April 16, 2015 Session Report

Count of 15 in attendance for this session: Eugene, Mike, Rouslan, Tim, Rembert, Zak, Ben, David, Greg, Doug, Erin, Neville, Lina, Paul and myself were the attendees -- have Zak and Erin down for three attendances which makes them eligible for GCOM Associate Memberships. Had a bit of trouble keeping up, but the list of games played included Roll for the Galaxy, Firely, Show Manager, Dead of Winter, Castles of Mad King Ludwig and Baseball Highlights 2045.

Scores and details (if available) follow.

Roll for the Galaxy was a five-player, won by Tim, who forced the game-end by building to 12. Final scores were Tim 40, myself 36, Eugene 33, Mike 29, Rouslan 24.

Firefly was won by Doug. Other players were Greg, Neville and Rembert.

Show Manager, scores were Line 49, David 48, Zak 45, Erin 37, Ben 35. Lina must still be unbeaten at this game ...

Dead of Winter, I heard was a co-operative that all the players lost.

Mad Castles of King Ludwig was won by Tim with 95, followed closely by Rouslan (94), Mike (71) and Paul (66).

Eugene and I played Baseball Highlights, which did not quite finish but Eugene was ahead, 3-2, in the best-of-seven final series when time ran out.

Seems to me I may have missed a game or two, I believe the group that played Firefly got in a second game but I have no record of it. So, that's the report as of now.

Reminder that Games Club of Maryland will be running a booth at the Laurel Main Street Festival, second Saturday in May, from around 10 AM to 4 PM. Open-air gaming in a festival-like atmosphere, what could be more fun?

April 9, 2015 Session Report

Thirteen for this week's session: Mike, John W, David, Greg, Ben, Zak, Matt, Lina, Bill (long-time gamer who was making his first appearance here), Alex (whome we haven't seen for awhile), Eugene, Rembert and myself were the attendees. The following games were played: Best Treehouse Ever, California Gold, Brew Crafters, Machi Koro, Firefly and San Juan.

Best Treehouse Ever was a four-player, won by Mike (43) with Greg a close second (42), followed by Zak (34) and John W (31). These same four kept playing more games: Machi Koro, won by Zak, and then Firefly, won by Greg. I also have Mike, Greg and John W down as playing a three-player San Juan, no results (perhaps the game did not finish).

Brew Crafters was a four-player, including Ben, Bill, Eugene and myself. All but Bill had played before. We didn't quite finish, barely getting into the third year before time ran out. Scores when we picked up the game were John 62, Eugene 56. Ben 43, Bill 29.

California Gold made its third appearance in as many weeks, this time with the Northern Counties expansion. The result was a four-way tie and the winner was Matt (with 44 money) followed by David (22), Lina (11) and Alex (0), all with 12. Rembert was the only one not to make it to 12, ending with 9. I believe Alex and Matt were new to the game, so a good first-time win for Matt.

April 2, 2015 Session Report

Pleased to report record attendance (at least for Thursday night sessions) at the Laurel club, with a total of 18 in attendance. The list includes David, Mike, Greg, Tim, Patrick, Eugene, Ben, Neville, Erin (back for a second session), Lina, Doug, Paul, Rembert. Moshe and myself, plus three first-time attendees: Daniel, Jedson and Scott. I spent some time scrolling through the archives and could find a couple of Thursday sessions in the 15-16 range, and then I recall one time we had a special Saturday session that attracted 20. Anyway, with all these people and four games going on at once, it was hard to keep up, but here's a list of what was played: Machi Koro, California Gold (played twice), Founding Fathers, Friday the 13th, Sys Hack, Dungeon Roll, Power Grid Deluxe (North America map) and Baseball Highlights 2045. Some details follow.

Machi Koro was a three-player, won by Mike (7) to Tim (6) in second with Eugene (4) third. I believe this was selected because Eugene had to leave early and requested a "short" game.

California Gold was back for a second week in a row and was well received once again, as far as I could tell. It was played twice by the same group of five players. Game one, won by Erin with Ben second, Patrick third, Doug and David tied for fourth. Game two, won by David, with Ben second, Erin ahead of Patrick for third, Doug last.

Founding Fathers was another five-player, won by Greg (20) with Neville close behind at 19, then Scott (best of the new players) next at 18. Then, Lina was 12 but ahead of me (at 9). I got 6 VPs from Ben Franklin to lead after the first round, but petered out after failing to gain any debate tokens the whole game.

Next game I have a report for is Power Grid-Deluxe, played with the North America map. It was a five-player, with a three-way tie at the end (16 cities apiece) won by Mike (102 money) over Tim (30) and Paul (10). Rembert (14 cities powered) and Jedson (13) were the other players.

David and Moshe arrived a bit later but got in a couple of games. One was Friday the 13th (no report on who won), and then I believe Paul's game (Sys Hack) also made an appearance.

Finally, with around a half hour left in the session, I introduced Lina, Scott and Neville two Baseball Highlights 2045. We only got in a couple of games, played simultaneously. Scott managed a 2-1 win over Neville's team, while Lina managed a 4-1 win over me.

March 26, 2015 Session Report

Total attendance of nine for this week's session: David, Mike, Lina, Ben A, Rich, Will, Rembert, Paul (back for his second session) and myself were the attendees. Games played: Furstenfeld, California Gold. Machi Koro and Sys Hack (a prototype game designed by Paul).

Furstenfeld, which Mike had brought, resulted in a runaway win for Ben. Will, Rich and Mike were the other participants.

