Attendance of seven for our final session of the year, with Mike, Patrick, Paul, Greg, Clayton, Ron and myself in attendance. We played a total of five different games: Power Grid - Factory Manager, Can't Stop (played twice), Lost Cities, Chicago Express, Winners Circle (also played twice).
First up was a game we started but didn't finish the prior week: Power Grid-Factory Manager. This time there were five of us, including all four from last week's game (Greg, Mike, Patrick and myself) along with Paul. I had a nice lead heading into the final turn and hung on to win, despite having a couple of players pass me on the income track. Final scores (with final turn income in parenthesis): John (216) 320, Paul (196) 314, Greg (272) 290, Patrick (232) 288, Mike (228) 229. Interesting game, as the player with the most income on the final turn only came in third.
Meanwhile Clayton and Ron had arrived and occupied themselves in some two-player games while waiting for Factory Manager to finish (and thus far the game has taken a bit longer than the 60 minutes advertised on the box). Clayton reportedly won two games of Can't Stop, then Ron got some measure of revenge winning his first ever game of Lost Cities (with some coaching from yours truly) by an overall score of 132 to 60 after three hands. Then some horse racing, with Ron narrowly edging Clayton, 2400 to 2300, in the first of two games of Winners Circle.
Then we re-split the groups, and I joined Ron and Clayton for three more races of Winners Circle, which again came down to Ron and Clayton, with Ron taking first with 2150 to 1650 for Clayton while I was far back at just 900. Last race both Ron and I put our 0s on the same horse, so of course the nag came in last.
Mike, Greg, Paul and Patrick played Chicago Express, and the game was fairly close, Mike (73) making up for his poor performance in Factory Manager with Paul once again a close second (69) followed by Greg (55) and Patrick (49).
Wish everyone Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year. We will re-convene (weather permitting, of course) on Thursday, January 7, for the first session of 2010.
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Saturday, December 12, 2009
December 10, 2009 Session Report
We had a group of eight for this week's session. Patrick was back for the second week in a row, joined by another new attendee (Trent), along with club regulars Doug, Paul, Clayton, Mike, Greg and myself. We played five different games during the course of the evening, including three games that were played for the first time at the club: Power Grid (Brazil map), Power Grid (Factory Manager) and Sodbusters. Ticket to Ride-Switzerland and Ingenious rounded out the games played list.
First up we had two four-player games, Sodbusters (which Patrick had brought) and Power Grid-Brazil (which I had brought but where Greg took over the role of the "teacher" as I had committed to joining the Sodbusters group). Patrick taught Sodbusters to three would-be farmers: Paul, Doug and myself. Sodbusters is a relatively straightforward game put out last year by a Canadian company, where you start with a parcel of land and a mortgage that you need to try to pay off at some point. The game had quite a bit of luck in it, as Paul got wiped out by a tornado but got back into the game a few turns later with some successful "Prospecting." Then the rest of us got hit by some Indians, which reduced our income considerably. A couple of well-timed oil strikes and Paul was back in contention. We decided to pick up the game around the halfway point when the other game was finishing, and the count at that point had Doug winning with 1230 to 1180 for Paul, then 400-500 each for Patrick and myself. Not sure what would have happened had the game continued, as Patrick had invested alot in land and other infrastructure, but Paul had guaranteed income from a couple of oil wells. Interesting game that left me wanting to try it again, perhaps even buy it, even though there was alot of luck and randomness.
The other game, featuring Greg, Mike, Clayton and Trent, was Power Grid with one of the new maps, Brazil, whose special rule involved production of Biogas (which is the same as the yellow garbage plants in the base game). However, as I noted, the players used the new Power Plant deck although the rules specified the original deck. (I checked on BoardGameGeek where it says they are still working on rules for the newer deck.) Anyway, the game turned out to be a fairly close one, the win going to Greg with an asterisk as apparently the adaption of the game to the new deck led to a couple of anomalies. Anyway, there was alot of talk back and forth between the Power Grid game (talking about "Biogas") and the Sodbusters group (talking about getting into sheep) which was quite entertaining.
We re-split the groups and wound up with one table of three and one of four for the last hour fifteen minutes left in the session. One group (Paul, Doug and Clayton) played some familiar games, first Ticket to Ride-Switzerland and then Ingenious, both of these games were won by Paul. (Scores in the Ingenious game -- 6, 4, and 3 -- seemed really low.) The rest of us (Patrick, Greg, Mike and I) tackled the new Factory Manager which is like Power Grid in some respects, but supposedly alot shorter. Nonetheless, with some new rules and new mechanics we didn't manage to finish the game but I think everyone was willing to give it another try. Scores after three of the five turns had John ahead with 89, Mike at 80, Greg at 61, Patrick 43, but that is probably not very reflective of what the final scores might have been as turn order and double income in the final turn would play a big part. Hope to try the game again real soon.
