March 11, 2010 Session Report

This report from last week's session should serve to bring the blog up to date.

Attendance (10): Paul, Mike, Greg, Doug M, Doug H, Ron, Don, Tim (back for the third week in a row), Clayton and myself.
Games Played (7): Maneuver, Power Grid - Spain/Portugal, TC Tennis, Campaign Manager, Roll Through the Ages, Vegas Showdown and Ingenious.

A few details on some of the games.

Maneuver (two-player, Ron versus Don): Not much in the way of comments, but Don won by what appeared to be a fairly decisive margin.

Power Grid (6-player, full table): Won by Doug H on a tiebreak by $5 from Tim. Greg, Doug M, Paul and Mike were also in the game. Good result for Tim, who I was informed was playing Power Grid for the first time.

TC Tennis: This was a beta of a game I am signed up as a playtester for Victory Point Games. My opponent was Clayton; he was Jimmy Connors while I was Ivan Lendl. Our matchup ended in a win for Connors (Clayton) in a tiebreak.

Campaign Manager 2008: Clayton and I then changed into the roles of Presidential candidates in another two-player game, the recently released replay of the most recent U. S. Presidential election. This time McCain (John) beat Obama (Clayton), although I probably had a slight edge from having played before. It came down to the final three states.

Roll Through the Ages: Four player, Ron gets his revenge on Don, winning by three (43 to 40) with John (24) and Clayton (22) far behind. We used the new "Late Bronze Age" variant which has more player options but also makes the game quite a bit longer.

Vegas Showdown: Four-player, Doug H won and Paul was last. Greg and Doug M were also in the game, no report on who got second and third.

Ingenious: Three-player, won by Greg (13). Paul and Doug H had 8. Nice win for Greg.

We've had a good run attendance-wise, so hopefully we can keep it up for next time!

February 25, 2010 Session Report

Here's a session report, courtesy of Mike, for the session I missed. Better late than never:

I found the sheet from a week ago last Thursday. Attendance included: Mike (me), Patrick, Paul, Ron, Don, Clayton, Doug the Younger (Doug M) & Tim. Games included:
- Megacorps, with Clayton winning with $92, Paul & Doug each with $90, me with $72 and Patrick with $61.
- Snow Trails twice: with the races ending Ron - Don - Tim and then Ron - Tim - Don
- Roll Through the Ages: Ron ended with 29 pt, Tim 15
- Homesteaders: Doug ended with 58 pts, Pat and I had 51 pts and Paul had 47 pts
- Can't Stop: Ron beat Clayton is the only score I have.

Thanks to Mike for keeping the notes and providing this report.

March 4, 2010 Session Report

Attendance of ten for this past week's session: Mike, Doug M, Doug H, Paul, Greg, Ron, Don, Clayton, Tim C (whom I had not seen in a long, long time) and myself. Games played: Power Grid-Factory Manager (game was actually abandoned midway through the first turn), Pitchcar, RoboRally, Homesteaders, Vegas Showdown, Qwirkle Cubes, Mississippi Queen, San Juan, Roll Through the Ages. Some details follow.

First up was Power Grid-Factory Manager which a couple of us were willing to play but, for some reason, the game was abandoned once more people showed up with other games in mind. So, it wound up with one table setting up a Pitchcar game (Don, Ron and Greg were the participants) while the rest of us (Mike, Doug M, Paul and I) played Homesteaders. No results on the Pitchcar, Homesteaders was won by Doug M (56) ahead of Mike (51), John (48) and Paul (40).

Then my scoresheets have Greg, Ron, Doug H, Don and Tim playing RoboRally, will the win going to Greg ahead of Doug and Don. Apparently Ron and Tim dropped out and may have played a Thunder Road game in there (I was finding it difficult to keep track of everything, obviously). Meanwhile, Clayton had joined the four Homesteaders players in a five-player Vegas Showdown. Once again, Doug M was the winner, scoring 65 to best John (57), Mike (54), Paul (45) and Clayton (38).

Clayton took a break and Mike, Paul and I played San Juan -- close game, as reflected by the scores: Mike 35, Paul 34, John 30. Qwirkle Cubes was next up for the other table, final scores Ron 105, Doug H 97, Don 73, Greg 71. Then, the four of them moved to the riverboat racing arena for a game of Mississippi Queeen, and Don was the winner ahead of Ron, Greg and Doug.

Final game of the evening, Roll Through the Ages, won by John 25 ahead of Clayton 24 with Paul at 20.

Apologize for no report on last week's session -- due to attending the PrezCon games convention -- still hope to post attendance and games played here if someone gets the information to me.

February 18, 2010 Session Report

Back after a two-week hiatus after some record snowfall levels in our area had cancelled the prior week's session. Nine in attendance: Mike, Ron, Paul, Greg, Doug H, Doug M, Clayton, Steve (back for a second session) and myself. We played a total of five different games: World Cup Skiing, Homesteaders, World Without End, Roll Through the Ages and Tribune with the new expansion.

First up was a game celebrating the season and also the Winter Olympics, called World Cup Skiing from Lambourne games in UK, we each selected a real-life skiing great and took off on the Whistler downhill course. Unfortunately, everyone seemed more interested in trying out another game so we ended the race after the second time check. Winner was Paul, who selected Kristian Ghedina as his skier. Also in the race were Jean-Claude Killy (yours truly), Franz Klammer (Ron), Bill Johnson (Mike) and Helmut Hoeflehner (Doug H).

