Germantown 04/30/2007

I arrived just before 7PM and found thirteen players already grouped around three tables with three games in progress! Wow. Attending were:

• Leslie Barkley
• Kevin Bealer
• David Briggs
• Martha Briggs
• Rose Byington
• Dave Fair
• Doug Hoylman
• Bob Jones
• David Raley
• Eric Reinhold
• Laura Reinhold
• Bill Salvatore
• Bill Trac
• Carol Loman

About to conclude was the city-building game Masons with Doug, Leslie, Bill Trac, and Bill's friend, and first-time attendee, Carol. It looked like a very crowded game with a lot of pieces already on the board and one huge city. Final scores were Leslie 105, Doug 82, Bill and Carol tied at 78.

At the second table, David Raley, Dave Fair, Eric and Bill Salvatore were playing Power Grid with the new prototype power plant cards on the German map. Near the end of the game, Bill saw that he, Dave and Eric each could build 13 cities and power all of them, meaning that the money tiebreaker would determine the winner. Bill ended the game only to fall short to Dave's stash of cash. Final scores were (cities/capacity/cash) Dave 13/13/63, Bill 13/13/56, Eric 13/13/21 and David 12/13/0. A very close game.

Meanwhile, David and Martha Briggs, Kevin, Rose and Laura were playing 6 Nimmt where the low score wins. Martha got to 62 points ahead of everyone else but managed to hold on for a few turns, ending in the middle of the pack. Final scores were: Kevin 37, Rose 41, Martha 62, Laura 63, David 73.

I joined the just concluded Masons group and we set up for the role-choosing game Citadels. Doug and I were the only experienced players but everyone caught on very quickly which made for a great game. Carol had a bit of a rough start with a lack of money but managed a comeback and did respectably at the end, while after placing a few buildings, Doug was getting a good supply of both money and cards. I took an early lead in buildings played, until the Warlord blew up two of my buildings. That will ruin your day. Leslie then moved ahead in buildings and worked inexorably towards her eighth building. She got there soon enough and Bill came from behind to build his eighth building on the same round. Final scores were Leslie 36, Bill 32, Bob 27, Doug 24, Carol 18.

With Citadels and Power Grid still ongoing, the 6 Nimmt folks finished and started bean-farming with Bohnanza. Everyone had played before so the game went quickly, ending with a victory for Rose with 13, David 10, Laura 10, Kevin 9, and Martha 6.

After Citadels, Carol left, so Doug, Bill, Leslie and I played a quick game of Easy Come Easy Go, Reiner Knizia's take on Yahtzee. I won three awards quickly, actually getting a fourth award on my subsequent turn, but then had two stolen from me, stopping an early victory. I believe that both Bill and Leslie had their moments with three awards and possible victory, but with some skillful dice rolling, they were stopped. In the end, I managed to reacquire three awards and hold on to them for two rounds, thus winning the game.

After Power Grid, Dave Fair, David Raley, and Eric took up the very popular Blue Moon City with the expansion tiles. Dave was close to victory but short on cards, requiring two turns just sitting on the tile which allows you to draw cards. It worked and he won with 5, David 4, Eric 3.

With Blue Moon City in progress, the remaining gamers broke into two groups. Martha, David Briggs, Bill Trac, Doug and Leslie played Igel Argern, the dice-rolling, hedgehog racing game. They raced right up until 10PM when David won with 3 points, Leslie 2, Bill 2, Martha 1 and Doug 1.

Meanwhile, Kevin, Rose and I played Knizia's Too Many Cooks, where we were all making soup in the same pot. Kevin and Rose hadn't played before and had a bit of trouble when I scored big in the later rounds. On the last round, all three players were collecting chilies which does no one any good. Final scores were Bob 23, Kevin 9, Rose 5.

It was a very fun night with some great gaming! See you next week!

Bob