once before.  I came away the winner, scores:  John 326, Mike 247, Doug 207.

The other group opted for Alien Frontiers, which took most of the remaining session time.  Final scores:  Helen 10, Neville 6, Ben and Rembert 5.

Doug, Mike and I had time for a couple of short filler games.  One, For Sale, was won by Doug (82K) ahead of Mike (63K) and John, last (52K).  The other was Gypsy King which was a close finish:  John 108 Mike 104 Doug 78.  It was all about who could catch the most fish!

March 27, 2014 Session Report

The group for this session included Mike, Neville, Patrick, Rouslan, Andrew, Ben, Tim, Helen and myself for a total of nine.  We played five games:  Love Letter, City Council, Lords of Vegas. Bang:  The Dice Game and Coup. 

Love Letter was a quick warm-up game, no results recorded.  For City Council, there were four of us:  Rouslan, Patrick, Tim and myself.  In the end, we all got greedy and the all players lose scenario took place once pollution spun out of control.  Rouslan was leading, 8 VPs to 7 for Patrick and myself, at the time the game ended.

Lords of Vegas was also a four-player, final scores:  Ben 49, Neville 40, Mike 26, Andrew 20.

Bang-the Dice Game, Rouslan was the Sheriff and the winner.  Neville, Helen and I were the also-rans.  Neville brought Coup, which was played at the club for the first time.  I emerged the winner after a final show-down with Rouslan.  Neville and Helen had been knocked out earlier.

March 20, 2014 Session Report

I missed this past week's session, but Co-Host Mike was on hand to provide this report on a very well-attended session:

"We had a great turnout Thursday. We got 6 games in with 12 people! In attendance were: me, Doug H, the new John B (not to be confused with Biker John B), Reggie, Neville, Tim back from Japan, Andrew, Lee, Brian, with Helen, Rembert & Rouslan showing up a bit later.

We started the night with a warm up game of Love Letters as we were waiting for people to show up. After four hands, we wrapped it up with Doug winning 2 hands and Reggie & me each winning one. As more people showed up, we broke into two games. John, Reggie, Neville and I played Union Pacific. The 1st payout really caught me unprepared and the rest of the players got cash and I got zilch. I wasn't able to recover. The rest of the players played a really tight game. The final score was Neville winning with $110, Reggie having $106, John with $105 and I brought up the end with $82.

At the same time, Doug, Brian, Lee, Andrew, Timmy and Helen played Lords of Waterdeep with both of the Skullport expansions. With what I believe were 1st time players, the game took the entire evening (+5 minutes) and Tim pulled out the win with 119 points. The rest of the scores were close with Helen getting 111, Doug 104, Andrew 103, Lee 102 and Brian 93.

While these games were underway, Rembert and Rouslan arrived and broke out a two person game of Can't Stop. Rouslan made a quick grab and claimed 8 but Rembert fought back but did not prevail. Rouslan ended up claiming 4 spots while Rembert could only get three.

When they finished, the UP players joined the Can't Stop players for Bang: The Dice Game. Neville was the Sheriff and Rouslan managed to confuse everyone on whether he was the deputy or not. In the end, the real deputy, Neville, put the last bullet in Rouslan, saving Sheriff Neville. Rouslan, Rembert, Rouslan and I fought the law and the law won. We fought the law and the... law won.

Neville had to leave so Rouslan, Reggie, John, Rembert and I finished the evening with Gipsy King. The game was the closest I've seen with me winning with 46 points. Rouslan came in next with 45, Reggie and John tied with 44 pts and Rembert brought up the rear with 43 pts. I don't think it could've got much closer."

March 13, 2014 Session Report

After a great week attendance-wise, this session saw a drop in overall attendance to just six, but two were people who missed out on last week's session.  Neville, Patrick, Tim, Lee, Rembert and myself were the attendees.  We got in two games:  Eminent Domain (with the Escalation expansion) and 7 Wonders (with the Cities expansion).  Some details follow/

Eminent Domain:  Neville, who reminded that I had taught him the base game a few years back at EuroQuest, had liked the game enough to buy it as well as the Escalation expansion which adds a fifth player and some new options.  Everyone but Lee had played before, and Lee walked away the winner although Patrick had amassed alot of victory points but hadn't been able to conquer all his planets.  I, too, was stuck with an uncolonized planet or two (having gone the non-military route).  Final scores on this one:  Lee 22 Patrick 20  Neville 15  Tim and John 14

