April 21. 2016 Session Report

Attendance of 10 this week: David, Mike, Patrick, Neville, Moon, Rouslan, Arnold, John B, Rembert and I were the participants. Games played: Cvlizations (x2), Love Letter, BrewCrafters, Blood Rage and Eminent Domain.

Began with 5-player Cvlizations game (Mike, Neville, Patrick, David and myself) that broke up before finishing as more people showed up. Later on, the game was played to conclusion as a 3-player, with Mike (23) winning, ahead of David (18) and Patrick (17).

Love Letter was also a warm-up game, played by Arnold, John B, Moon and Rouslan. John B and Rouslan each one once before the game was called off.

BrewCrafters was a four-player that took the rest of the session. Moon (90) came out on top. I was second (75). John B (51) and Rembert (46) also played.

Blood Rage was won by Rouslan (86) followed by Arnold (80) and then Neville (67) who of course was teaching the game.

Finally, scores of Eminent Domain showed Patrick (20) in first, ahead of David (17) and Mike (15).

April 14, 2016 Session Report

Eleven for this week's session. The group included Mike, David, Alex, Arnold, Marion (back for her third session, signed up as new GCOM Associate Member), Eugene, Rouslan, Tim, Rembert, Ken (back for a second session) and myself. Games played: Rockband Manager, Turin Market, Bohananza, Power Grid: Japan and Codenames.

A couple of the newer games did not go over well, to be honest. Rockband Manager (which I brought) was kind of a glorified version of For Sale where you are discovering and promoting rock bands. The first six (Mike, Alex, Arnold, Marion, Eugene and myself) played this, but we picked it up as it was running way long for a quick starter game. Then, five of us tried a new prototype, Turin Market, that David had brought. It also did not go over well, as there were issues with resolving ties in bidding and kind of an all-or-nothing approach that meant four of the five of us wound up with less money than the 15 we started with. Scores, for what it was worth, were Rouslan 18, Rembert 11, David 9, me 5, Marion 4.

Power Grid was played with the Japan map. No ties in this one, winner was Eugene (17) followed by Tim (15), Arnold (14) and Mike (13).

Ken joined those of us who played Turin Market for a 6-player Bohnanza. Rouslan again emerged victorious. Scores: Rouslan 16, Marion 15, David and Rembert 13, myself 9, Ken 8.

There was still time left for a short game of Codenames. Teams were David, Rembert and Ken versus Marion and myself, and I believe Marion and I came away with the win as I think the other team hit the assassin word.

April 7, 2016 Session Report

Huge turnout of 16 (!) for this week's session. Attendees: Mike, David, Luis (back for second session), Lina, Tim, Ben, Alex, Moon, John B, Eugene, Arnold, Marian (also back for a second time), Rembert, myself and two first-time attendees: Alex C and Joe. We had three games going for most of the session, and full tables at that. Games played: Kraftwagen, Pax Porfirana, Vegas Showdown, Ra and Concordia (using the Brittania map). Some details follow.

Kraftwagen: won by Mike (54) with Ben (52) a close second. Arnold (41) and Tim (37) were the other players.

Pax Porfirana: won by Marian, who succeed in overthrowing the Govt. and declaring Martial Law. David (who brought the game), Arnold, Rembert, Luis and Alex C. made for a full table of six.

Vegas Showdown: won by Eugene (65) who got the best tile (the Theater) and ran away from the game. Alex (52) was second, Moon (45) third, and Lina (40) and myself (39) brought up the rear. Everyone had played before except for Lina.

Ra!: was a three-player, won by Eugene (57). Lina and I tied for second (33), but Lina had the highest sun and was therefore ahead on the tiebreaker.

Concordia with the Brittania expansion map: Ben got revenge on Mike for the earlier game, winning by a similarly close margin, 105 to 101 for Mike in second. Tim (81) and Joe (80) rounded out the field. I believe it was Joe's first play of Concordia.

March 31, 2016 Session Report

Ten attendees this week, including one first-timer (Ken) along with regulars Tim, Mike, Eugene, Neville, Patrick, Lina, Rembert, Arnold and myself. Games played: Power Grid (Benelux map), Automobiles, Orphan Black: The Card Game and 7 Wonders - Duel.

