With the Holidays (Christmas and New Years) coming up, this would be our final session of 2014. Total attendance of nine, consisting of Mike, Patrick, Greg, Ben A, Lina, Tim, Rembert, Will (back for his third session) and myself, having recovered from some necessary surgery the prior week. We played the following games: Camel Cup, Russian Railroads, and Uruk II. Some details follow.
Camel Cup (which Patrick brought) was kind of a fun, quick-playing lighter game built around the theme of betting on camel races. No tiebreaker in the rules on this one, so it was a shared victory for John and Rembert (19), followed by Lina (17), Greg (16), Patrick (12), Ben (9), Tim (8) and Mike (5). By this time Will had arrived, so we split up into two games for the rest of the session. Russian Railroads was a three-player, won by Mike (264) just ahead of Tim (262) with Ben not that far behind in third (227). Uruk II is a card-based civilization game that I had brought that did not quite make it to the finish. Once we got close to 9 PM, we scored after everyone had an equal number of turns, and the winner on this basis was Patrick (15), with the rest of us not far behind: Rembert and Will (at 14), then John and Lina (at 13). Our next club session will not be until next year: Thursday, January 8th, 2015. For those of you looking for some gaming at other locations, particularly on the weekends, these coming events (all with no admission charge) are highly recommended: Brunswick Games Day, all day, Saturday January 3, 2015 (check link on GCOM website for more info) GCOM Winter Game Fest, two days, Saturday and Sunday, January 17, 2015 (also a link on GCOM website with more info) Unpub 5, Saturday and Sunday, February 8-9, 2015 (click link at unpub.net for more info) Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to everyone!
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Thursday, December 18, 2014
December 11, 2014 Session Report
I didn't make it to this session but plan to be back next week for what will be our last club session of 2014 (Christmas and New Years to follow, meaning the CC will be closed the following two Thursdays). Quick report from co-Host Mike: Attendance of 9. Games Played: Sushi Go, Concordia and Castles of Burgundy. More details to follow later (hopefully). And here are some more details from Mike on this session. Attendees: Mike, Lina, John Wittkamper, Ben A, Greg, Rouslan, Dave (back for his third session), Rembert and Will (back for his second session). Sushi-Go: One round completed with four players (Mike, Lina, John and Ben) and then the game was abandoned after more folks showed. Then, Concordia was played to the finish. Scores: Mike 113, Ben 101, Lina 87, Rembert 54. Castles of Burgundy was a four-player with John W, Greg, Rouslan and Dave; the game did not finish and unfortunately, Will did not get in a game (something that would be corrected the following week).
Monday, December 8, 2014
December 4, 2014 Session Report
Back after the Thanksgiving break, and this was another good week for first-time club attendees, as we had three newcomers (Moon, Jake and Will) plus Dave (back for a second time) along with club regulars Mike, Doug, Patrick, Tim, Eugene, Rembert and myself. We played a total of four different games: Colt Express, Power Grid Deluxe (North America map), Bruges and Concordia, and the last two games did not quite make it to the finish line before the 9 PM close time.
Colt Express is a new release that Patrick brought where players take on the role of train robbers trying to gather more loot while avoiding getting shot and other disasters over the course of the five rounds of play. Somehow, I managed to win, having score a big bonus for being the only player to earn the "Gunslinger" award after having unloaded all six bullets before the end. Final scores: John 2250, Patrick 1750, Moon 1650, Jake 1550, Tim 1000, Doug 550.
The other game was Power Grid Deluxe, the new version of Power Grid, using the North America map, which adds the special rule that the lowest number plant has an automatic minimum bid of 1. This causes the plants to cycle through a bit more than normal. This game came down to the money tiebreaker between Eugene and Mike, with Eugene coming out on top. Final scores: Eugene 17 (44 cash), Mike 17 (15 cash), Dave 16, Rembert 15.
The other two games were Bruges and Concordia, neither of which made it to the end-game condition. We scored at the end of a particular round as if each game had finished. In Bruges, the score count was Jake 37, John 31, Doug 26, Patrick 23. Concordia, it was Moon 41, Will 36, Tim 29. Good job by Jake and Moon, who were new to both games.