Again, a reminder, one more session next week before a couple of weeks off for the XMas and New Year's Eve holidays when the CC will be closed.
First up we had two four-player games, Sodbusters (which Patrick had brought) and Power Grid-Brazil (which I had brought but where Greg took over the role of the "teacher" as I had committed to joining the Sodbusters group). Patrick taught Sodbusters to three would-be farmers: Paul, Doug and myself. Sodbusters is a relatively straightforward game put out last year by a Canadian company, where you start with a parcel of land and a mortgage that you need to try to pay off at some point. The game had quite a bit of luck in it, as Paul got wiped out by a tornado but got back into the game a few turns later with some successful "Prospecting." Then the rest of us got hit by some Indians, which reduced our income considerably. A couple of well-timed oil strikes and Paul was back in contention. We decided to pick up the game around the halfway point when the other game was finishing, and the count at that point had Doug winning with 1230 to 1180 for Paul, then 400-500 each for Patrick and myself. Not sure what would have happened had the game continued, as Patrick had invested alot in land and other infrastructure, but Paul had guaranteed income from a couple of oil wells. Interesting game that left me wanting to try it again, perhaps even buy it, even though there was alot of luck and randomness.
The other game, featuring Greg, Mike, Clayton and Trent, was Power Grid with one of the new maps, Brazil, whose special rule involved production of Biogas (which is the same as the yellow garbage plants in the base game). However, as I noted, the players used the new Power Plant deck although the rules specified the original deck. (I checked on BoardGameGeek where it says they are still working on rules for the newer deck.) Anyway, the game turned out to be a fairly close one, the win going to Greg with an asterisk as apparently the adaption of the game to the new deck led to a couple of anomalies. Anyway, there was alot of talk back and forth between the Power Grid game (talking about "Biogas") and the Sodbusters group (talking about getting into sheep) which was quite entertaining.
We re-split the groups and wound up with one table of three and one of four for the last hour fifteen minutes left in the session. One group (Paul, Doug and Clayton) played some familiar games, first Ticket to Ride-Switzerland and then Ingenious, both of these games were won by Paul. (Scores in the Ingenious game -- 6, 4, and 3 -- seemed really low.) The rest of us (Patrick, Greg, Mike and I) tackled the new Factory Manager which is like Power Grid in some respects, but supposedly alot shorter. Nonetheless, with some new rules and new mechanics we didn't manage to finish the game but I think everyone was willing to give it another try. Scores after three of the five turns had John ahead with 89, Mike at 80, Greg at 61, Patrick 43, but that is probably not very reflective of what the final scores might have been as turn order and double income in the final turn would play a big part. Hope to try the game again real soon.
Again, a reminder, one more session next week before a couple of weeks off for the XMas and New Year's Eve holidays when the CC will be closed.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
December 3, 2009 Session Report
Attendance of eight for this week's session, with Mike, Paul, Doug, Ibrahim, Ron, Clayton and myself joined for the first time by Patrick. We played five different games during the course of the evening: Hollywood Blockbuster, Chicago Express, Can't Stop, Citadels and Cloud Nine. Some details follow.
The Hollywood Blockbuster game was a four-player with Clayton, Doug, Paul and John as the players, and the game was a very competitive one where all four of us had a chance to win. Final scores were Paul 80, Doug 77, John 75, Clayton 68. Paul won by having the most director points (13) despite the fact that he had no four-star directors and Clayton had three of them. Had Clayton won the Oscar for best directing, he would have won with 78 with Paul coming fourth instead of first. That's how close the game was.
The Chicago Express game was a win for Ron, scores reported as 68 for Ron to Mike (53), Patrick (48) and Ibrahim (40). Meanwhile, at the other table the four of us got in a game of Can't Stop with Doug emerging victorious ahead of Paul, John and Clayton.
At this point Ibrahim left and we played a seven-player game of Citadels that took most of the rest of the evening. Final scores were John 33, Patrick 26, Paul 20, Clayton 17, Doug and Mike 16, Ron (whose character got assassinated alot) wound up in the rear at 13. Final game of the evening was Cloud Nine, and Ron got his revenge, winning that one with a tally of 58 to 37 (John), Clayton and Paul tied at 31, Doug at 24 and Mike at 20 -- all of us who were behind had to gamble on a final balloon trip that didn't pan out.
