Damascus 07/06/07

With a new record number of gamers and kids, we had a full night. Luckily the new room has more, well, room, and it didn't feel crowded. In attendance:

• David, Noreen, Corwin, and Andrew Fair
• Jennifer, Seth, & Justin Weinstein
• Rick & Linda Pasquale
• David & Martha Briggs
• Melinda & Ruben Carbonell
• Judy & Kayla Trent, with Scott Fox
• Bob, Carol, and Ben Jones
• Rose Byington
• David Raley
• Marshall Miller
• Kevin Bealer
• Raphael L.

Before others arrived David Raley, Jennifer and I played a quick game (3 rounds) of Flinke Pinke (AKA Loco!). A cute game with dead simple rules it costs less than $5.00, and many of you own copies from when i was giving them away. I may still have a few copies. Leave a comment if you want one. Experience helped here, and I was able to best the two newcomers, 97 to David's 83 and Jennifer's 78.

As more players arrived, many people were checking out the Arkham Horror game David had setup, but there were no takers yet, so some simpler games were played.

David Raley and Rick Pasquale joined me in Knizia's Samurai-like card game, Great Wall of China. I sprung a surprise on Rick near the end, playing all 5 of my guard cards at once to take the lead on a valuable tile pair. I was able to use that tile to pop my score up to 36, good enough for a win over Rick (29) and David (28), who were quite close up until then.

I lost track of the order of games played (once again), so this is my best recollection. Let me know how I did in the comments section...

David Raley and Judy played 2 games of Fluxx with Rick, with the first two each winning one game. Judy had never played Fluxx before, and commented, "What a strange game..." I'm with you, Judy, I'm with ya.

Melinda, Linda, Jennifer, Martha and David played 6 Nimmt. It only took 3 rounds for Melinda to be pushed to 75 bull-heads. Ouch! Melinda was followed closely by Martha (50), Jennifer (33), Linda (32) and David (17). David took fewer bull-heads the entire game than Melinda did in any round she played! Maybe a strategery guide is in order...

Melinda and Marshall joined David Raley in taking on the great powers and facing the great old ones in Arkham Horror. Here is what Marshall said (with some minor editing):

The magician, Drake was the last one to face the doom that was the Unnamable one. A portal to the beyond opened, claiming the lives of his companions, both of whom were pretty much clueless anyway. Drake battled on, and lasted for almost 3 hours (rounds) before having his very soul devoured. Were it not for the potent boom-stick (shotgun), he would have died much sooner.

Bob and Carol setup and played Traumfabrik with Linda, Martha, and David. This is a great classic auction game from Knizia. it is now available in English, re-titled Hollywood Blockbuster. Each player takes the role of the head of a movie studio, competing to produce movies, attract stars, and win Oscars. It's a great game and very well done. Linda proved to be a mogul, scoring 75 points on just 3 movies made. Carol was next with 68 followed by Bob with 58, Martha with 57, and David with 45.

Raphael, Scott Fox, and I played Caylus Magna Carta. This was an exceptionally high scoring game, with every single prestige building getting built. Never seen that before, and I don't expect to see it again anytime soon. Raphael won 72 to my 65, and Scott's 53.

Jennifer, Judy, and Rick played 3 rounds of Villa Paletti, the Spiel des Jahres winning stacking game. They did not keep score. Honestly, I never understood the scoring of that game anyhow.

We then had a big game of Pit. We played three rounds, and three different players, Bob, Kevin, and Linda, each won one round. Other players were David Fair, Martha, David Briggs, Carol, and Raphael. (I thought there were 8 players. Carol says she didn't play. Did I miss someone else?)

Ruben, Rose, Kevin, and Noreen played a trio of games: Tichu, Snap, and Exxtra. In Tichu, Ruben & Rose paired off against Noreen & Kevin. The game took 12 hands, no one ever made a Tichu call, thought there were five 1-2's. R's won 1010 to 590. Snap was next, and Kevin (11) won in a close race over Rose (10) and Ruben & Noreen (8 each). Finally, they played the dicey classic, where Ruben crushed them, and listened to the lamentations of there... Oh wait... Ruben won, 21 to rose's 6, Kevin's 4, and Noreen's 2. Owie-ow!

Kevin joined Raphael, Bob and Rick for a game of Amun-Re, While Judy joined Rose, Noreen, and Ruben for some more Tichu. Judy and Rose were ahead for much of the early game, then lost the lead when Ruben and Noreen out scored then 325 to -25 in 2 hands. But they never gave up hope, and came back to win 1000 to 900. Nice game!

Amun-Re was close after the first scoring, but in the second age, Raphael pulled out all the stops, spending heavily for the sections with many pyramids. his score was obscene, winning 55 to Kevin & Bob's 36, and Rick's 26. The man had most pyramids on both sides of the river, as well as 4 sets. Oh my!

In a different Egypt, Carol, Scott Fox, and I played Ra! It seems to play a bit oddly with 3, and I took advantage of this to get out of auctions early, never getting bitten by that last Ra tile. this served me well, and I won 49 to Carol's 39 and Scott's 20.

After Ra, the three of us played my favorite 3-player card game, Sticheln. This game is wonderfully evil and makes you really enjoy sticking it to your opponents. Carol lost with 2 points, and Scott and I tied with 19. I demand a recount!

See you all next week. Be sure to avoid downtown Damascus, and many of the main roads will be closed for the Damascus days parade. Leave a comment below if you want directions to help you avoid the downtown area...