Saturday, August 18, 2007

Damascus 08/17/07

Wow, what a night for gaming. We had 29 people, including one we hadn't seen for a few months, one for whom it was his second visit, and two for whom it was their first visit (one had never been to any GCOM locations before). That's great, and very exciting to see this kind of growth. In Attendance:

  • David, Noreen, Corwin, & Andrew Fair
  • Bryan Snyder
  • Dan Barnett
  • Howard Wagner
  • Lance Slifka
  • Bill Trac
  • Jennifer, Seth, & Justin Weinstein
  • Rick Pasquale
  • Jason Cheng
  • Joseph Lin
  • Marshall Miller
  • Rose Byington
  • Melinda & Ruben Carbonell
  • Raphael Lehrer
  • Scott Fox & Judy Trent
  • Scott & Liz Percival
  • Bob, Carol, Rachel, and Ben Jones
  • Tim Rothenhoefer
We played a total of 13 (or 11, depending on how you count) games. Lets see how things went...

First up was a game of Can't Stop with Noreen, Andrew, Jennifer, and Howard. Things were looking good for Noreen, but Howard capped the 3's and 5's on one turn, and then capped the 6's his next to complete a come from behind victory.

Marshall, Jason, Joseph, and Seth played Pompeii. This is fun game wherein you spend half the game getting your pieces onto the board, and the next half getting them out, meanwhile hoping that no one throws your people into the volcano. Joseph won, having rescued 10 noble citizens, while Jason and Seth tied with 9 each, and Marshall saved 8. A very close game!

Zooloretto made another appearance, but was played sans expansions, since 3 of the 5 players were new. Ruben and Judy tied for first (Money is the normal tiebreaker, but they both had none!) with 19 points, Raphael was third with 17, and The Scott's (Percival and Fox) tied at 13, though Fox had more money, taking 4th and leaving Percival alone in 5th.

About this time, Bryan, Dan, Lance and I were finished with our Archaeological expeditions in the new game from Queen, Thebes. This game has great production values, a fun theme, and pretty fast gameplay once the rules are done. I really enjoyed it and look forward to teaching it to more of you soon. Final scores were David (59), Dan (52), Lance (48), and Bryan (39).

Scott Fox, Judy and Raphael played a very fast game of Notre Dame. I really enjoy this Alea game, and find that it rewards multiple plays to truly understand the strategy options, a point shown here quite well. Raphael was the only to have played before, and he won with 64 points, while Scott (47) and Judy (44) learned how to play, and will definitely do better in their next game.

Liz, Ruben, Jennifer, and Scott Percival played Ingenious. This is an abstract tile-laying game that looks pretty and plays at a nice pace. Scott managed the victory with a score of 15, followed by Ruben (9), and Jennifer and Liz (6 each). this was Liz's first playing, and the score system can take some getting used to....

They followed this up, when Jennifer left, with a 3-player game of Ingenious, with the remaining players. Scott won again, this time with 13, followed by Ruben at 9 and Liz at 8.

Tichu returns after a 1 week absence. And we have the end of a streak, Noreen finally redeems herself and gets a mark in the win column. She partnered with Bill against Rose and Melissa Melinda (I am such a dumbass), winning the first game 1130 to 670, and the second game 1050 to 350.

Bob, Carol, Lance, Marshall, and Tim played the Franz-Benno DeLonge game, Big City. Carol managed to build a shopping center, while Bob, who carefully and painstakingly prepared for one was only able to manage to have his hopes and dreams crushed by Marshall and his Factory of Really Nasty Stuff. This didn't help Marshall much, though, as Lance cruised to a 66-point win. Tim was second with 62, followed by Carol with 53, Marshall with 46, and Bob with 30.

Bryan, Rick, Joseph, Jason, Howard and I played Power Grid, on the Germany map. this was the first time to play for Howard, Jason, and Joseph. The game was a close contest, and bidding for the early plants became critical when the board stagnated heavily just before the end game. Needing only 15 powered cities to end things was not enough here, as the final scores (Houses/Capacity/Money) were: Howard (17/17/68), Bryan (17/17/42), Joseph (17/17/15), Jason (16/16/80), Rick (16/19/15), Dave (14/14/68).

Jason, Joseph and I played a quick 3-round game of Flaschenteufel, which I was teaching them both. I love this unique trick-taking game, and they both caught on quickly, and final scores were David 61, Jason 48, and Joseph 35.

The final game to end was Amun-re, with Raphael, Tim, Bob, Carol, and Marshall. Marshall had not played before, and it had been some time since Carol had played. After the first round, scores were Bob 18, carol 15, Marshall 12, Raphael 9, and Tim 3. The second round went much differently, and Raphael won the game with 40, followed by Carol with 36, Tim 31, Bob 30, and Marshall 28.

Remember, this week is the 4th Friday, but not the last Friday, so we are at Damascus. hope to see you there.

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