By this time Rembert had arrived and was patiently waiting to get into a game.  We played 7 Wonders, which everyone was familiar with.  Lee had brought both expansions, so we played with the Cities expansion which was new to most of us.  I tried something different and concentrated on the newer black cards, which I had kind of ignored in one previous play with this expansion.  This strategy paid off as I received a nice bonus card in the third age plus I had the fish through the discard Wonder (B side) that got me some free plays as well.  So, I won with my second best score ever (the only higher score was with the other expansion -- Leaders -- using a "big Science" approach.  Final scores:  John 81 Tim 66 (Tim was the big Science guy in this game) Lee 58 Rembert 52 Neville 52 Patrick 46

I am planning an out-of-town trip for next week so co-Host Mike will be back to do the honors next session.

Events coming up:  DERail (March 29-30) in Delaware; GCOM Game Days (first week in May) and the GCOM Family Picnic (this year it's on a Sunday in July).

March 6, 2014 Session Report

 A huge throng of 15 (!) descended on the Community Center this past Thursday night, including five first-timers, making it one of our largest sessions, attendance-wise, in some time.  The new attendees were Rouslan, John D, Peter, Angel and Wayne -- joined by 10 regular attendees (Mike, Patrick, Ben, Karl, Eric, Ryan, Neville, Rembert, Helen and myself).  We had to ask for an extra table and more chairs, and we had four games going on for most of the session. In all, a total of seven different games were played:  Power Grid (Benelux map), Kolejka, Clash of Cultures, Coal Baron, Bang:  The Dice Game, Gipsy King and Steam Park.

I was at the table which played several games that were played for the first time at the club (to my knowledge).  First up was Kolejka, a game I picked up recently having first seen it played at PrezCon, so it was the first play for everybody.  The game is about standing in line for goods in 1980s Poland, and it would call it similar to a glorified version of the line-jumping game Guillotine with alot more going on.  Anyway, five of us (Karl, Neville, Rembert, Rouslan and myself) took on the game and, after a few moves, we were all comfortable with the rules and the game mechanics.  After one day into the second week, I asked around to see who was closest to the 10 goods needed for victory, and Karl was in the lead, so the rest of us kind of focused on him.  Meanwhile, Neville -- who was being real quiet -- managed to collect four goods to finish out the game as the winner in the very next round!  I had of 8 of my required goods plus an extra to finish second on the tiebreaker ahead of Karl and Rouslan, each of whom had 8, ahead of Rembert, who had 7.  I think this game was well received by all -- looking forward to trying it again soon.

Our group then played Bang: The Dice Game, which Rouslan had brought, and Neville (who was the Sheriff) managed to extend his win streak for another game, joined by Rembert, the loyal deputy.  Rouslan and I, the Outlaws, were quickly found out and Karl, the Renegade, was the last to go.  Game seemed to play alot quicker than the regular Bang.  Then, four of us (Rembert moving over to help finish out a Power Grid game) played Steam Park, which Neville had brought.  This one didn't quite make it to the finish line, but after three of the six rounds, I was in the lead.  Partial scores of John 21, Neville and Karl 11, Rouslan 9.  Neville just had too much dirt in his amusement park and got hit with a -15 penalty.

Power Grid-Benelux was a five-player, consisting of Mike, Eric, Ben, John D, and Eric's son Ryan, with Rembert subbing for the last couple of turns.  Final scores:  Mike 15, John D 14, Ben 13 (12 money), Ryan/Rembert 13 (5 money), Eric 12.   Everyone but Ben stuck around for a second game, Gipsy King, which went to John D.  Scores:  John D 72, Eric 64, Mike 56, Rembert 50.

Helen and Peter played Coal Baron, a game Helen had played the week before that I believe was new to Pete.  Helen put what she had learned to good use, winning by a score of 100 to 45.

The other game was Clash of Cultures, which Patrick had brought.  Angel and Wayne were the other two players.  The game apparently did not finish or, if it did, I did not get a final result to report.  Glancing at the board, it looked like Wayne had been doing well in building cities, while Patrick had a lead in the technology race.

Love to see a similar turnout for next week's session!

February 27, 2014 Session Report

I missed this session (due to PrezCon), but co-Host Mike was on hand and has provided the details for the following report:

Eight in attendance this week:  Mike, Ben, Neville, John B, Eric and son Ryan, Helen and Rembert.  Games played:  Railways of the World (England/Wales map), Coal Baron and Augustus.  Results and a few details follow.