Thursday, December 4, 2014
November 20, 2013 Session Report
Circumstances have caused me to miss the last few sessions. No report for Nov. 13 (likewise for Nov. 27 -- CC was closed due to Thanksgiving). But my co-Host Mike has provided this report from Nov. 20:
On the 20th, we had pretty good attendance. At the club that night was me, Patrick, Lina, Claire, Matt, Evan, Neville, Eugene and, for the first time, David.
The night started with Patrick, Lina, Matt and I playing Machi Koro. The game was competitive but Matt pulled out the win with never rolling more than 1 die. Neville, Evan, Claire and Eugene played a few hands of Love Letter but they wrapped up early to start the later games.
We shuffled the groups and broke into 2 games. Eugene, Evan, Dave and I played Russian Railroads. This was Dave's first play but the rest of us played before. Eugene miscalculated (how often do you get to say that) the first player marker allowing me to get the engineer bonus but still pulled out the win in the end with 356 points. Evan came in second with 346 maxing out the second railroad line and I came in 3rd with 332. Dave brought up the rear with 234 points.
The other table played Settlers of Catan. Matt won his 2nd game of the night by stealing longest road and scoring 10 points. Lina was close with 8 pts with Patrick a distant 3rd at 4 pts and Neville only eked out 3 points.
Everyone started heading home but we got one more game of Sushi Go! in. Evan easily won with 47 points with Eugene, David and I scoring 32, 31 & 30 points respectively.
Monday, November 10, 2014
November 6, 2014 Session Report
Group of 11 for this week: Mike, Patrick, Greg, Rouslan, Neville, Tim, Evan, Eugene, Rembert, Helen and myself were the attendees. Games played: Diamonds, Power Grid Deluxe: North American, Russian Railroads, Machi Koro, Yellow Jersey and Pandemic: Contagion.
Diamonds was the quick starter game, and we only got one hand in. Patrick had the better card draws, so he was leading with 5, ahead of Rouslan (3), John (2) and Neville (0).
Power Grid (the new Deluxe version) was played once again, this time with the North America side of the board. Mike and Evan built to 18 cities, with Mike winning with more money left (50 to 2 for Evan), while Greg and Tim got to 17 cities, with Greg (72 left) having more money than Tim (23).
Russian Railroads was a three-player, which somehow I managed to win against two good players who have cleaned my clock in prior games. Scores were John 326, Eugene 310, Rouslan 269. Kind of a low-scoring game.
Machi Koro was won by Patrick, with Neville edging Helen for second on the tiebreak, Rembert in fourth. This same group played Pandemic: Contagion, where -- unlike the original game -- the players are actually trying to spread disease instead of working together to stop it. Neville (44) was the winner, ahead of Helen (40), Rouslan (36), Rembert (26).
Finally, Patrick and I tackled Yellow Jersey, and hand-made wooden game I just imported from the UK. I managed to win the individual title, while Patrick won the team competition.
Reminder that, with EuroQuest coming up next week, many of us (including co-Host Mike and myself) will not be in attendance. The club meeting space will be open, and if you need to get any of the club games out of storage, just ask the folks at the front desk. I would appreciate it if someone could shoot me an attendance and games played list at jcw222@comcast.net.
Diamonds was the quick starter game, and we only got one hand in. Patrick had the better card draws, so he was leading with 5, ahead of Rouslan (3), John (2) and Neville (0).
Power Grid (the new Deluxe version) was played once again, this time with the North America side of the board. Mike and Evan built to 18 cities, with Mike winning with more money left (50 to 2 for Evan), while Greg and Tim got to 17 cities, with Greg (72 left) having more money than Tim (23).
Russian Railroads was a three-player, which somehow I managed to win against two good players who have cleaned my clock in prior games. Scores were John 326, Eugene 310, Rouslan 269. Kind of a low-scoring game.
Machi Koro was won by Patrick, with Neville edging Helen for second on the tiebreak, Rembert in fourth. This same group played Pandemic: Contagion, where -- unlike the original game -- the players are actually trying to spread disease instead of working together to stop it. Neville (44) was the winner, ahead of Helen (40), Rouslan (36), Rembert (26).
