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.