Railways of the World:  Ryan started the game but then John B filled in when Ryan had to leave for basketball practice and finished the last three turns.  Eric's Baron put him over the top when John couldn't complete the requirements for his and Ryan's Baron.  Neville, who had only played once before, was least familiar with the game.  Final scores:  Eric 64 (and 81,000); Ryan/John 59 (and 36,000), Helen 54 (and 46,000) and Neville 36 (and 36,000).

Coal Baron:  Big win for Rembert, ahead of Mike, who has played the game more than anyone.  Scores:  Rembert 132 Mike 111 Ben 96 John B 88

Augustus:  Mike 60 Rembert 58 Ben 30

February 20, 2014 Session Report

Much of last week's snow having melted, this week we were back in session, with a total of six in attendance:  Mike, Doug, John B, Neville, Rembert and myself.  We played a total of five different games:  :Love Letter (twice), Maori, Power Grid:  India, Volcanic Disaster and Cardline:  Animals.

Love Letter was the opener while waiting for people to show, and later on in the session we managed to play a full game.  The first game just lasted one round, was won by Doug with Mike second while the two Johns (John B and myself) were the two losers.  John B's first exposure to the game was a very short one indeed, as he was knocked out without even getting in one play.

We then split into two groups for the rest of the session.  One group (John B, Mike and Neville) played Power Grid, with the new India map.  They added the robot as a fourth player, but it turned out the robot was a weak one, always buying the cheapest plant and only building to capacity.  Someone commented that the Power Plant deck was not well shuffled, meaning the highest numbered plants (42 and above) were the ones randomly excluded.  Despite this turmoil, John B emerged the victor by powering 17, one more than Neville, two more than Mike.  The robot (with 9 cities powered) trailed badly.

The rest of us (Doug, Rembert and myself) played some shorter games.  First, we tried Maori, and this time Rembert ran away with the win, 51 points to 42 for Doug who was second.  I was last with just 30, alot worse than the last game.  Next game for us was a card game called Volcanic Disaster, which Doug had brought that I hadn't seen before.  I had a nice lead until Doug managed to steal my highest scoring Volcano and he won easily, 31 to 13 for Rembert and 6 for yours truly.

I recovered a bit in the next game, Cardline:  Animals, which we played three times, using a different criteris (Weight, Age then Length) each round.  Once again, Rembert was on fire, getting 11 in a row until faltering in the final go-round when we made him go last.  Doug and Rembert tied in the first round (weight), Rembert and I tied in second category (age), going 4-for-4 each time, then I managed to pull out a solo win in the final category (height), going 4-for-5 as we all missed some.  Finally, there was time for a three-player Love Letter, where I managed to blow an early lead, winner being Doug (5) followed by John (4) and Rembert (3).

I plan on being away at the PrezCon convention in Charlottesville next weekend, so look for Mike to fill in.

No Gaming This Evening, Thursday, February 13, 2014

Due to the inclement weather, tonight's gaming session is cancelled.  It appears that Prince Georges' County schools are closed, so I suspect that the CC will be closed as well.  Therefore, everyone should stay home and stay safe.  See you next week.

February 6, 2014 Session Report

Very strong turnout, total of 11 in attendance this week, which meant two (and occasionally three) games at once throughout the session.  We welcomed to the club for the first time Ben Rosset, who is a published game designer as well as designer of BrewCrafters, which is set for a formal release later this year.  Also back after a long hiatus was Stan Hilinski, who is also a game designer/developer.  Club regulars Ben A, Doug, Karl, Neville, Tim, Rembert, Helen, co-Host Mike and myself rounded out the list of attendees.  We managed to get in a total of six different games:  Love Letter, Mars Needs Mechanics, Cinque Terre, Building the British Royal Navy (one of Ben's prototypes), Agricola and Jamaica.  Some scores and details follow.

Love Letter was the quick filler game while waiting for people to show up.  So, we didn't complete a full game and we actually switched out a couple of players from one round to next.  Doug/Tim won 2 rounds, the rest of us (Mike, the Stan/Karl duo and myself) each won 1 round.