Finally, Patrick and I tackled Yellow Jersey, and hand-made wooden game I just imported from the UK. I managed to win the individual title, while Patrick won the team competition.
Reminder that, with EuroQuest coming up next week, many of us (including co-Host Mike and myself) will not be in attendance. The club meeting space will be open, and if you need to get any of the club games out of storage, just ask the folks at the front desk. I would appreciate it if someone could shoot me an attendance and games played list at jcw222@comcast.net.
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
October 30, 2014 Session Report
'Twas the night before Halloween, and another big turnout at the Laurel CC for gaming -- in fact, one of our largest turnouts of the year, a total of 15 with three games in play for just about the entire time. Three newcomers (Buffy, Doug, Akshay) joined regular attendees Jeff, Rich, Mike, Andrew, Eric, Greg (whom we hadn't seen for awhile), Evan, Neville, Patrick, Lina, Rembert and myself to play the following games: Power Grid Deluxe: Europe, Splendor (played twice), Machi Koro, Dixit, Evolution and the Game of 49. Some details follow.
First game up was Splendor, a four-player, won by Jeff (15), ahead of Rich and Mike at 10, Andrew at 9. Jeff got three of the five nobles to seal the win. This same group played Machi Koro, no scores available, but once again, Jeff was the winner.
Welcomed Greg back to the club with the new Power Grid Deluxe map. Mike had brought it the prior week to play the North America side, so this week we tried the Europe side. Eric, Neville and myself were the other players in what proved to be a very close game right to the end. Greg had not lost his toouch at the game, winning with 17 cities while the rest of us could only build 16. A key moment was the endgame power plant bidding, where Greg bid both Neville and I to over 70 while he got his cities powered for alot less. Money tiebreaker for second was John ahead of Eric ahead of Neville, all one city short.
The third table played a six-player Evolution, a recent North Star games release of a game that originally came from Russia but was re-designed with some larger graphics, nicer components and I assume (since I have not played the original) smoother rules. Winner was Evan, but a wide margin. Scores: Evan 58, Doug 28, Rembert and Patrick 26, Lena 20, Buffy 11.
By this time Akshay arrived and he got into a couple of games: Dixit, won by Andrew (30) ahead of Mike and Akshay (25), Rich (24) and Jeff (17), and a second game of Splendor, with Mike (19) winning ahead of Jeff and Rich (12) and Akshay at 9.
Finally, three of us in the Power Grid game wrapped up with a quick game of 49. It barely finished before 9, and I managed to win, getting 4 in a row while Eric and Greg, each with 7 chips on the board, had done well enough to reach the maximum payout level.
One more session next week before EuroQuest the following week. Expect to see a couple of more new games on hand for next week's session.
First game up was Splendor, a four-player, won by Jeff (15), ahead of Rich and Mike at 10, Andrew at 9. Jeff got three of the five nobles to seal the win. This same group played Machi Koro, no scores available, but once again, Jeff was the winner.
Welcomed Greg back to the club with the new Power Grid Deluxe map. Mike had brought it the prior week to play the North America side, so this week we tried the Europe side. Eric, Neville and myself were the other players in what proved to be a very close game right to the end. Greg had not lost his toouch at the game, winning with 17 cities while the rest of us could only build 16. A key moment was the endgame power plant bidding, where Greg bid both Neville and I to over 70 while he got his cities powered for alot less. Money tiebreaker for second was John ahead of Eric ahead of Neville, all one city short.
The third table played a six-player Evolution, a recent North Star games release of a game that originally came from Russia but was re-designed with some larger graphics, nicer components and I assume (since I have not played the original) smoother rules. Winner was Evan, but a wide margin. Scores: Evan 58, Doug 28, Rembert and Patrick 26, Lena 20, Buffy 11.
By this time Akshay arrived and he got into a couple of games: Dixit, won by Andrew (30) ahead of Mike and Akshay (25), Rich (24) and Jeff (17), and a second game of Splendor, with Mike (19) winning ahead of Jeff and Rich (12) and Akshay at 9.
Finally, three of us in the Power Grid game wrapped up with a quick game of 49. It barely finished before 9, and I managed to win, getting 4 in a row while Eric and Greg, each with 7 chips on the board, had done well enough to reach the maximum payout level.
