Sunday, September 30, 2007

September 2007 Recap

September saw 7 sessions total, 3 in Damascus, 2 in Germantown, and 1 each in Middletown and Brunswick. What was played? glad you asked...

Game Qty
Tichu5
Blue Moon City3
Ticket to Ride3
Can't Stop2
Ingenious: Travel Edition2
Kahuna2
Metro2
Pow Wow2
Thebes2
Zooloretto2
Zooloretto - Erweiterung: "Der Streichelzoo"2
Zooloretto - Erweiterung: "Drei Extragehege"2
Zooloretto - Erweiterung: "Drei Zusatzgebäude"2
Around the World in 80 Days1
Blokus1
Blue Moon City: Expansion Tile Sets 1 & 21
Ca$h 'n Gun$1
Capitol1
Category 51
Caylus1
Code 7771
Colosseum1
Diamant1
El Grande1
Fearsome Floors1
For Sale1
Get the Goods1
Guillotine1
High Society1
Hive1
Last Night on Earth, The Zombie Game1
Manila1
On the Underground1
Pillars of the Earth, The1
Plunder1
Power Grid1
Qwirkle1
RoboRally1
Shadows over Camelot1
Stephenson's Rocket1
Sticheln1
Taluva1
That's Life!1
Ticket to Ride: USA 19101
Tigris & Euphrates1
TransAmerica1
Union Pacific1
Web of Power1
Yspahan1

As you can see, that is a lot of games with only a single play each! In fact, we played 44 different games, and 5 different expansions, a total of 59 (8 for the expansions) times.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Damascus 09/21/07

Another fast update to catch up:

Twenty-Three people were in Attendance:

  • Noreen & David Fair
  • David & Martha Briggs
  • Ruben & Melinda Carbonell
  • Lance Slifka
  • Marshall Miller
  • Jason Cheng
  • Rick Pasquale
  • Stephen & Noah Meyers
  • Dennis Wang
  • Rose Byington
  • Bryan Snyder
  • Dan Barnett
  • Bill Trac
  • Tim Rothenhoefer
  • Kevin Bealer
  • Bob, Carol, Rachel, and Ben Jones
Games played:
  • Sticheln, just one round to warm up, David and lance tied at 12, followed by Jason with 8
  • For Sale, which Marshall won with 48 while David, Rick, and Ruben all tied with 47, Lance acquired 43, and Jason got 38.
  • RoboRally, won by Marshall, followed by Ruben, Stephen, Noah, and Dennis.
  • Diamant, won by Ruben with 24, followed by Rose 14, Stephen and Marshall with 13 each, Noah with 11, and Dennis with 8.
  • On the Underground, won by Bill with 41, followed by Melinda with 39, David B. with 35 and Martha with 32.
  • El Grande, won by Jason with 89, followed by Tim with 87, Lance with 86, and David and Rick with 85 each.
  • Get the Goods, won by Jason with 34, followed by Rick with 30, and David and Tim with 26 each.
  • Capitol, won by Bob with 49, followed by Carol with 44, Kevin with 40, and Noreen with 21.
  • Pow-Wow (Coyote) with David B. going out first, followed by Marths, Carol, David, and Marshall, with Bob outlasting us all.
  • Tichu, with Rose & Bill winning over Melinda & Ruben 1005 to 695.
  • Tichu, with Jason & Noreen winning over Tim and Kevin, 1120 to 380.
  • Tichu, with Tim & Jason winning over Noreen and Kevin, 1055 to 345.
  • Thebes, with David winning 57 to Carol's 53, Marshall's 44, and Bob's 40.
See you all at Middletown on the 28th!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Germantown 09/17/07

Another packed house in Germantown! Attending were:

  • Kevin Bealer
  • Aubrey Bell
  • David and Martha Briggs
  • Jason Cheng
  • Luke Conte
  • Dave Fair
  • Doug Hoylman
  • Bob and Ben Jones
  • Mike Mullins
  • Helen Powell
  • Eric and Laura Reinhold
  • Alex Smith
  • Pat Sponaugle
When I arrived, Jason, Laura, Eric, Dave Fair and Doug were playing Around the World in 80 Days. Dave managed to squeak out a victory, circumnavigating the globe via train, boat and balloon in 77 days to Doug's 79, Laura's 83, and Jason's 85 days. Apparently Eric was waylaid by natives in some far distant land as he didn't make it all the way around the world.

At another table, Aubrey and Alex were teaching themselves
Hive. They seem to have picked it up pretty quickly and both said it was a good game. Aubrey won.

I gathered up Martha and David Briggs, Mike, and a new gamer to our group, Luke, who just recently discovered the great gateway game, The Settlers of Catan. As an easy introduction, we broke out the tile-laying, screw-your-neighbor game,
Metro. Martha's poor showing was due to her husband, David, messing with her at every opportunity. In final scoring, my routes vaulted me into the lead until we scored Luke's final route, a 34 point whopper that gave him the game. Luke 69, Bob 56, Mike 40, David 32, Martha 25. Next time, we're teaching Luke something really complicated. :-)

After the Around the World group finished, Kevin and Pat had arrived so they split into two groups. Jason and Eric joined Aubrey and Alex for our most popular game,
Blue Moon City. Final scores were Jason 4, Aubrey and Eric 3, and Alex 2. A close game.