Reminder that there will be just two more sessions for the rest of the year, as the Community Center will be closed on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) and New Years Eve (Dec. 31).
The Hollywood Blockbuster game was a four-player with Clayton, Doug, Paul and John as the players, and the game was a very competitive one where all four of us had a chance to win. Final scores were Paul 80, Doug 77, John 75, Clayton 68. Paul won by having the most director points (13) despite the fact that he had no four-star directors and Clayton had three of them. Had Clayton won the Oscar for best directing, he would have won with 78 with Paul coming fourth instead of first. That's how close the game was.
The Chicago Express game was a win for Ron, scores reported as 68 for Ron to Mike (53), Patrick (48) and Ibrahim (40). Meanwhile, at the other table the four of us got in a game of Can't Stop with Doug emerging victorious ahead of Paul, John and Clayton.
At this point Ibrahim left and we played a seven-player game of Citadels that took most of the rest of the evening. Final scores were John 33, Patrick 26, Paul 20, Clayton 17, Doug and Mike 16, Ron (whose character got assassinated alot) wound up in the rear at 13. Final game of the evening was Cloud Nine, and Ron got his revenge, winning that one with a tally of 58 to 37 (John), Clayton and Paul tied at 31, Doug at 24 and Mike at 20 -- all of us who were behind had to gamble on a final balloon trip that didn't pan out.
Reminder that there will be just two more sessions for the rest of the year, as the Community Center will be closed on Christmas Eve (Dec. 24) and New Years Eve (Dec. 31).
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
November 19, 2009 Session Report
Attendance was back to more normal levels this week, as we had a total of eight gamers present: Paul, Eugene, Greg, Ron, Mike, Ibrahim (who was back for his third session and whom I had called Abraham in some previous reports -- my apologies), Rodney and myself. We played a total of five games: TransAmerica, Cheeky Monkey, Automobile, Stone Age and Wits and Wagers.
First up was TransAmerica, we got in maybe one or two rounds before more people showed up. Final scores were Paul 0 (winner), John 1, Ron 2, Ibrahim 4, Greg 5, Eugene 10 (!). Eugene had to leave early but we congratulated him for his strong performance at EuroQuest where he finished sixth in the Wild Card tournament there. The six of us who were left (which included Mike at this point) played Cheeky Monkey, which was a three-way battle won by Ron (37) to Greg (24) and Ibrahim (23). The rest of us didn't get any bonus points for most animals, and Mike in fact, had zero animals in his stack at the end of the game. Paul with 2 and yours truly with 5 were also in sad shape.
Rodney arrived, so we were at seven and split into two groups. Greg wanted to learn Automobile, so Mike, Ron and I joined him for a four-player game. Final scores: John 4790, Ron 3860, Mike 3550, Greg 3520. The Stone Age game was won by Rodney, who should know the game fairly well as he GMs it at WBC. Final score count: Rodney 233, Paul 167, Ibrahim 107.
Ibrahim and Ron decided to call it a night at this point, so we wrapped up the session with a five-player Wits and Wagers, which I somehow managed to win (43) to Greg (11) and Mike (3), while Paul and Rodney gambled away whatever chips they won on some wrong answers. I remember there being one sports question in there, something that is usually to my advantage.
A reminder, no session next week due to Thanksgiving. Will need to check, but I suspect the Community Center will also be closed on Christmas and New Years eve (December 24 and 31st), need to check for sure, so it looks like three more sessions for the rest of 2009.
First up was TransAmerica, we got in maybe one or two rounds before more people showed up. Final scores were Paul 0 (winner), John 1, Ron 2, Ibrahim 4, Greg 5, Eugene 10 (!). Eugene had to leave early but we congratulated him for his strong performance at EuroQuest where he finished sixth in the Wild Card tournament there. The six of us who were left (which included Mike at this point) played Cheeky Monkey, which was a three-way battle won by Ron (37) to Greg (24) and Ibrahim (23). The rest of us didn't get any bonus points for most animals, and Mike in fact, had zero animals in his stack at the end of the game. Paul with 2 and yours truly with 5 were also in sad shape.
Rodney arrived, so we were at seven and split into two groups. Greg wanted to learn Automobile, so Mike, Ron and I joined him for a four-player game. Final scores: John 4790, Ron 3860, Mike 3550, Greg 3520. The Stone Age game was won by Rodney, who should know the game fairly well as he GMs it at WBC. Final score count: Rodney 233, Paul 167, Ibrahim 107.