Then we split into two groups.  One group of five played Cinque Terre, which Stan had brought.  Close battle for the win which went to Neville, 137 to 135 for Stan.  Others:  Karl 124, Doug 107, Rembert 63.
Another group played Mars Needs Mechanics, which Mike had brought -- a game which it turned out was designed by Ben Rosset.  Ben showed up in the middle of the game to answer rules questions but strategy tips (which I desperately needed) were few and far between.  Ben A (perhaps because he shared the same first name as the game designer) figured the game out the best, and took the win with 55 while the rest of us were bunched together in a close race for second:  Tim 46 John  46 Mike 45, Tim second on tiebreaker which was fewest components remaining in hand.  The only tip I jotted down from Ben was to keep track of which of the components has already been sold, as those are removed from the game permanently.

For the second round of games, we had three groups.  Ben A and Tim played a two-player Agricola that finished in about an hour, final scores:  Tim 43 Ben 36.  Mike, Helen and I joined Ben R to try his latest prototype, Building the British Royal Navy, a game which Mike and I had tried out a Unpub 4 a few weeks back. Ben had made some revisions that definitely streamlined play.  Although the game didn't make it to the finish line (we only completed three of five rounds), I managed to pull ahead (31 to 21 for Helen, 20 for Mike, 8 for Ben who was obviously focused on getting some feedback on ways to improve the gameplay.  I believe we did come up with some suggestions, particularly with regard to how to apply the tiebreaker system on winning bids, that Ben may subsequently adopt in one form or another.

That leaves Jamaica, a game which Neville had brought.  Since Stan had brought and taught everyone a new game that Neville had won, I guess it was appropriate that Stan came out on top in this game that Neville had brought and taught.  What I don't understand is how the scores worked out to be:  Stan 36, Neville and Rembert 0, Doug -1.  I guess I will have to play the game to find out.

Hope everyone enjoyed the session.  Ben (the game designer) says he hopes to make some future club sessions, I thought it was great that he could come and show us his new creations.

January 30, 2014 Session Report

Ten in attendance this week:  Mike, Patrick, Tim, Neville, Eric, Ryan, Helen, Rembert, Lee (who had been here once before last fall) and myself.  We got in a total of four games:  Suburbia, Ticket to Ride - Netherlands, the Lord of the Rings Card game (the one by Cryptozoic) and For Sale.  Some details follow.

Suburbia was a four-player.  Final scores were Patrick 75, Helen 62, Tim 44 and Rembert 38.
Ticket to Ride with the new Netherlands map was interesting.  You have to pay money to build your routes and you could run out!  In the end, the host/co-host duo dominated, as Mike and I came in 1-2 in a five-player, first play of this one at the club.  Scores:  Mike 229, John 226, Lee 170, Neville 134. Eric 91.

Lord of the Rings card game was won by Lee after I got off to an early lead, killing a bunch of the Enemy cards.  Score count on this one was Lee 45, John 43, Neville 37, Mike 20.

Finally, Eric's son Ryan joined us for For Sale.  Eric was the winner, and I kept up my string of second place finishes.  Scores were Eric 53K, John 49K, Lee and Neville 45K, Mike 41 K, Ryan 33K.

Next week we expect to be joined by Ben Rosset, a noted game designer from the DC area.  He is planning on bringing a prototype of one of his unpublished games, so it promises to be a fun session. 

January 23, 2014 Session Report

We had a group of eight for this week's session:  Patrick, Doug, Mike, Tim, Alex, Ben, Eric and myself.  Four games were played:  American Rails, Compounded, 7 Wonders (played twice) and Carnival.  Compounded and Carnival were both new to the club, having been purchased or won as prizes at the recent Unpub4 convention in Delaware that Mike and I had attended on the prior weekend (Jan. 18-19).

Eric ran away with the American Ralis game, final scores were Eric 146, Ben 120, Tim 87, Patrick 79, Mike 76.  (Another great job of teaching by Mike, who brought up the rear this time.)  The other game was Compounded, which involves putting together chemical elements to form compounds without blowing up the lab.  The game had a real close finish, final scores:  John 68 Alex 65 Doug 57.

Everyone but Alex stayed for the second round of games.  One group played 3-player 7 Wonders and played quickly enough to get two games in.  Scores of Game 1:  Ben 50 Eric 42 Tim 36.  Game 2:  Eric 67 Tim 65 Ben 51.

The rest of us tried Carnival, a card game that Mike had won as a prize at Unpub.  Everyone was trying to become the first to complete three of four carnival rides.  We didn't quite make it to the finish, but Doug was declared the winner (with 2 completed rides and 7 other cards in play), John second (2 rides, 6 cards in play), while Patrick and Mike had one completed ride and were bringing up the rear (although I recall hearing how much better off their position would be after just "one more turn").

