Session Report for January 19, 2017

We had another great turnout this week. We had Eugene, Jason A., Jason B., John, Phil, Ben, Chris, Marcia, Dave (a surprise to all of us), Neville, Rembert, Arnold and me. We got in games of Santorini, Istanbul, Scythe, Mr. President, Concordia on the Corsica map and Power Grid: The Card Game.

The night began with Eugene and I playing Santorini. This was the first time for both of us, with Eugene controlling the play most of the game, forcing me on defense. Eugene's control won him the game.

At this point, most everyone showed up and we broke into three groups. Dave brought Scythe. Rembert, Phil, Arnold and Neville joined him. The game went the entire session, with Phil winning as the center was closing.

At the next table, John played Mr. President. For this game, each played assumed the role of a different presidential candidate. Ben assumed the role of Mitt Romney with John as his VP Jeb Bush. On the Democrat's side, Marcia was John Edwards and Jason B was her(his?) VP candidate Hillary Clinton. The first debate was a VP debate on education that ended up a tie. The second debate was blown entirely by John Edwards, with Mitt being named the winner. John Edwards recovered and won the last debate. In a surprise, the GOP won California with 359 electoral votes with the Democrats only getting 179.

After this, the four switched gears to Power Grid: The Card Game. The game was incredibly close, with Marcia winning the game with 27 pts. John also had 27 but lost the tie breaker. Jason and Ben were right on their tails with 26 points each. I haven't seen it that close.

The third table started with Istanbul. I was the first to get 5 rubies, mostly by hitting the warehouses and markets and buying rubies for cash. The only ruby I got was by completing my wheelbarrow, which was my last. Chris and Jason A. each had 3 points and Eugene wrapped things up with 2.

Eugene had to leave to Chris, Jason and I play Corcordia on the Corsica map. The map was really tight. I managed to run away with all the Mercury and Mars cards and won with 130 points. Chris was next with 117 points and Jason A. finished with 101. The scores were all high because we stalled the acquisition of cards to finish our individual goals.

That's all I got. Remember, GCOM Winterfest and Prezcon are both coming up soon, with DeRail not far behind, if you're into train games.

See y'all next week.

Session Report for January 12, 2017

Hi. After a hiatus, I'm back to updating the blog. I apologize for taking so long and one of my New Year's resolutions is to keep this up-to-date.

This week we had Ben, John, Joe (a first timer!), Jason, Chris, Rouslan, Tim, Rembert and me attend. We broke into three groups of three.

The first group played Egizia. Chris pulled out the win with 128 pts. Jason had 105 and Rembert finished with 90. That group played another game afterwards but I didn't get any info on it.

John led the second group down the Great Western Trail. I believe this was the first time the other players played. The game was a low scoring game with John eking out a win with 57 pts. Joe followed down the trail with 52 and Ben trailed behind with 50.

The last group was Rouslan, Tim and I. We got two games in. The first game was Railroad Revolution. Rouslan and I had played this before but it was Tim's first play. I won the game with 288 points by focusing on the Western Union and barely making it to the Mississippi. Tim and Rouslan drove west but just couldn't get the points. Rouslan finished with 230 points and Tim had 204.

The three of us wrapped up with Isle of Skye. The game was really close, with Rouslan getting the win with 52 points, me right behind with 51 and Tim at 45.

As a reminder of upcoming events, GCOM Winterfest is January 28th and 29th and Prezcon is coming up in late February.

By the way, my other resolution is to try to spell Rouslan's name right each week 😉

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.