January 8, 2015 Session Report

First session of the New Year and despite some inclement weather earlier in the week, we had a group of eight hardy gamers -- Patrick, Mike, Ben A, Lina, Neville, Will and myself plus one first-time attendee (Manuel) -- and a total of three games were played: Nothing Personal, Imperial Settlers and Red 7.

Nothing Personal was a four-player, and Neville emerged the winner by a wide margin after a big surge on the last two turns of the game. I was in the lead, but of course my guys got bumped off or sent to prison. Final scores in this gangster-related game (reminiscent of Avalon Hill's Kremlin) were: Neville 74, John 38, Line 34, Manuel 31. Lina and Manuel got embroiled in a huge battle for control of the Capo on the final turn, allowing Neville to swoop in and claim just about all the other gangsters, while my strong early position faded badly down the stretch. The four of us also played a few hands of Red 7 but unfortunately we did not quite make it to the finish.

Imperial Settlers was played at the other table, and the winner (playing the Egyptians) was Patrick, with a score of 64. Second was Will, as the Barbarians, with a score of 57. Third was Mike, as the Japanese, with 49 while the Romans (played by Ben) brought up the rear with 30. Interesting, because I had heard that the Japanese and the Romans were the two strongest factions -- not true, if you go by the results of this one game. A reminder that the GCOM Winter GameFest is coming up soon, weekend after next, Jan. 17-18, at the Rockville Senior Center. Check out the link at the GCOM website, gamesclubofmd.org.