August 16, 2007 Session Report

Ten attended last night's session: Gabe, Paul S., Rodney, Clayton, Doug H, Eric H, Sarah, Nicole, Beth and myself wound up playing a total of nine games during the course of the evening. We had three games going at once for the part of the time.

Gabe, Paul and I got there a few minutes early and we played a card game called Treasures and Traps which Gabe had brought. We decided to abandon the game when others began arriving, as it wasn't clear how long it would take before the game would finish. By then we had seven players and split into two groups, one for a four-player Vegas Showdown which began as a close battle between Clayton and myself, but I managed to score some points for diamonds near the end to pull away while the one new player to the game (Sarah) came home second. Final scores were John 62, Sarah 49, Clayton 41 and Paul 40. Clayton had five (!) lounges in the game but, unfortunately for him, the Lounge Lizard card did not come out to give him a big points bonus. The other game, a three-player game of Thebes (the recent remake of Jenseits von Theben), was claimed by Eric, 80 to 65 for Gabe and 59 for Doug, the only new player at the game.

By then Nicole, Beth and Rodney had arrived, and they set up a third table to play Alchemist. Rodney and Beth, who had both played the game before, finished 1-2 with 85 and 81 points, respectively, ahead of Nicole, the one new player, with 61. That same group played For Sale, and this time the winner was Beth with 82, followed by Nicole at 71 then Rodney at 64.

For the next round of games, we split into two groups of five. One group played Cash n' Guns, which was won by Eric (now 2 for 2 for the evening) ahead of Beth, Nicole, Gabe and Rodney; final scores were reported as 110-85-80-75-55. The other game was an old club favorite, Hoity Toity, and Paul managed to snag the win by taking best collection on the "oldest" work tiebreaker just ahead of Sarah and Clayton, all of whom made it to the finishing spaces; Doug and I also played in the game but we didn't come close to winning, having both our thieves in jail for a good part of the game.

The final two games of the evening took us right up to closing time. There was a four-player Category 5 which was won by Sarah based on consistency -- defined as never taking more than 25 pts on any one hand. I had the early lead but could not hold it, while Doug recovered after a 38 pt first hand to wind up challenging Sarah for the win. I think we played around 6-7 hands and the final scores were Sarah 74, Doug 84, Paul 92, John 112 (lower scores are better in this game). The other game was Beowulf, and this time the winner was Gabe (34) followed by Rodney (29), Beth (23), Nicole (20) and Eric (16) who finally had his winning streak for the evening snapped.

Hope everyone had a good time, looking forward to seeing you all again next week.

August 9, 2007 Session Report

A good bounceback week attendance-wise: With a total of 13 people, we had three games going on at once for most of the evening. I instituted a new system with some slips to record information on specific games (courtesy of Dave Fair, host of the GCOM-Damascus group and co-host at two other locations).

In attendance: Sarah, Val, Paul S., Gabe, Eric, Clayton, Doug H, John Locke (John is a regular at GCOM-Potomac who was attending at our location for the first time), Carlos (welcome back, Carlos!), Rodney, Nicole, Beth and myself were the group.

I brought a newly-purchased copy of Phoenicia and Paul, Val and Sarah joined me in a four-player game for its initial play. The game took close to two hours, but it should go faster once all players are familiar with the rules. Val took an early lead and pulled away to win with 34, while Sarah (27), John W (27) and Paul (26) were bunched closely together at the end, but nowhere close to Val.

Clayton and Eric squared off in a game of Lost Cities. The scores were reported as 194 to 94 in favor of Eric, a 100-point win. Thought Clayton would make it a bit closer.

Gabe, Carlos, Doug, John L and Rodney tackled Beowulf, another game that lasted for more than half the session. Final scores were reported as a tie between Gabe and Rodney at 30 apiece, followed by John L at 25, Doug at 23 then Carlos at 18.

Nicole and Beth had arrived and joined Clayton and Eric for Quiddler. Nicole was dominant, scoring 148 while Eric edged Beth for second, 126-124 and Clayton was not far behind at 117.

Clayton took a bit of a break and Rodney subbed to play several games in a row with Beth, Eric and Nicole. For Sale was won by Eric (82) ahead of Rodney (66), Beth (50) and Nicole (49). Then Incan Gold was played twice, Nicole winning the first game and then finishing a point behind Rodney in the second. I will not embarrass Beth and Eric by reciting their scores.