At the same time, Pat, Dave Fair, Kevin, Laura and Doug played the simple but fun zoo populating game,
Zooloretto. Scores aren't available at the moment but Dave will post them tonight.
Pat Spaunagle won with a score of 29, Followed by Laura with 27, Kevin with 18, myself with 10, and Doug with 2. Yes. 2.
After Metro, Luke left so I taught the classic "push your luck" game
Can't Stop to Mike and David Briggs. Just as it looked like the game would drag, Mike surged ahead to victory. David and I scored 1 point each to Mike's 3.

A large group formed to stick feathers into their headband and do some clever calculating in
Pow Wow. After taking three buzzards, Laura was the first to drop, followed by Doug, Jason, Dave Fair, and Eric. Kevin was the best at figuring out the value of all the feathers and won.

Meanwhile, Helen had arrived and joined our group so I pulled out one of my favorite games,
Web of Power. I scored the most with cloisters and chains while Helen did very well with a combination of cloisters and advisors. Mike, however, completely dominated with advisors for an impressive victory. Final scores were Mike 55, Bob 47, Helen 45, David Briggs 36, and Martha 33.

My son, Ben, had come along to play some games so while I played Web of Power, Ben sat at a nearby table and I played Blokus Travel and
Ingenious Travel with him. Ben beat me in Blokus 14 to my 17, and beat me in Ingenious 8 to 5. That'll teach me to play two games at once.

Finally, while we finished up Web of Power, the rest of the group played Guillotine, chopping off heads during the French Revolution. Final scores were Kevin 13, Dave Fair, 11, Jason 10, Eric 7 and Doug 1. (Doug, don't quit your day job. You have no future as an executioner.)

    Saturday, September 15, 2007

    Damascus 09/14/07

    I was out of town, at That Boardgaming Thing, but here is what Noreen recorded:

    Twenty-Two people were in Attendance:

    • Noreen & Corwin Fair
    • Jennifer, Seth, & Justin Weinstein
    • David & Martha Briggs
    • Ruben & Melinda Carbonell
    • Lance Slifka
    • Marshall Miller
    • Jason Cheng
    • Rose Byington
    • John Stup
    • Bryan Snyder
    • Dan Barnett
    • Howard & Nathan Wagner
    • Stephanie Mordensky
    • Michael Flack
    • Bill Trac
    • Tim Rothenhoefer
    Games played:
    • Verflixxt, which Marshall won with 19 points to Lance's 12, Ruben's 10, Jennifer's 2, and Jason's -1.
    • Metro, won by Marshall and Jason who tied with 53, followed by Tim with 41, Ruben with 35, and Lance with 34.
    • Pillars of the Earth, won by Raphael with 55, followed by Bill with 42, and Melinda with 40.
    • Tichu, won by Bill & Melinda with 1075, over Tim & Noreen with 825.
    • Ticket to Ride, won by Noreen with 144, followed by Bryan 127, John 110, Rose 101, and Dan 46.
    • Blue Moon City, Won by Howard, and followed by Nathan, Martha, and David.
    • Yspahan, won by Bill with 90, followed by Raphael 79, Melinda 75, and Jennifer 59.
    • Finstere Flure, won by Jason. Bryan, Stephanie, and Michael failed to escape the monster.
    • Ticket to Ride, won by Nathan with 138 points, followed by Howard with 112, and Corwin with 100.
    Another update coming shortly...

    Saturday, September 08, 2007

    Damascus 09/07/07

    Due to the temporary closure of the Damascus Community Center, the September 7 session was held at the Scott Fisher's in Middletown and the Jones house in Germantown. Below is the summary of the Germantown event.

    Attending were:

    • Kevin Bealer
    • David Briggs
    • Martha Briggs
    • Rose Byington
    • Melinda Carbonell
    • Ruben Carbonell
    • Jason Cheng
    • Ben Jones
    • Bob Jones
    • Carol Jones
    • Rachel Jones
    • Raphael Lehrer
    • Marshall Miller
    • Rick Pasquale
    • Bill Trac

    Records were kept a bit haphazardly so I don't have completely accurate information. What I do have is below.

    We immediately split into two groups. At first my group thought we had six players, so we decided on Union Pacific. Then we realized we had five but since we had already set up UP, we decided to stick with it. This was fortunate, as Marshall showed up before the end of the first turn and joined us. Jason took an early lead with uncontested majorities in several lines that he maintained until the last scoring round. Unfortunately for him, he lost the majority in several rail lines on the last few turns and succumbed to a strong surge by Dave and Rose. Final scores were Dave Fair (104), Rose (95), Jason (85), Rick (84), Bob (66), and Marshall (61).

    Meanwhile, Martha cleaned up in Ticket to Ride: 1910 against Carol, Raphael and Dave Briggs. This was a somewhat bizarre game as Raphael completed the most tickets with a whopping four. That's a very low number for TTR, especially when using the expansion.