We then split into two groups. One group (Mike, Greg, Clayton and Doug M) played Homesteaders and this time Mike made up for a subpar performance in an early game, winning with 54 to 49 for Greg, 42 for Doug, 40 for Clayton. Seems like a fairly competitive game. The other game was World Without End, which I had brought -- as the game was new, it was everyone's first play. Doug H went out to an early lead, fell back, then Paul did the same, finally I pulled out the win (perhaps due to having studied the game for a bit). Scores were John 46, Doug H 39, Ron/Steve (who played as teammates) 37, Paul 34.

Still time for some more games, so at one table it was Roll Through the Ages, which saw two games completed, one won by Paul (against Ron and Steve) and the second, a four-player, won by Steve (against Ron, Paul and Clayton). Mike had brought Tribune with the new expansion, but with some new players and a new rules set we only completed three turns. Doug H and I both had three out of four victory conditions at the end, Mike (who had brought the game) had one victory condition on turn one but none on the second and third turns. Greg and Doug M were the other two participants.

Next week is PrezCon, a gaming convention in Charlottesville, Virginia. Greg and I plan to be there, but the club will be open on Thursday as usual (providing the weather cooperates, of course).

February 11, 2010 Session Report

Nothing to report as the Community Center was closed while everyone was digging out from the snowstorm.

February 4, 2010 Session Report

Another cold wintry evening and we still had ten gamers in attendance, including one first-timer to visit our club. Roll call: Mike, Doug H, Paul, Ron, Don, Clayton, Patrick, Ben, Ding (first timer -- friend of Ben's) and myself. Games played: R-Eco, Giro D'Italia, Lost Cities, Homesteaders, Maori and Racko. Some details follow.

First up was R-Eco, played by the five of us who arrived at or near the 6 PM start time. Final scores were close: John 9 Doug and Mike 7 Paul 5 Ron 3. I won by getting the last chip and ending the game. Mike was the only player who didn't dump, yet he still had an impressive stack of chips by the end of the game. It was Ron's first play.

Ron and I had brought Giro D'Italia, the cycling game (original version was called Leader 1) and we had boned up on the rules. Don, Clayton, and eventually Ben joined up so we went with all 15 cyclists (5 teams of 3 each), something the rules warned against and, as a result, we had a bit of a traffic jam heading to the finish line and much longer race than any of us anticipated. Still, it was fairly exciting and Don had two of his cyclists positioned at the head of the field coming off the final turn. I was right behind, took a risk to try to catch up, and unfortunately had a fall that took my top guy out of contention. Clayton was right behind, but he asked me to make his final set of moves for him and I did, succeeding on the die roll where I had failed with my own guy. While Don was still ahead, his lead guy ran out of energy and finished one space short of the finish line. This gave the win to Clayton, but I think Don would have won easily if none of us had taken a risk. Ben and Ron wound up being the also-rans.

There were other games being played. Homesteaders, probably our most popular game thus far in 2010, was played once again, with Patrick once again coming out on top, final scores were Patrick 57, Doug 50, Paul 46, Mike 44. Doug did quite well to get second in his first game. A question arose about whether or not resources (gold, in this instance) were limited by the counter-mix, and it turns out the answer I gave off the cuff, that they were not, is in fact the official interpretation as posted by the game designer on BoardGameGeek.

Ben and Ding played three hands of Lost Cities, with Ben multi-tasking while playing Giro D'Italia, and Ding came back after falling behind in the initial hand to score an overwhelming victory, 114 to 50, to win in her first game at the games club. Perhaps if Ben had been focusing on either one game or the other instead of trying to play two games at once he would have done a bit better.

For the other two games, no highlights, just the scores as the cycling race was just too intense:

Maori: Doug 49 Patrick 44 Mike 33 Paul 31 Ding 15

Racko: Doug 320 Paul 205 Ding 115

WEATHER REMINDER: Anyone who is unsure whether or not there will be a club session due to inclement weather is advised to call the Community Center office by around 5 PM The number there is (301)-497-0300.

January 28, 2010 Session Report

Cold weather this week may have played a part in keeping attendance down, at least compared to last week. We had a total of eight gamers in attendance: Patrick, Ron, Greg, Paul, Don, Trent (back for a second time), Clayton and myself. Four games were played: Homesteaders, Regatta, At the Gates of Loyang and Thunder Road.

First up was Homesteaders, which turned out to be a three-player among Patrick, Paul and myself. This time we finished the complete game and Patrick was the winner with 66 to 59 for John and 35 for Paul. Second group played Regatta, Ron won the race with the "Ted Turner boat" with Don in second; Greg and Trent also played.

Greg expressed an interest in At the Gates of Loyang which we played four-player but unfortunately did not quite manage to finish. Scores (after about six of nine turns) were John and Greg 12, Paul 11, Clayton 10. I won on the money tiebreak. Greg and Clayton each had one loan subtracted from their scores. Doubt the result would have been the same had we finished, as I was not set up for the final turns very well.

Two games of Thunder Road wrapped up the evening's activity, the results were reported as one win for Ron and one win for Don.