In the meantime, Doug joined Sarah, Val and myself for a four-player Blokus which Doug won. The results (remember in this one, low scores are best): Doug 4, John 11, Sarah 14 and Val 30. We also played a game of Coyote and the results were totally different (girls beat the boys) as I was out first, followed by Doug, then Sarah won the final head-to-head confrontation with Val.

The other four (John L, Gabe, Carlos and Paul S) were locked in a Duel of Ages game that unfortunately did not finish when the 9 o'clock witching hour arose. (Looking forward to the week after Labor Day when we return to the four hour sessions lasting until 10 PM!)

A couple of more quick fillers -- Sarah and Val played a couple of games of Blink, a game that Doug and I only watched as they were moving way too fast for us older guys to keep up with them. Doug then produced a really short card game called Pepper (every one starts with five cards and tries to get rid of them) which turned out to be the final game of the evening for Doug, Sarah, Val and myself. We finished two hands, first one won by Doug, second one by Val.

Recap: A total of 11 different games played, three more than once, 15-16 games in total (depending on how many games of Blink Sarah and Val worked in, as I really couldn't keep up!)

Hope everyone had a good time. I know I did.

Thursday, August 2, 2007 Session Report

At least four of our regular attendees were at the WBC convention last week, so not surprisingly, our attendance took a bit of a nosedive.

Thanks to Gabe Cornett, here is the belated report from last week:

Attendees: Gabe, Val, Sarah and Clayton

Games Played: Tsuro (won by Val); Wings of War (won by Sarah, Gabe and Val tied for second); Phase 10 (won by Val)

For anyone interested, I filed a recap of my activities at WBC on BGG. Here's the link:

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/23588

July 26, 2007 Session Report

Another good turnout with a total of 12 gamers, including two newcomers to the club: Patrick Chapman and Eric Sokolowsky, who joined Gabe, Eric H, Sarah, Val, Nicole, Paul J, Beth, Clayton, Neil and myself to play a total of eight different games: Lost Cities, Puerto Rico, Boomtown, TransAmerica, Rummikub, Coloretto, Wits and Wagers and Category 5.

Here's a few comments on some of the games, who played what, winners and scores where I have them, etc. Gabe and I got there first and played a really weird hand of Lost Cities; I think we had a bunch of handshake cards at the start that didn't match any of our cards so it was tougher than usual putting together high scoring expeditions. I believe I pulled it out by getting three colors going while Gabe could only manage a positive score on two of three.

By then more people had arrived and five of us played a game of Boomtown, which was won by Sarah (84) ahead of Eric S (77), Eric H (70), Gabe (59), I was in last (40).
Patrick, Neil, Clayton and Val had arrived by then, and they contested a four-player TransAmerica. The same two groups kept going for the next round of games, which consisted of a 5-player Puerto Rico, where Sarah, who was playing for the first time, managed to win (assisted by a cast of thousands), with a final score of 55 (had the harbor and two large buildings) followed by me (46), Eric S (44), Gabe (39) and Eric (37). Meanwhile, there was a four-player Coloretto, which I heard wound up in a tie between Clayton and Patrick (? -- not sure on this one as the PR game was so intense I had difficulty keeping up with all the other games going on).

Beth, Nicole and Paul J arrived a bit later and Beth and Nicole introduced Paul to Rummikub -- which Paul promptly won (another win for a first-time player at a new game, which seemed to be the theme for the evening). Next up for the non-PR group was a full table of seven for Wits and Wagers, which I heard was another tie involving some of the new players again. Then the evening wound up with a couple of quick fillers (Category 5 and Blink) to keep up our tradition of pushing the envelope of finishing right on the verge of the 9 PM closing time.

Hope everyone had a good time -- hope to see Patrick and Eric S back at some future sessions. I have a new limited edition Cycling game called "Tour" that I hope to try out soon at a future session, but I was happy to have the opportunity to play PR at Eric S's suggestion. Sarah brought an interesting looking card game I would like to try some time soon as well.

Next week some of us (including myself) will be out of town for the World Boardgaming Championships in Lancaster, PA) -- thanks in advance to one of you who I am hoping will track the attendance/games played (there's a couple of sheets in the club's notebook) and either forward the info to me or post it here.

I was pleased to display the GCOM banner which has been made available to hosts at all GCOM locations -- unfortunately, I forgot to leave it in one of the game bins with the club games so it won't be making a future appearance for at least a couple of weeks.

July 19, 2007 Session Report

This week we had a total of 10 gamers in attendance, making it three weeks in a row we have hit double figures. Clayton, Gabe, Eric, Doug H, Sarah, Paul J, Neil, Beth, Nicole and myself played a total of six different games: Cowpowker (played twice), Stonehenge, Phase 10, Billabong, Take 6 and Slapshot.