The two longer games were Power Grid and, played for the first time, Automobiles. Power Grid (on the Benelux map) was won by Tim on the money tiebreak, ahead of Eugene. Both had 17 cities, Tim had 13 money to 4 for Eugene. Arnold was a clear third with 15 cities, while Rembert 14 cities (100 money) and Mike 14 cities (20 money) brought up the rear. Automobiles, a bag-building racing game, was won by yours truly ahead of Patrick, Lina and Neville. Lina had the early lead and came close to pulling a lap ahead of Patrick. Patrick then shot into the lead, as did Neville, but I managed to get the right set of cubes to pull out the win.

Orphan Black is a card game based on a TV I haven't seen, which Ken had brought, which Ken managed to win, 11 points to 10 for Neville (in second). Arnold, Rembert and I were the other players. It was a bit of a deduction game when you are trying to figure out what characters the other players are allied with, all while trying to enhance the position of your favored characters and alliance.

Finally, Tim took on Mike at the 2-player 7 Wonders: Duel, winning by a score of 62 to 46.

March 24, 2016 Session Report

Nine attendees this week: David, Mike, Patrick, Neville, Eugene, Lina, Rembert, Tim and myself. Games played: Black Fleet, Homeland, Russian RR: German RR, Deception and Gipsy King.

We broke into three groups of three for the first round of games. Patrick, Lina and Rembert played Black Fleet, which was won by Patrick. Scores: Patrick 54, Lina 48, Rembert 33.

Russian Railroads with the German expansion was won by Eugene. Scores: Eugene 402, Mike 322, Tim 278.

Neville brought Homeland, a spy game based on the TV show. Final scores were Neville 11, David 10, myself 9. However, the Terrorists actually won as we weren't able to stop all the plots.

Second round of games included Deception, which included David, Patrick, Neville and me. I managed to win a round when I was the bad guy by throwing Patrick and David off the track even though Neville was, I thought, giving some good clues. Don't remember if we had time for a second round or not.

Then, there was a game of Gipsy King (four-player) that went to Rembert (54) ahead of Mike (52), Eugene (46) and Tim (42).

March 17, 2016 Session Report

Attendees (11): Mike, David, Moon, Greg, Arnold, John B, Rembert, Patrick, Tim and myself were joined by Luis, a first-time attendee. Games played: Gipsy King, Category 5, Orleans, Pax Porfirana and Modern Art (2 plays).

Gipsy King was the warm-up game, won by Moon. Scores: Moon 62, me 57, David 55, Mike 46.

Category Five was another short game, this one was a 5-player. Arnold and Rembert tied for best score at 6 (in this game a low score is good, a high score is bad), followed by Greg (7), John B (14) and Patrick (lots).

Then, it was on to some longer games. Two games of Modern Art were played, first a 3-player, won by Arnold (634) ahead of Greg (474) and Rembert (362). By this time Lewis had arrived and joined them for a second game. Game 2 was won by Rembert (473) ahead of Arnold (443), Greg (368) and Lewis (278).

Orleans was a four-player, and another win for Moon by just one point. Scores were Moon 140, Patrick 139, Mike 111, myself 105. The Bathhouse/Lab combo didn't work as well for me as it had in prior games.

Finally, Pax Porfirana was played by David, John B and Tim, and my information had Tim as the winner but no scores were given.

March 10, 2016 Session Report

Nine for this week's session. In attendance were Mike, David, Rembert, Rouslan, Moon, John B, Tim and myself, plus a first-time attendee, Marion. I have only two games listed as being played: BrewCrafters and Kraftwagen, although it's possible I missed a game or two, being so engrossed in the BrewCrafters game.

Kraftwagen was a four-player, won by John B, who did well with racing and engineers; final scores were John B 73, Mike 53, David 48 and Rouslan 32. Unusual to see Rouslan finishing last in any of these games.

We had five for BrewCrafters, and we barely finished. Final scores (and there may have been some errors, as we were definitely a rush to finish): Moon 89, myself 75, Tim 65, Marion 60 and Rembert 48.