Session Report for 10/6

I'm a little late with these reports. Apologies.

Attendees this week were my co-host Jason B, Jason A, Chris B, Chris W, John W (only one this week) Ben, Eugene, Lena, Arnold, Rouslan, Rembert, Eric & his daughters Rebecca and Rachel, and me.

Those of us who got there early tried a new press-your-luck game called Satakku (Stack, in Japanese, I think). The goal of the game was to roll dice and place equal or higher dice on top of each other to form a stack. Jason B had a couple really strong rounds and won with 238 points. I gave him a run and got close with 190. Ben was next with 140 and the dice just were not Jason A's friends, leaving him in the dust with only 60 pts.

Eric and his girls played another press-your-luck game of Cheeky Monkey. Eric won with 47 points. Rachel was really close with 43. Rebecca came a distant third with only 9.

After this we broke out the heavier games. Thanks to Rouslan, we played a game of Power Grid Germany with the best name of an expansion I've seen in a long time, The High Voltage DC Transmission Passage C expansion. The expansion is based on real events going on in Germany. Arnold pulled out the win powering 15 cities. Eugene was close with 14. Ben and Eric tied with 13 cities, with Ben winning third with $4, err, Electros, more than Eric. I came up at the back of the pack with 12.

Terraforming Mars was played at the other table. This game went most of the night because a mistake happened and too many cards were used. John won the game with 68 pts. Chris came in next with 62 and Lena was a close 3rd with 59. This game wins player quotes of the week. Overheard from the table were "Ya gotta get those microbes" and "I have titanium coming out my wazoo." I can't decide so they both win quote-of-the-week.

The third big game was Empires at Sea. The game ended up with Rouslan with winning with 52 pts. Chris was really close with 51 pts. Jason A and Rembert came in close with 46 and 45 points respectively. Jason B finished in the back of the pack with 26.

The night wrapped up with one last press-your-luck game, Cloud 9. Given lucky draws of wild cards, I won the game with 52 points. Arnold, Eugene and Ben were close with 44, 42 and 39 points respectively. Eric wrapped up the night with 30.

Session report for 9/29

Hey, we had another good night. I looks like the game room in the community center is our new home.

Attendance this week was me, my co-host Jason, Jason A, Ben K, Chris, John, Eugene, Tim and Rembert.

We started the night by splitting into two groups. Jason, Chris, Ben and I played Tiny Epic Western. Chris dominated the game by making the right purchases each round. He easily won with 24 points. Ben and Jason were close with 19 and 18 points respectively and I was a distance last with only 10.

The rest of the group played Power Grid: First Sparks. Tim won the game with 13. Eugene had a close second with 12, John had 11, Rembert 10. Jason had some serious problems midgame and was never able to recover and ended with 6.

Both games wrapped up about the same time and we shuffled the players. Eugene, I, Tim and Rembert played Machi Koro: Bright Lights, Big Cities. Eugene got his engine going pretty early. I almost caught up but the dice didn't betray him and he built all his improvements first. I was close with 6. Tim had 5. Rembert fell victim to the red cards and was last with 3.

Potion Explosion was played by the rest. John won with 72 points. Chris had 60 pts, Ben 50 and Jason 48.

Session Report for 9/22/16

We had another good night. In attendance were me, Ben K, John W., another John W, Chris, Eugene, Jason A, my co-host Jason, Arnold and Rouslan.  The first game was New Bedford. Many people started to play this. As new people arrived, people kept breaking off into other games. A full game was played the original John W, Jason A., Rouslan and Rembert. Rouslan and Jason both ended up with 30 points but Rouslan won the tiebreaker with most total whales. John came in third with 25 and Rembert's ship sailed off with 17 points.

Eugene, Chris, co-host Jason and Ben played Castles of Mad King Ludwig. Eugene came in with a strong win with 121 points. Jason came in next with 108, Chris with 102 and Ben with 96.

The other John W, Arnold and I played Corcordia Salsa. We played with salt but skipped the forums this time. I made a quick play for the salt and my results were as usual when I try that. Arnold won with 109 points, John was right behind him with 108 and I pulled up third with 99.

As things were wrapping up, two shorter games broke out. Rembert, host emeritus John W, Arnold and Rouslan played Love Letter. Rembert was declared the winner after winning 2 rounds. Rouslan won 1 round. There was no love for either John or Arnold :(.

