Germantown 08/20/07

Returning from a two session absence, I found ten gamers at Borders, ready to play.

• Kevin Bealer
• Dave Briggs
• Martha Briggs
• Rose Byington
• Jason Cheng
• Andrew Fair
• Dave Fair
• Doug Hoylman
• Bob Jones
• Eric Reinhold

First up, the Hedgehog racing game Igel Agern with Andrew, Dave Fair, Doug, Eric and Jason. Nearing the end of the race, Eric had 3 markers stacked on the final space of the "2" row, but was unable to get them across the line as other players kept sneaking up and placing their markers on top of his stack. Final places were Andrew (1st), Doug (2nd), Rose (3rd), Dave (4th), Eric (5th), and Jason (6th).

After the race, Rose, Jason, Dave Fair, Andrew and Doug played the fun little filler Flinke Pinke aka Loco!, aka Quandry, aka Thor (yes, there are that many different versions.) Rose ended both rounds by playing the last card of one color. Dave, unused to rounds ending so quickly, was caught off guard. After 2 rounds of play, final scores were Rose (36), Doug (34), Jason (27), Andrew (26), and Dave (19).

As I arrived around 7PM, Eric was setting up to play Yspahan with Martha and Dave Briggs. I joined them. I attempted to emulate Dave Fair's "cards, camels, and caravans" strategy to great success. After a round or so, Martha also starting dumping guys into the caravan at every opportunity. Despite a scoring glitch (which we were able to mostly correct), the strategy was as successful as always with me and Martha far out ahead. Final scores were Bob (82), Martha (73), Eric (54) and Dave (34).

Having finished Flinke Plinke, the big group broke out Bruno Faidutti's Citadels with the Dark City Expansion. Dave Fair ended the game by building his 8th building and had one building of each color to capture both the four and three point bonuses. This despite being the target of the Warlord three times! Final scores were Dave (37), Jason (27), Doug (25), Rose (22), and Andrew (16). Dave notes that the new expansion buildings offer some nice variety.

During the Yspahan and Citadels games, Kevin arrived. Since it looked like it might be a while before either game would finish, I engaged him in a two player game of Ingenious: Travel Edition while my opponents took their turns. Kevin was the superior player and managed to beat me 8 to 7, although it wasn't really that close as his next two highest colors were significantly higher than mine.

The Citadels folk finished and Rose left. Kevin joined them in the zombie fast-food game, Give Me The Brain. Jason acquired the brain, and the extra hand early, and kept winning the bid whenever the brain was dropped, so Andrew and Dave suffered through several rounds of no turns, and a sudden no-card victory for Jason was no surprise. Dave still had 7 cards in hand. Ouch!

With time for one more game, we broke into two groups. Dave and Martha Briggs wanted to learn San Juan so Doug and Eric taught it to them, not quite finishing the game before the store closed. Unfortunately, I don't seem to have the score sheet. If anyone knows the scores, let me know and I'll post them.

Meanwhile, Dave Fair, Andrew, Kevin, Bob and Jason chose to try Zooloretto with Expansions. This was my first time playing and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a good use of the Coloretto mechanics and the theme was engaging and fun. Dave says: "A better game than I originally gave it credit for. There was more money in this game, a much needed fix thanks to the Petting Zoo expansion. I really liked how it played out." Final scores were Jason (33), Andrew (25 - 2nd on Money tiebreaker), David (25), Bob (22), and Kevin (20).

Thanks to everyone for coming out!