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.