June 23, 2016 Session Report

Group of ten for this week's session. In attendance: Mike, Rouslan, David, Alex, Lina, Patrick, Jason, Ben A, Arnold and myself. Games played: For Sale, Russian Railroads, Orleans: Deluxe Edition, The Gallerist and Seeland.

For Sale was the quick warm-up game. Winner was Mike (62K) followed by myself (50K), Rouslan (48K) and David (46K). We then split into three groups for the rest of the session.

Russian Railroads was a 4-player, won by Rouslan. Scores: Rouslan (470), Mike (292), Ben (273) and Rembert (220).

Alex, Arnold and I tackled the Orleans: Invasion expansion, a 3-player co-op version. Things looked bad about midway through when Alex realized that houses built as forts didn't count for his individual victory condition, which required four houses as trading posts. In spite of this, we managed to pull out a win on the final turn of the game although it was close (we needed something like four or five Soliders in the last turn or two).

The Gallerist was another three-player (Patrick, David and Lina) that did not quite make it to the finish line.

Finally, Rouslan and Rembert broke out Seeland after the Russian Railroads game finished. No report on how the game turned out, not sure they finished it.

Will be at an out-of-town gaming event next week, so co-Host Mike will be in charge.

June 16, 2016 Session Report

Ten for this week's session. Jason, Mike, Rouslan, Ben K (back for session #3), Alec, Greg, Patrick, Tim, Rembert and I were the attendees. Games played: Too Many Cinderellas, Walls, Automobile and Power Grid Deluxe (North America) were the games played.

Too Many Cinderellas, which I brought, and Walls, which Jason brought, were the warm-up games. Too Many Cinderellas was a four-player, went for just one round, I managed to win versus Jason, Mike and Rouslan while we waited for more people to show up. Ben K and Alec were added for the Walls game, which was kind of kind going through an ever-changing maze, and that game was picked up once we got up to 10.

We then broke into two five-player games for the rest of the session. One game was Automobile, which Patrick brought. Winner was Rouslan, who claimed not to have played before, with a fine score of 4930. I managed to finish second at 4320, followed by Rembert (3620), Patrick (3330) and Jason (3010), who was also new.

The other game was Power Grid: Deluxe, with the North America map, which Mike had brought. Two people tied with 15 cities, and winner based on most money was Ben (15 cities, 14 money) ahead of Mike (15 cities, 1 money). Other scores: Tim (14 cities, 0 money); Greg (13 cities, 15 money); and Alec, 13 cities (12 money).

June 9, 2016 Session Report

Good attendance this week, total of 13 (14 if you count Steve, who stopped in briefly but did not get in a game). Rest of the list is Mike, Ben K (back for a second week in a row), David, Jason, Alex, Rouslan, Arnold, Neville, Greg, Eugene, Tim, Rembert and myself. Games played: Onitama (x2), Stockpile, Love Letter, Ticket to Ride - Pennsylvania, Russian Railroads: German Railroads, Quadropolis, Biblios Dice and Fuse. This report will provide some details and results on some, but not all, as there were quite a few games going on.

Onitama was a two-player, chess-like variant with cards that Jason had brought. I believe Rouslan played a game or two with Jason at the outset, plus there may have been a couple of other games, maybe with Rembert playing a game or two as well.

Stockpile was a five-player, with each of us choosing a special character. Final scores: myself (as Golden Graham) 164 first; Alex (as Billionaire Bill) 145 second; Arnold (as Mayknow Martha) 115 third; Neville (as Secretive Stewart) 104 fourth; and finally David (as Wise Warren) 71 fifth and last.

Ticket to Ride - Pennsylvania adds a UP-style stock market majority aspect to the game. Winner was Mike with 191, followed closely by Greg (186), Ben (172) and Tim (165).

Finally, certain people got in their Russian RR/German RR fix. Winner (and by a wide margin) was Rouslan (438) followed by Eugene (330) then Jason (260) and finally Rembert (230). I believe this was a first play for Jason and Rembert, although one or both may have been familiar with the basic Russian RR game.

Second round of games saw Quadropolis (won by Greg wth 53 over Mike at 49, Ben and Tim at 46) and Love Letter (a four-player, David had 3 wins to 2 for me, 1 for Arnold, 0 for Neville). But, as Neville, pointed out, "the Princess loved me most." In fact, Neville got the Princess so often that the last round David got him out early by playing a Guard and guessing Neville had the Princess.

Final games of the evening were Fuse (a co-op game) played by Rouslan, Jason and Rembert, and also Biblios: Dice, won by Arnold (30) with me nosing out Neville for second (24 to 23).

A reminder that we're less than a month away from the pre-registration deadline for the GCOM Family Picnic. Details can be found by clicking the link at the GCOM website, gamesclubofmd.org

June 2, 2016 Session Report

Good turnout of 14 for this week's session. Attendees included three newcomers, Ben K., Shere and Bernie, along with Jason (back for his third session), Alan (whom we haven't seen in a long, long time) plus regulars Mike, David, Rouslan, Lina, Patrick, Alex, Marion, Rembert and myself. Games played: Codenames, Yedo, Copper Country and Marco Polo.