January 16, 2014 Session Report

A real good turnout this week.  Eleven in attendance:  Patrick, Mike, Karl, Eric and his son Ryan, Doug, Ben, Neville, Tim, Rembert and myself.  Three games were played:  Euphoria, Legacy:  The Testamant of Duke De Crecy and Lords of Waterdeep.

Lords of Waterdeep, which Eric played with Ryan who had to leave for basketball at 8, did not manage to finish.  The other two games had very close finishes.  In Legacy, which is all about building up a large family tree, Eric grabbed the early lead but his margin shrunk when we got to the endgame scoring categories.  In the end, both Karl and I managed to ease past him.  Final scores:  Karl 55, John  54, Eric 53, Ben 39.

Euphoria was a six-player, and it too, had a very close finish.  Neville managed to get to 10 points first, with Tim and Mike close behind at 9.  Other scores were Rembert 7, Patrick 6 and Doug 5.  I believe Mike and Patrick were the only ones who had played before.

Looking for another good turnout next week!

January 9, 2014 Session Report

Good turnout tonight, and I am pleased to report that everyone was able to get in at least two games, plus the fact that we had two games going throughout the session.  Attendees were Mike, Tim, Neville, Eric, Ben, Karl, Rembert and myself.  We played the following games:  Power Grid (India map), Russian Railroads, Augustus (played twice) and 7 Wonders.

Power Grid with the new India map was a five-player, using the basic deck.  The game ended in Phase 2 when Mike saw he could build out once Eric, who had capacity to build one extra city, lacked the funds to do so.  It came down to the money tiebreaker between Mike and Eric, and Mike won.  Final scores:  Mike 12/37 Eric 12/18 Ben 11 Tim 9/269 Rembert 9/143.  Looks like Ben, Tim and Rembert were left sitting on alot of cash waiting for the Phase 3 card which never came.

Russian Railroads, which was the #1 rated game at this year's Essen (according to the Fairplay poll, made its first appearance at the club.  The game was really close headed into the last turn, and the endgame scoring turned out to be a decisive factor, plus some good industry development which gave me the win.  Final scores:  John 315 Karl 273 Neville 267.  It was everyone's first play, and the game seemed to get a thumbs up from everyone.

Still almost an hour remaining, so the second round of games were  Augustus and 7 Wonders.  The Augustus group whipped through the first game (a 5-player) in something like 15 minutes, and had time for a second game.  The winners were Karl and Mike.  Scores:  Game 1, Karl 60 Mike 52 Neville 47 Eric 27 Tim 23 and Game 2, Mike 51 Tim 44 Karl 39 Eric 14

The other game was a 3-player 7 Wonders.  Ben was the winner.  Scores in that game were Ben 50 John 46 Rembert 38

January 2, 2014 Session Report

Six of us braved the snowy weather and arrived at the club this week for the first session of the new year.  Patrick, Mike, Ben, Neville, John B and I played Caverna:  The Cave Farmers, which is a new game by Uwe Rosenberg that has been billed as the sequel to Agricola.  The game was well received by the group, but we didn't make it to the finish line as a couple of folks had to leave early.  We got through eight of the 12 rounds and scored the game.  I came out the winner, Mike was second, Neville third, scores withheld to protect the innocent but of course things could certainly have changed had we made it through to the end.  Mike, Neville and Patrick chose to go the armed dwarf/Expedition route while the rest of us tried a more peaceful strategy.  John B had been the first to expand to 4 dwarfs, with room for a 5th, so his 5th place position after 8 rounds may have been much better had the game gone to completion.

Two events coming up this weekend: The annual Brunswick Games Day is Saturday, and Sunday is the 1st Sunday of the month which means gaming at Laurel Middle Earth (Rodney Bacigalupo's place), check the GCOM website for details.

December 26, 2013 Session Report

We had six (Mike, Helen, Alex, John B, Patrick and myself) for this week's session.  We played a game Mike had brought, called Euphoria.  It was a race game (first to 10 VPs) using a rather unique looking board with four different areas or tracks that provided different resources and/or different ways of scoring.  In the end, Helen managed to win the game by earning her last two VPs on Patrick's turn.  Final score counts were Helen 10, Alex 8, John B and John W 7, Patrick 6, Mike 4.  Guess Mike was too busy teaching the game to concentrate on his own play.

Anyway, the session wrapped up a bit early.  On into 2014 then, first session this coming Thursday, January 2nd.