One more session next week before EuroQuest the following week. Expect to see a couple of more new games on hand for next week's session.
Friday, October 31, 2014
October 23, 2014 Session Report
Sorry for the delay in posting, I had mispaced my notes but just located them last night ...
13 in attendance for this week's session: Eugene, John W, Mike, Alex, Doug, Neville, Alec, Ben H, Lina, Rembert, Jeff, Rouslan and myself were the attendees. Games played: Vegas Showdown, Power Grid - North American (the new Deluxe edition), Heroes Wanted, Bruges and Top Promoter. Some results and details follow.
Eugene was looking for a reasonably short game so Vegas Showdown was first up. I was set up with a Fancy Lounge and just enough to get the Theater when Eugene (who had more money and no Fancy Lounge) bought it from me but had to keep it off to the side, where it stayed for the rest of the game. Turned out both of us were losers in the end, tied for last (actually Eugene had more money) while Alex, who won, played a fine game (he might have beat me even if I had got the Theater). Scores were Alex 50, Doug 44. Ben 42, Eugene and John 36.
Power Grid-Deluxe has just come out, and Mike introduced the new version to Jeff, Lina and the other John W. Mike managed to win while building to 17 when everyone else was holding back, waiting for another turn. Scores were Mike 13, Jeff and Lina 12 (Jeff was second with more money), John W 10.
Alec, Neville, Rembert and Rouslan played Heroes Wanted, which Neville had brought. Rouslan ran away with the game, 34 points to 25 for Alec, 23 for Rembert, 16 for Neville. Didn't get a good story how Neville, the teacher, came in last, maybe he was unlucky or he's just a good teacher.
Doug, Alex and I played Bruges. Doug taught the game, which I hadn't played for awhile, while the game was totally new to Alex. I got a really good card, the Jailer, which removed six threat tokens at a key moment, and managed to win, 53 to 41 for Doug and 39 for Alex.
Finally, Neville had brought a new boxing management game, Top Promoter, that he recently acquired via Kickstarter. It was lots of fun and, although we didn't finish, I was ahead after two rounds of fights, 13 to 9 for Rouslan, 7 for Neville, 6 for Doug. I liked the game so much I ordered it a few days later.
13 in attendance for this week's session: Eugene, John W, Mike, Alex, Doug, Neville, Alec, Ben H, Lina, Rembert, Jeff, Rouslan and myself were the attendees. Games played: Vegas Showdown, Power Grid - North American (the new Deluxe edition), Heroes Wanted, Bruges and Top Promoter. Some results and details follow.
Eugene was looking for a reasonably short game so Vegas Showdown was first up. I was set up with a Fancy Lounge and just enough to get the Theater when Eugene (who had more money and no Fancy Lounge) bought it from me but had to keep it off to the side, where it stayed for the rest of the game. Turned out both of us were losers in the end, tied for last (actually Eugene had more money) while Alex, who won, played a fine game (he might have beat me even if I had got the Theater). Scores were Alex 50, Doug 44. Ben 42, Eugene and John 36.
Power Grid-Deluxe has just come out, and Mike introduced the new version to Jeff, Lina and the other John W. Mike managed to win while building to 17 when everyone else was holding back, waiting for another turn. Scores were Mike 13, Jeff and Lina 12 (Jeff was second with more money), John W 10.
Alec, Neville, Rembert and Rouslan played Heroes Wanted, which Neville had brought. Rouslan ran away with the game, 34 points to 25 for Alec, 23 for Rembert, 16 for Neville. Didn't get a good story how Neville, the teacher, came in last, maybe he was unlucky or he's just a good teacher.
Doug, Alex and I played Bruges. Doug taught the game, which I hadn't played for awhile, while the game was totally new to Alex. I got a really good card, the Jailer, which removed six threat tokens at a key moment, and managed to win, 53 to 41 for Doug and 39 for Alex.
Finally, Neville had brought a new boxing management game, Top Promoter, that he recently acquired via Kickstarter. It was lots of fun and, although we didn't finish, I was ahead after two rounds of fights, 13 to 9 for Rouslan, 7 for Neville, 6 for Doug. I liked the game so much I ordered it a few days later.
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