Ibrahim and Ron decided to call it a night at this point, so we wrapped up the session with a five-player Wits and Wagers, which I somehow managed to win (43) to Greg (11) and Mike (3), while Paul and Rodney gambled away whatever chips they won on some wrong answers. I remember there being one sports question in there, something that is usually to my advantage.
A reminder, no session next week due to Thanksgiving. Will need to check, but I suspect the Community Center will also be closed on Christmas and New Years eve (December 24 and 31st), need to check for sure, so it looks like three more sessions for the rest of 2009.
Friday, November 20, 2009
November 12, 2009 Session Report
I was at EuroQuest and missed this session, as did several other Laurel club regulars. As a result, this session was rather sparsely attended, with just four (Clayton, Don, Mike and Paul) in attendance. Two games were played: Puerto Rico and Stone Age.
As expected, Mike (who was the defending Puerto Rico Champ from EuroQuest) won the Puerto Rico game, which is kind of ironic because at the same time the club session was going on, the Puerto Rico tournament at EQ was getting under way. Final scores of the Puerto Rico game were Mike 48, Don 43, Paul 37, Clayton 29. Also, should add I am not surprised to see Don do well since he had advanced to the elimination rounds at WBC earlier this year.
Stone Age game final scores: Don 166, Mike 136, Paul 130, Clayton 76.
For anyone interested in tracking any of the EuroQuest action, here's a link to the BPA Website which lists the winners:
http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/eq09.htm
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there's a link to over 350 photos taken during the convention. In addition, there's a link to a GeekList posted at the BoardGameGeek website by yours truly, but here's the direct link:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48656
There were a few notable performances by supporters of our Laurel club at EQ. I managed to finish fifth in the Settlers of Catan tournament (to my great surprise!), just missing the final. Greg Shirah finished sixth in the Princes of Florence tournament, also just missing the final. (Greg also served as the Assistant GM for the event this year.) Helen Powell, who has been to the club on a couple of occasions, did reach a final and was runner-up in the Dominion tournament. And then there is Eugene Yee, who scored over 100 points to come in sixth place in the highly unique Wild Card event where you need to do well at a variety of Euro games. Nice going, Eugene ...
As expected, Mike (who was the defending Puerto Rico Champ from EuroQuest) won the Puerto Rico game, which is kind of ironic because at the same time the club session was going on, the Puerto Rico tournament at EQ was getting under way. Final scores of the Puerto Rico game were Mike 48, Don 43, Paul 37, Clayton 29. Also, should add I am not surprised to see Don do well since he had advanced to the elimination rounds at WBC earlier this year.
Stone Age game final scores: Don 166, Mike 136, Paul 130, Clayton 76.
For anyone interested in tracking any of the EuroQuest action, here's a link to the BPA Website which lists the winners:
http://www.boardgamers.org/specific/eq09.htm
If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, there's a link to over 350 photos taken during the convention. In addition, there's a link to a GeekList posted at the BoardGameGeek website by yours truly, but here's the direct link:
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/48656
There were a few notable performances by supporters of our Laurel club at EQ. I managed to finish fifth in the Settlers of Catan tournament (to my great surprise!), just missing the final. Greg Shirah finished sixth in the Princes of Florence tournament, also just missing the final. (Greg also served as the Assistant GM for the event this year.) Helen Powell, who has been to the club on a couple of occasions, did reach a final and was runner-up in the Dominion tournament. And then there is Eugene Yee, who scored over 100 points to come in sixth place in the highly unique Wild Card event where you need to do well at a variety of Euro games. Nice going, Eugene ...
Friday, November 6, 2009
November 5, 2009 Session Report
Very pleased to see a huge jump in attendance this week, which was greatly appreciated after the decline in recent weeks. We had all four of us from the prior week (Mike, Paul, Clayton and myself) plus Ron, Jonathan and Sarah (all of whom I hadn't seen for awhile) in addition to Greg, Don, Doug and Ben for a grand total of 11. We played the following games: TransAmerica, Pillars of the Earth, Age of Steam, Hoity Toity, Days of Steam, and R-Eco, and this doesn't count a couple of games that Sarah played solo while patiently waiting for one of the longer games to finish.
TransAmerica was a quick warmup, just one round, while waiting for people to arrive. Mike won the round, with Jonathan, John, Paul, Greg and Ron also participating. Then we split into two groups for longer games that we kind of the feature event of the evening. At one table, we had Jonathan, Ben, Ron, Greg and Don playing a five-player Age of Steam and the report I got was the game ended in a tiebreak between Ben and Ron. The Pillars game, also a five-player used the expansion which tries to balance out some of the luck factor in the game. This, too, was a close finish (at least for three of us), final scores were John 48, Mike 45, Doug 43, Paul 31 and Clayton 20.
