Damascus 10/19/07

It was a warm evening, and we had 23 gamers on hand:

• Dan Barnett
• Rose Byington
• Jason Cheng
• Luke Conte
• Brandy Cunningham
• David, Noreen, Corwin & Andrew
• Philippe Hebert
• Bob, Carol, Rachel & Ben Jones
• Raphael Lehrer
• Marshall Miller
• Rick Pasquale
• David Raley
• Lance Slifka
• Bryan Snyder
• Jennifer, Justin, & Seth Weinstein

The (un-numbered) slips got completely out of order this morning when I dropped them on the way to the car, so this is in an order determined by entropy alone... Games we played:

There were 3 separate playings of Zombie Fluxx, the newest member of the Fluxx Family from Looney Labs. In one of them Bryan won while playing with Dan, David R., and Lance. In another, Philippe won while playing with Lance, Dan, and Bryan. In the final, Luke won while playing with Brandy and Marshall.

Zooloretto (with a mess of expansions) was also played, and Dan managed to grab top honors with a score of 27 to David R.'s 23, Lance's 22, and Bryan's 15.

In Blue Moon City (played with expansions), David R. Managed to win by contributing the most to the obelisks completion, followed closely by Brandy, and then Marshall.

Kingdoms involves placing castles to take advantage of scoring opportunities, and Bob got hammered in the first round of play, but recovered to some degree. Bill won (it was his first time playing) with 279, followed by Noreen (also her first time playing) with 214, Bob with 207, and Carol with 196.

Princes of Florence is a tense game of optimization and producing works. Carol produced 6 works, and had a Prestige card giving an easy path to a hard-fought victory with 61 points. carol was followed by Bob (57, also 6 works), Noreen (52), Bill (51) and Jennifer (first time playing, 27 points).

Brandy, Bob, and Marshall played the great 3-player game, San Marco. Brandy appears to have led the whole game, with Marshall passing Bob only on the final scoring. Brandy won with 66 to Marshall's 53 and Bob's 50.

David F, Corwin, David R., and Jason played Ingenious (AKA Einfach Genial), and it was the first time playing for the latter two. David R. ended with 9, Jason with 13, Corwin with 15, and David F. ended the game early by scoring all 18's. Corwin, had he another turn, could have matched the feat.

A fast-playing 6-player game of Power Grid on the Benelux map was called for, and Raphael managed things carefully to end the game quickly and decisively by building to 14. player order was as follows (Cities, Capacity, Money): Raphael (14/15/15), Philippe (11/15/17), David F. (10/16/3), Jason (9/15/13), Rick (9/17/7), Rose (8/16/18).

Building the cathedral in Kingsbridge is the theme for Pillars of the Earth, and 4 players set out to do that, garnering fame and wealth for themselves in the process. Luke had never played before, and it had been some time for Bryan and Rick as well. David F. got some early metal, but got shut out of the first two metal workers. It was looking grim. Luckily, he managed to grab the second two metal workers, and snatch a metal out from under Rick, to score 28 points on the last turn to grab victory, scoring 62 points to Rick's 52, Luke's 39, and Bryan's 37.

In For Sale, players work in two separate auction rounds to get profit in a volatile real estate market. Rick showed he had the chops, winning 73 to Bryan's 57, Luke's 56 and Dave's 55.

There were 2 games of Igel Argern, and in the first, Bill won while playing with Noreen and Jennifer, and in the second, David F. won over Carol, Luke, and Raphael.

Two games of Tichu were played, Jason & Bill vs. Noreen & Rose, with Noreen and the Rose winning both, though i have no score sheets to confirm that, Hmmmmm.....

In Dragonland, Carol and Raphael managed to end the game a bit early as David and Luke were caught unprepared, leading to dismal scores for at least one of them... Carol won with 42 points, followed by Raphael with 39, Luke with 27, and David F. with 24.

Finally, Das Zepter Von Zavandor hit the table again, this time had Raphael winning 67 to Philippe's 52, Rose's 49 and Jason's 46. It was a first play for both Rose and Jason, and they seemed to do very well in a game that has a significant learning curve.

Next week we are at Fisher's, and will get to paw hungrily over his stack of Essen acquisitions, join us there!