Session Report for 15-Sept-2016

Hi. This is Mike taking over the blog for John. On Sept 15th, we had a great turnout. Attendance was me, Ben K, our host emeritus John, Chris, Lina, my co-host Jason, Rouslan, Marian, Arnold, Tim, Eric and Rembert. We also had a first-timer Chris W.

The early attendees started by playing a new game, Thief's Market, but we stopped the game early once more people showed up. We broke into three groups. John, Chris, Lina and Jason played California Gold. Lina, who I believe was looking forward to playing won the game with 15 points. Jason came a close 2nd at 14, John came in next at 12 with Chris with 11.

The second group played ZhanGuo. Rouslin taught the game and won with 151 pts. Rembert came in next with 126, Chris W. had 121 and Marian finished with 114.

At the third table, we played two games. We started with Power Grid Benelux. The game was tight, with Tim being "the best" almost every round. Right after phase 3 started, Tim was able to build to 15 cities (it was a 5 person game) and was able to power 14. This was enough for him to get the win as none of us had more. In the end, Eric powered 13, Ben 12, Arnold 11 and yours truly, 9. All of us thought it was going to go one more round.

That game wrapped up in 2 hours and we started another game of Thief's Market. We had to call the game one round early but we still scored it. The game was deeper than we initially thought and quite cutthroat. In the end, Ben dominated the game with a score of 24 points. The next closest player was Arnold with 11, with Tim ending with 9 and Eric 8. I finished with only 3 pts.

I want to remind everyone that Congress of Gamers will be this weekend in Rockville. They hold a tournament that scores you across many different games. It's really tests you skill across multiple games. John W will also be teaching many new games over the weekend. I'll be helping by teaching Star Trek Ascendancy. Check the schedule on the site.

Also, as you can see from this, I'm experimenting with linking to BGG. I've looked up profiles for people I know. If you want me to link to your account, leave a comment with a link to your profile and I'll add it. See you Thursday.

Change in Hosts as of September 5

Just wanted to let everyone know that, as of Labor Day, after 11 years of service as Host, I am turning the Host duties over to my co-Host of the last several years, Mike Brazinski. Mike has agreed to serve as the new Host, and Jason Baker, a Laurel resident who has been a regular attendee for the past several months, has agreed to serve as the new Co-Host.

Just figured out how to give Mike access and posting privileges on this blog, so he can take over although there may be a bit of a hiatus.

September 1, 2016 Session Report

Ten attendees for this session: Mike, Jason B, Alex, Ben K, Chris, Eugene, Lina, Arnold, Rembert and myself were the attendees. It was Chris' third session so he signed up as a GCOM Associate Member. Games played: Walk the Plank, Star Trek: Ascendancy, Settlers of Catan, California Gold and Sushi Go.

Walk the Plank was the quick warmup game with player elimination. Ben K was last one standing, so he won with Lina coming second. Jason B and Alex also participated.

Mike had been fortunate enough to attend a special demo of a brand new game and also to pick up a copy, so he set up Star Trek: Ascendancy. Chris and I were the other two players. Mike was the Federation, I was the Klingons and Chris, the Romulans. Chris appeared to get out to an early lead, so Mike and I both attacked him. Mike was more successful than I, so we declared him the winner although we didn't quite make it through the full game -- but it was obvious Mike was going to fulfill the winning condition before either Chris or I.

Other games and results:

Settlers: Jason B 10 followed by Eugene and Arnold at 8, Rembert last at 6.

California Gold: Alex and Lina tied for the win, Ben K also played.

Sushi Go: scores were Rembert 46, Arnold 42, Ben K 34 and Jason B 31.

August 25, 2016 Session Report

Attendance down a bit this week, but we had Chris (back for the second week in a row) along with Jason A, Jason B, Arnold, Eugene, Rembert and myself for a total of seven. Games played: For Sale, Dead of Winter, Puerto Rico and Ingenious.

For Sale was the quick warmup game, we had a full table of six. It turned out to be a narrow win for Eugene. Final scores: Eugene 55K, Arnold 54, John (me) 47K, Chris 36K, Jason A 34K, Jason B 33K.

Dead of Winter was a three-player coop game, took most of the rest of the session. Word has it that the players (Arnold, Chris and Rembert) won.

The rest of us got in two more games. Puerto Rico, won by myself in a close one with Eugene second. Scores: John 47, Eugene 45, Jason A 39, Jason B 30.
Ingenious was another win for Eugene, with Jason B in second. Scores: Eugene 17, Jason B 13, Rembert and I brought up the rear at 11.