July 23, 2015 Session Report

Big group of 15 for this week's session, including two newcomers, Steve and Shira, plus David, Mike, Rembert, Patrick, Tim, Doug, Eugene, Alec, Rouslan, Rich, John W, Marie and myself. More games than in recent memory were played: a total of 10 games, 9 different ones: 8-Minute Empire, No Thanks, the Voyages of Marco Polo, Kraftwagen, Chrononauts, Concordia, W 1815 (played twice), Nations: Dice Game and Kingsburg, the latter of which did not make it to the finish. With four games going on at once, it was difficult to keep track of everything, but some scores and a few details follow.

Eight-minute Empire was the opener, and it took closer to 30 minutes than the eight advertised. Five players, and first-timer Shira was the winner on a tiebreak (tied with Mike at 9 VP). Others: John (myself) 8, Rembert 7, Steve 6.

While the Eight-Minute Empire was still going on, Eugene, Doug, Rouslan and Alec got in another quick game, No Thanks. Winner was Eugene (43 -- low scores are better) followed by Rouslan (46), Alec (65) and Doug (71).

The group of Shira, Steve, Doug and Marie went on to play two more games together: Chrononauts and Kingsburg. I heard Marie won the Chrononauts game, where history was changed with Hitler and Reagan being assassinated while JFK and John Lennon were saved. Kingsburg did not finish, lasting only four rounds, no word on who was winning.

Voyages of Marco Polo was a four-player, won by David (58), followed by Rouslan (46), Patrick (42) and Alec (no score given, probably somewhere around 40).

Kraftwagen was a four-player, won by yours truly with an incredibly high score of 82, followed by Eugene (64), Tim (44), Mike (22). The four of us decided to wrap up the evening with Nations: The Dice Game, won by Tim over Mike on the most swords last turn tiebreaker (both at 29 VP) followed by Eugene (22) and this time I brought up the rear (20).

Two game of W 1815 were played, with Rouslan doing the teaching and David and Patrick participating. I heard from Rouslan that the French won both times.

Finally, a three-player game of Concordia was played. Winner was John W (the other one) with 133, followed by Rembert at 92, Rich at 80.

Hope I was able to keep track of everything.

July 16, 2015 Session Report

Big group of 15 for this week's session. One first-time attendee (Hortencia), one second-time attendee (Demetrius) along with Mike, Patrick, John B, Greg, David, Tim, Matt, Eugene, Lina, Rouslan, Rembert, Paul and myself. Games played: Cheeky Monkey, the Adventures of Marco Polo, Homesteaders and Power Grid: Deluxe (North American edition) and Splendor.

Cheeky Monkey was a four-player, the quick-playing game while waiting for more people to show up. I managed first with 27 (bolstered by the 10-point bonus for most monkeys), followed by Demetrius (21), Mike (20) and Hortencia (13). One reason for the relatively low scores was the fact that four of the bonus tiles were not awarded (due to ties which are unfriendly in this game).

Power Grid: Deluxe (played with the North America board) was a six-player, which ended with no ties, as everyone powered a different number on the final turn. Scores were Matt 15, myself second at 14, then Mike (13), Demetrius (12), Rembert (11) and Paul (9). Matt built out to 15 with just 2 money left over while I had the capacity to power 15, I was short a few bucks of adding a 15th city and had to settle for second. Matt said it was the first time he had won a Power Grid game.

Homesteaders was a four-player, won by Eugene (61) with Lina, who had not played the game before, a close second at 58. Rouslan (49) and John B. (37) were the other players. This same group then had time for a Splendor game, won by Rouslan (17) ahead of Lina (13) with John B and Eugene trailing at 9.

The Marco Polo game managed to finish right before time ran out, with Greg (52) first ahead of Tim (47), then Patrick (38) and David (37).

Hope to keep up the good attendance next week as we hit the Dog Days of Summer.