I was involved in the first Cowpowker game which I managed to win with a fortuitous card play that let me take an active card from each opponent. Then played Phase 10, which Sarah brought, and the game took a bit longer when it turned out to be more difficult to reach the later goals; Doug was the early leader but Sarah came back -- I think the game was abandoned after Doug was the first to reach Phase 8. After Beth and Nicole arrived, it was a five-player game of Slapshot that ended right before 9 one game into the playoffs. The three players who hadn't played before (Neil, Nicole and Beth) made the playoffs while the two who had played before (Eric and myself) were on the outside looking in.

Hope everyone had a good time. If anyone wants to post comments about the other gamers, feel free to do so.

July 12, 2007 Session Report

Pleased to report that attendance held strong at 12 this week: Gabe, Paul S., Clayton, Neil, Sarah, Paul J., Stan, Nicole, Beth, Tucker, Bob and myself were in attendance. There were a total of nine different games played, and here are some of the highlights.

Gabe introduced RoboRally to several newcomers, and the game was played at least twice (first a two-player with Gabe and Paul S. and then later in a larger game that included Paul S, Gabe, Tucker, Clayton and Bob. Neil wanted to try out Yspahan and played a four-player with two new players and of course the newcomers (Sarah and Paul J.) finished one-two ahead of myself and Neil, the "teacher" in that game. I felt good about getting all six buildings but little in the way of camels or souks and only narrowly managed to fend off Neil for third spot.

By then Stan, Nicole and Beth had arrived, and the three of them squared off in a game of Ingenious which ended up in a very narrow win for Beth. Gabe, Paul S. and Clayton played Fist of Dragonstones, followed by Fairy Tale (and perhaps a third RoboRally game was worked in at some point as well). Beth introduced a recent TransAmerica variant (we needed to borrow some colored "roads" pieces from the Settlers game) where each player gets to play three sections of track each round where they have exclusive track rights; Stan and I joined Beth in this variant which gave TransAmerica a more "strategic" feel when played with this additional twist. Meanwhile, Nicole joined Neil, Paul J. and Sarah in a game which Sarah brought, called "Speed Scrabble"--a variant on the regular game where each player arranges his/her own tiles to make a series of words. It looked interesting and something worth trying again.

At Neil's urging, six of us (Beth, Nicole, Sarah, Paul J, Neil and myself) played Coyote and, following the pattern of the earlier Yspahan game, the two new players (Sarah and Paul) came home one-two. With 20 minutes to closing time, we started a game of Sticheln but only had time to complete one hand -- the game was a learning experience for most of the players who were playing the game for the first or second time.

July 5, 2007 Session Report

July 5 turned out to be one of our all-time best Thursday evening sessions attendance-wise, with 13 gamers present. We welcomed two first-time attendees, Paul J. and Crosby, along with Sarah, Neil, Gabe, Eric, Doug, Paul S., Beth, Nicole, Rodney, Clayton and myself. We played a total of 11 different games -- with that many people, it was often literally a three-ring circus with three games going on at once.

With 11 people there by the 6 PM start time, we split into two groups: Gabe, Crosby, Beth, Nicole and Eric played Ark; the two Pauls, Sarah, Doug, Neil and I played Hoity Toity which accommodates six. Then, Rodney and Clayton arrived and squared off in a game of Lost Cities. Next up was Incan Gold, don't know who all played, but I was informed and am pleased to report that our youngest attendee, Nicole, was the winner.

I had brought a prototype of a new game I have been working on and managed to cajole Neil, Eric, Nicole and Clayton into testing it. It uses timers a la Space Dealer for actions and has a figure skating theme -- you are developing and training a skater for a skating competition that takes place at the end of the game. Working title is Gold Medal Skating. In our game, Eric (who was the only one of the four familiar with the Space Dealer mechanic) managed to get a third timer in play and won fairly easily. Nicole took the Silver Medal while Neil and Clayton wound up tied for the bronze, and I think the tiebreaker favored Neil who did a bit better in the final program.

Meanwhile, there was plenty of action at the other tables: Alchemist, Blokus, Blink, and Beowulf were among the games played. Beth recorded her first ever win at Puerto Rico, besting Rodney and Doug, two experienced PR players, in a three-player game. The final game, Olympia 2000, did not quite get to the finish line as the witching hour (9 PM for the summer months) approached all too soon.

Thanks to everyone who attended and made this one of our best sessions yet!