In the middle of these two games Sarah arrived, and while I tried to offer her the chance to team up with one of the players in our Pillars game (and, judging by the score, it looked like Clayton could have used her assistance), but she bided her time by playing a couple of solitaire games (card and Can't Stop played solo). We then got her in a game as Pillars wrapped up, which wound up being a four-player Hoity Toity which was won by Doug; Paul and I were the other two players (Paul came second while I had a miserable game and came last). Then the Age of Steam game finished and the players tackled the simpler and shorter Days of Steam, which Ben had brought. Unfortunately, that game didn't finish. Clayton returned to the other group and we played a five-player R-Eco, which wrapped up the evening with another win for Doug, as usual a low scoring affair: Doug 10, John 7, Paul 6, Sarah 3, Clayton 2.
Next week, of course, will be EuroQuest, but I left a couple of scoresheets for those in attendance to track results in my absence. Hope to see many of you at EQ and hope everyone else will stop in at the club on Thursday.
TransAmerica was a quick warmup, just one round, while waiting for people to arrive. Mike won the round, with Jonathan, John, Paul, Greg and Ron also participating. Then we split into two groups for longer games that we kind of the feature event of the evening. At one table, we had Jonathan, Ben, Ron, Greg and Don playing a five-player Age of Steam and the report I got was the game ended in a tiebreak between Ben and Ron. The Pillars game, also a five-player used the expansion which tries to balance out some of the luck factor in the game. This, too, was a close finish (at least for three of us), final scores were John 48, Mike 45, Doug 43, Paul 31 and Clayton 20.
In the middle of these two games Sarah arrived, and while I tried to offer her the chance to team up with one of the players in our Pillars game (and, judging by the score, it looked like Clayton could have used her assistance), but she bided her time by playing a couple of solitaire games (card and Can't Stop played solo). We then got her in a game as Pillars wrapped up, which wound up being a four-player Hoity Toity which was won by Doug; Paul and I were the other two players (Paul came second while I had a miserable game and came last). Then the Age of Steam game finished and the players tackled the simpler and shorter Days of Steam, which Ben had brought. Unfortunately, that game didn't finish. Clayton returned to the other group and we played a five-player R-Eco, which wrapped up the evening with another win for Doug, as usual a low scoring affair: Doug 10, John 7, Paul 6, Sarah 3, Clayton 2.
Next week, of course, will be EuroQuest, but I left a couple of scoresheets for those in attendance to track results in my absence. Hope to see many of you at EQ and hope everyone else will stop in at the club on Thursday.
Friday, October 30, 2009
October 29, 2009 Session Report
Starting to get alarmed about the low attendance recently, as this week we had another dip to just four of us: Mike, Clayton, Paul and myself. We played a total of four games: R-Eco, Automobile, San Juan and Vegas Showdown.
R-Eco was won by Mike, who was the only player to reach double figures with 10 points. All four us had to "dump" at some point in the game, so no ecology points awarded. Next up was Automobile, I managed to win with 5020 to Clayton who was second (4310) followed by Mike (3660) and Paul (2940). Then came San Juan which Paul won with a City Hall and some nice purple buildings for a grand total of 35 to my second place score of 29, featuring a Guild Hall and seven mills, with Clayton (21) and Mike (20) bringing up the rear. We wrapped up the evening with a club favorite, Vegas Showdown, and this time Mike ran away with the game -- not even close -- lapping the board with 93 (!) points to 61 for me, 56 for Clayton and 55 for Paul.
Hey, it's time we saw a boost in attendance. Hope to see many of you next week. Two weeks to EuroQuest, Nov. 12-15th, pre-registration deadline is Sunday.
R-Eco was won by Mike, who was the only player to reach double figures with 10 points. All four us had to "dump" at some point in the game, so no ecology points awarded. Next up was Automobile, I managed to win with 5020 to Clayton who was second (4310) followed by Mike (3660) and Paul (2940). Then came San Juan which Paul won with a City Hall and some nice purple buildings for a grand total of 35 to my second place score of 29, featuring a Guild Hall and seven mills, with Clayton (21) and Mike (20) bringing up the rear. We wrapped up the evening with a club favorite, Vegas Showdown, and this time Mike ran away with the game -- not even close -- lapping the board with 93 (!) points to 61 for me, 56 for Clayton and 55 for Paul.
Hey, it's time we saw a boost in attendance. Hope to see many of you next week. Two weeks to EuroQuest, Nov. 12-15th, pre-registration deadline is Sunday.
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