July 9, 2015 Session Report

Attendance: 13 this week. We had one first-time attendee (Demetrius) and a dozen others: Mike, Patrick, David, Alex, Greg, Lina, Tim, Will, Rembert, Paul, John B. and myself. Five games were played: Mag Blast, Yedo, Kraftwagen, Concordia and Catan: Ancient Egypt.

Don't have any scores for Mag Blast, I seem to remember it might have been the warm-up game waiting for people to show up.

Yedo was a four-player. In the end, there was a tie for first -- David and Patrick each had 21. Will followed with 18, Lina with 11. No word on whether there's a tiebreaker in the game.

Kraftwagen was back for a second week, with three of the same players plus Greg, who had not played before. This time I managed to pull out the win with a score of 58, followed by Greg (45), Mike (42) and Alex (last week's winner) trailed with 34. Ironically, I scored more pts in the earlier game, but finished second to Alex as we both got into the 60s.

Concordia, the last of the first round of games to get started, grew from a two-player to a full table of five after more arrived. Final scores were Tim 136, John B 131, Demetrius 103, Paul 94, Rembert 82.

Yedo and Concordia consumed most of the remaining session time, but Greg, Mike and I had time for another game after finishing Kraftwagen. We played a Settlers variant, Catan: Ancient Egypt, that Mike had brought. Victory condition was first to 11 points. Greg managed to accomplish this, final scores were Greg 11, John 9, Mike 8. This variant added a quasi-cooperative element of building in a Pyramid which gave an advantage to the person who had built more recently plus an additional point to each player who had built more than others, so ignore the Pyramid at your peril.

July 2, 2015 Session Report

A dozen in attendance this week. Roster of attendees: Mike, Patrick, Doug, Will, Alex, Lina, Neville, Ben, Rouslan, Marie, Rembert and myself were the 12. Games played: Dogs of War, Kraftwagen, Nations: The Dice Game and To Court the King. Some results follow.

Dogs of War, no details except for the scores. Will was a big winner, with 49, followed by Neville (29), Lina (23), Ben (17) and finally Patrick (5), who was the person who had brought the game.

Kraftwagen was a brand new game about the German automotive industry using similar mechanics to Glen More, by the same designer. We played with four (the max for this game), and once again Alex proved himself to be the master of the new games, winning with 66. I managed a close section with 61, followed by Mike (46) and Doug (39). Really like this game as the mechanics flow quite freely.

Nations: The Dice Game, which I had brought, was a three-player, ending in a tie with Marie and Rouslan, both at 19, followed by Rembert at 15. No word on who won the tiebreaker (which would go based on turn order, i.e., most swords in the last turn).

Those of us who stayed and were not in the longer Dougs of War game got in a second game, which was To Court the King, which Doug had brought. I thought I was doing well but missed out on the key 6-of-a-kind guy. Mike got the King but didn't have enough dice to win the final round. Doug and Rembert each got to 10, Mike had 9, so that meant Rouslan and I trailed with 8.

June 25, 2015 Session Report

Ten for this week's session: Mike, Patrick, Lina, John W, Ben, Greg, Eugene, Rembert and myself, plus Diane (a first-time attendee). Games played: Power Grid Deluxe (Europe), Nations: The Dice Game, Baseball Highlights 2045, Firefly and TransAmerica.

Power Grid: Deluxe was a four-player, using the European side of the mapboard. Mike won by building to 17 when he could power the most cities, so it was a relatively quick game. Final scores: Mike 15, Eugene 13 (124 money), Ben 13 (115 money), Rembert 10.

Nations: The Dice Game, was a three-player won by the one newcomer, Diane. Scores: Diane 28, Lina 23, yours truly 19. Then Diane left, and Lina and I played a three-game series in the baseball game, with Lina winning all three.

The two groups then combined for TransAmerica, with Rembert winning both rounds while Eugene got knocked off the track. Scores: Rembert 13, me 9, Lina 5, Mike 3, Eugene 0.

Firefly was the long game that took almost the entire session and still did not finish. John W was ahead with 6900 (needing 8000 to win), followed by Greg (6200) and Patrick (5700).