California Gold, which David had brought, was an interesting new economic game about developing orange groves in California. It was a five-player, won by Rembert. Scores: Rembert 12, Lina 11, David 10, John 10, Paul 9. Victory condition was first to 12 wins, although there need to be an equal number of player-turns so you could have a tiebreaker (can't remember what that is). Enjoyed the game and am planning on picking up a copy -- looks like there's already an expansion that covers Northern California (the original game only goes as far north as Fresno).

There was a three-player game of Machi Koro, which Will won. Mike and Rich were the other players.

Finally, with a half hour or so left in the session, we got a chance to play Paul's prototype, Sys Hack, which is kind of a combination of Coup and Werewolf where players are either hackers attempting to hack into a computer system or professionals seeking to stop them. For this, we had eight of the nine attendees participating (everyone but Ben who had lost). We got in two games (one of which ended really quickly), and both times the hackers were caught.

March 19, 2015 Session Report

With a total of 13 gamers in attendance, it was literally a three-ring circus as we had to add a third table and a few more chairs to accommodate everyone. Two-first time attendees were Erin and Paul, plus Zack (who I believe had been here awhile ago, need to check the records) plus Audrey (back for a second session), along with club regulars Lina, Patrick, Mike, Doug, Greg, Tim, Neville, Eugene and myself made up the group. Hard to keep us with all the games played, but here's the list I was able to come up with: Splendor, Heroes Wanted, Essen: The Game, Ticket to Ride, Sushi Go, For Sale, Yardmaster, Ninja Dice and Timeline; Discoveries. Some details follow.

First game up was Splendor, played while waiting for more people to show. Scores were Mike 16, Lina and Zack 13, Patrick 7. This same group then played Heroes Wanted, along with Tim. That game took up most of the session, and scores were reported as follows: Patrick 34 Tim 32 Mike 30 Lina 28 Zack 25

Next game started up was Essen: 2013, the game about shopping for games at the big game convention in Essen, Germany. Once again, Greg emerged victorious (as he has done on a couple of prior occasions). Final scores: Greg 94 Neville 78 John 73 Doug 64; first play of the game for both Neville and Doug. This group then played a couple of more games: Yardmaster, which was won by Neville (scores were Neville 16 Doug and John 10 Greg 9) and, after Greg took his leave, Timeline: Discoveries which ended in a three-way tie after I came back from missing a couple of questions early on.

The third group formed with the two new players, along with Audrey and Eugene. They got in a bunch of shorter games. Sushi Go, won by Eugene with 52 to 49 for Erin, followed by Paul (39) and Audrey (26). Ticket to Ride was won by Eugene as well, followed by Audrey, Paul and Erin (no scores available). For Sale was a win for Erin (61) ahead of Paul (55), Eugene (53) and Audrey (51), and then Ninja Dice just made it to the end, with the order of finish being Erin, Eugene, Paul and Audrey.

Hope I got all the games down, as it was a busy night!

March 12, 2015 Session Report

Attendance was down, partially because of the overlap with the first day of Game Days. We had seven, including one first-time attendee (Audrey), John W, Mike, Ben, Lina, Rouslan and myself. We played a total of four games: Pairs, Newshound, Concordia (with the Germania map) and Show Manager.

Pairs was a card game that Mike brought where you didn't want to be the first one elminated. I believe I was first out, or maybe last out, can't remember and my notes don't help me. Anyway, it was the quick starting filler that we played until more people showed up.

We split into two groups. Four (Mike, Ben, John W and Rouslan) played Concordia, using one of the new maps (Germania), and that game took just about all of the session time. Final scores were Mike 130, Rouslan 124, Ben 107, John W 83.

The rest of us (Audrey, Lina and myself) managed to squeeze in two games in the same time frame. First up was Newshound, which Audrey had brought, and it's primarily a trivia game about historical and current events. Audrey managed to win, with Lina and I kind of tied for second. We then played Show Manager, persevering despite the fact that the dry erase markers didn't seem to work, plus the fact we each had to put on two of each show (which actually makes the 3-player game a bit longer). I have Lina coming away with winner: Lina 86, John 67, Audrey 64.

February 26, 2015 Session Report

Here's the report for Feb. 26, supplied by co-Host Mike Brazinski:

"We had another good turnout. I thought Prezcon might keep the numbers down but I was wrong. Eleven people showed up and we ran two tables over the evening. In attendance were: me, Patrick, the other John W., Ben, Greg, Eric, Rouslon, Timmy, Dave, Lena and Alex. The far table broke out Jet Set and played a close game (at least for the leaders). Eric was victorious in the end with 30 points with Tim on his heals at 28. Rouslon finished with 22 points, Lena 21, Alex 19 and Greg finished with 18. The other table played Concordia with the Mediterranean map. Ben pulled ahead of me at the end with 110 points. Patrick and I were close on his heals though. I had 102 points and Patrick had 97. Dave was close with 94 and John had 85.

At this point, it was about 8pm and we lost several people. Greg, Tim and Eric played a game of speed Vegas Showdown, with Eric with a strong 75 points. Greg was second with 64 and Tim had 54. At the other table, Dave, John, Patrick and I played a few hands of the new Cheapass game Pairs. This game differs from most as there is one loser and the rest win. We played three hands, with Dave, John & Patrick each losing once. It's a silly little game but it was fun.
That's about it. Hope to see everyone whose not doing Games Day this Thursday night!"

Thanks, Mike, for the feedback.