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.)