First up was Codenames, the quick warm-up game, and Mike and I were the clue givers. Mike's team -- which included Ben K and David -- won over my team as I gave some pretty bad clues that my teammates Rouslan and Lina had trouble figuring out. Oh well, after this we broke into three longer games.

One was Yedo, which Patrick had brought. Sheree showed up but was unable to stay for the entire session. Final scores were Lina 33, Patrick 23. Jason 12 and Rembert 10.

Copper Country, which Alan had brought, was a game I had played a couple of years back as a prototype at GenCon. It was extremely close, with Alan (30) coming out on top based on some endgame scoring that the rest missed out on. Other scores were David and me at 27, Mike at 26.

Finally, Rouslan brought Marco Polo but this time he did not win. Winner was Marion (103) ahead of Rouslan (95), Alex (60) and Ben K (68).

May 26, 2016 Session Report

Last session before Memorial Day Holidays, still had good attendance of nine: Patrick, David, Jason (back for a second week in a row), Greg, Eugene, Marion, Tim, Rembert and myself were the attendees. The warm-up game was Codenames, then surprisingly, two games of Tin Goose broke out.

Codenames the teams were David, as cluegiver, with Marion, Jason and myself as teammates, versus Greg (as cluegiver) with Rembert, Patrick and Eugene as teammates. I believe Greg's team won, but I didn't keep accurate notes so I am not sure.

Then, a rarity, two tables of games broke out (that part isn't unusual), but the fact that both tables featured the same game (the recently released Tin Goose) was. One table was a four-player, won by Patrick (with a score of 348) followed by Marion (328), David (295) and Rembert (172).

The other game was a five-player, and extremely close, as three of us topped 300. Winner was myself (320), second Tim (309) followed closely by Eugene (304). Greg (272) and Jason (263) rounded out the field. Jason bid for start player and seemed to get off to a good start -- like John B in last week's game -- but things didn't work out quite so well. Still enjoying every play of this recently released sim of the early years of the airline industry.

May 19, 2016 Session Report

We had a couple of new attendees, Jason and Joe, to help swell our attendance total to 14 this week; Patrick, Mike, David, Rouslan, Neville, Lina, John B, Eugene, Arnold, Rembert, Tim and myself filled out the roster. Four games were played -- all going on at once: Tin Goose, Quadropolis, Battlecore and Galaxy Trucker.

Tin Goose was back for the second week in a row, this time a 5-player. As last week, John B was the winner, having bid quite alot to go first, but it enabled him to build a highly lucrative airline route on the map. Final scores: John B 348, Nevile 310, John W (me) 292, Eugene 208, Patrick 173. 292 (my highest score to date) would have won other games but only good for 3rd here (later I managed to win for the first time but with a much lower score of 266). Every game is different, I suppose.

Anyway, Quadropolis made its first appearance at the club. Four-player game was a win for Rouslan (51), ahead of David (45), Mike (41) and Lina (30).

Joe and Arnold played a couple of games of Battlecore, the scoresheet says Joe won both.

Finally, a three-player game of Galaxy Trucker broke out. Tim was the big winner there (85) compared to 55 for Jason and 45 for Rembert.

May 12, 2016 Session Report

Eight for this week's session; the attendees were Mike, Ben, Alex, Eugene, John B, Rembert and myself, plus one first-time attendee, Anya. Games played were Camel Up (with some components from the new expansion), Tin Goose, Scoville, and we wrapped up with two games of For Sale.

First game while waiting for people to arrive was Camel Up. We had five of us (Eugene, Ben, Alex, Mike and myself) while Mike explained the game and the new stuff with the expansion. Main thing new that I recall was a Camera that gave the person placing it points for the number of camels to cross that space; I believe there were other aspects to the new expansion that we did not play with. Anyway, the game broke up after one of scoring round as more people showed up, plus it was a longer route around the track, so the game wasn't going to finish that quickly.

Three of us (John B, Rembert and myself) played a new release called Tin Goose which I had brought. Anya, who said she preferred to watch, observed for most of the game. It clocked in at close to the advertised one half hour per player plus a bit longer for rules explanation. I got my airline into difficulty and had to take out some emergency loans that sank my chances of winning. Final scores were John B 350, Rembert 325, myself 229. I intend to bring this game again as it seems to have the potential to develop into a new favorite.

The other longish game we played was Scoville. This was a four-player, with Mike, Alex, Ben and Eugene as the participants. There was a flatfooted tie for first plus a tie in the money tiebreak, and no further tiebreaker in the rules. Sharing in the victory at 83 apiece were Ben and Mike. Alex had 70, Eugene with 63 brought up the rear.

There was still time for two games of For Sale, which Anya had brought. Game 1 resulted in a win for yours truly with 63k, followed by Eugene (57K), John B (46K)0, Rembert (43K)0 and Anya (39K). Game 2 was really close and went to John B (57K) followed by Eugene (55K), me (54K), Anya (51K) and Rembert (41K).

Hope to see some of you next week who haven't been to the club for awhile. Lots of fun new games to play these days!