    Since Dave had been talking up Stephenson's Rocket in his Geek of the Week thread, I made sure to bring SR to the table. Rose and Kevin were new to the game and took a while to figure out all the different options available. They did pretty well and if another game had been played afterwards, the scores would have been very different. As it was, experience took the day as I ended up with the most stock in the remaining rail lines and scored boatloads of points in the final scoring. Scores were Bob (83), Dave (66), Kevin (47), Rose (43).

    The big game of the night was a dark and stormy game of Shadows over Camelot with Raphael, Carol, Dave Briggs, Martha, Jason, Rick and Marshall. Things went very badly for the Knights of the Round Table and although many suspicions were cast about, no one was accused of being the traitor. With the number of black and white swords equal at five each, good would win when it came to Marshall's turn. Unfortunately for the good guys, Rick's turn came up before Marshall and he was able to ensure a Pict/Saxon invasion which added two black swords to the table, meaning that evil won. Fortunately for Rick, he was the Traitor and won the game. Afterwards, several people said they suspected Rick, but none had accused him.

    At some point in the evening, Bill, Melinda and Ruben foolishly took on Noreen at her best game, Can't Stop. They were soon to learn the error of their ways as Noreen won (probably handily as she's fairly unbeatable at this game).

    After some people had left, Dave and I were temporarily without a group. So we broke out the fast-playing tile-laying game Ingenious Travel. I managed to block off all the tiles of Dave's lowest color, limiting his scoring potential. I ended up winning with 5 to Dave's 4.

    Ben has been clamoring to play Cash & Guns since we taught it to him over the summer. Plus, this game is on Marshall's "want to play" list. So, out came the game of gun-pointing and loot-dividing! I was the only gangster killed outright (curses!) and Ben ended up with nary a scratch. Final division of the loot was Ben ($135k), Rick ($110k), Carol ($90k), Marshall ($70k), and Bob DOA.

    While we shot each other, Dave Fair, Jason and Raphael played the great deduction game Code 777. During the game, all three players made one wrong guess. Unfortunately for them, Dave and Raphael made theirs really late in the game, thus thwarting their own victory and allowing Jason the time to guess his third combination correctly. Final scores were Jason (3), Dave (2), Raphael (2).


    Finally, lots and lots of Tichu was played. I have records of the following scores:
    - Noreen & Bill Trac 1070, Ruben & Melinda 930
    - Kevin & Noreen 1000, Rachel & Rose 715

    Thanks to everyone for joining us.

    Tuesday, September 04, 2007

    Germantown 09/03/07

    It was Labor day, and many of us took the chance to play more games, and longer games, starting earlier than usual. An abbreviated report, since I am so late...
    In attendance:

    • Bill Salvatore
    • Doug Hoylman
    • Mike Charbonneau
    • Mark Toigo
    • Rick Pasquale
    • David Fair
    • Doug Hoylman
    • Jason Cheng
    • Eric Reinhold
    • Laura Reinhold
    • Leslie Barkley
    • Kevin Bealer
    • David Briggs
    • Martha Briggs
    First up was Power Grid, with Bill taking the win by building to 15. His opponents were Mike (14), Mark (13) and Rick (13).

    David joined Eric, Jason, and Doug for a game of Blue Moon City. Doug won with 4 cubes in the Temple, to Eric's 2, and Dave & Jason's 1 each. A well-played game for Doug.

    David, Martha, and Laura played Zooloretto. It was Laura's first playing, but she nevertheless managed a shrewd victory, 38 points to Martha's 31, and David's 26.

    Another game of Thebes for David, this time with Eric, Jason, and Doug. Doug had some great digs and solid strategy, winning 66 points to Jason's 47, Eric's 46, and Dave's 45.

    The same group followed up with the quick filler High Society. Doug was eliminated by virtue of having spent too much money, leaving Eric with a 6-point win, followed by Dave with 4, and Jason with 0. A surprise ending...

    Mark, Bill, Rick and Mike finished their game of Colosseum, with Mark taking a come-from-behind victory of 83 points, followed by Bill (70), Rick (69) and Mike (62). Rick managed to win 4 podiums during the game, but could not sustain things for the final round.

    Next, our adventurous players tried a 5-player game of Qwirkle. Leslie won (81) over Kevin (76), David (75), Laura (71), and Martha (43).

    David Fair, Jason and Leslie played Tigris & Euphrates, Leslie for the first time. It was very close, with David winning (13, 13, 13, 14) over Jason (12, 12, 12, 13) and Leslie (12, 13, 15, 19) who had more red tiles than I have ever seen in one players hand in one game.

    Taluva was next, and it ended when David built all his Huts and his Towers, rather than as normal on the last tile draw. Leslie had 2 Temples and 2 Huts remaining, while Jason had 1 Temple, 1 Tower, and 5 Huts.

    last up was a game of Caylus that was not able to be finished. The scores were close as the game was called, but it looked as though Kevin might build a Prestige Building, and Eric was about to get 2 favors and a Mess O' Gold, so who knows what would have happened...

    See you in September!