Germantown 10/01/07

The first session in October saw a much smaller group than usual. Still, a lively group of ten gamers made for a fun evening. Attending were:

• Leslie Barkley
• David Briggs
• Martha Briggs
• Rose Byington
• Luke Conte
• Dave Fair
• Bob Jones
• Helen Powell
• Eric Reinhold
• Laura Reinhold

Before I arrived, Eric, Laura, Luke and Rose played the Rack-O-esque game of travel arrangements, 10 Days in Asia. Rose is credited with the win.

I arrived around 7PM and found David and Martha Briggs with Eric and Laura setting up for the immensely popular Zooloretto with all the expansions. When I checked in with them later, Eric had filled almost every spot in his zoo and by the end of the game he had actually completed the entire zoo plus the camel enclosure. A notable achievement. Final scores were Eric 30, David 28, Martha 21 and Laura 19.

Meanwhile, I joined Dave Fair, Rose, Leslie and Luke for the building and expansion game, Phoenicia. Only Dave had played before so we started out very slowly. One cool thing about the game is that it naturally accelerates, so the final playing time was shorter than we had expected. Midway through the game, I had a significant lead in income while Luke had a big lead in victory points. On the penultimate round, Luke had positioned himself to cross the 32 point trigger that signals the final round with me a few spaces behind and everyone else trailing. As expected, Luke was able to generate sufficient points on his next turn to reach 32 and trigger the final round. Unfortunately for him, he didn't count on me getting the City Walls and then having enough cash and workers to add to my Improved Hunting, giving me enough points to pass him. Final scores were Bob 34, Luke 32, Dave 28, Rose 28, Leslie 17. I should also note that Rose had a slow start but made quite a comeback. (The above image from BGG here).

After Zooloretto finished, Laura left but Helen arrived. So Eric taught the group Diamant with the Incan Idols expansion. David proved the master of the mines with final scores of David 51, Eric 31, Martha 29 and Helen 22.

At that point, Eric left so Helen taught David and Martha the number one BBG-ranked game, Puerto Rico. There wasn't enough time to finish, but they did get through quite a few turns.

Once Phoenicia was done, we had about an hour left so we pulled out Reiner Knizia's agonizing bidding game, High Society. No one did particularly well. Leslie got the 6 and 5 tiles but then took the 1/2 tile, effectively eliminating her. I took the -5 tile and the Thief early and so had to come back from a deficit. Going into the last round, the 8 was on the table. Anyone who took it had the best chance of winning, provided they didn't spend the most money. Rose took it, but had indeed spent more than anyone else and so was immediately out of contention. Of the three of us that tied with 10, Luke had the most money remaining and won. Final scores (with remaining cash on hand) were Luke 10 ($50), Dave 10 ($31), Bob 10 ($25), Leslie 5 ($37), and Rose (eliminated for having the least cash, $7).

Finally, we got in a quick game of No Thanks. Leslie managed to get a run of cards from 21 to 24 which saved her from lots of pain and gave her a good amount of coins. The rest of us were not so lucky. Final scores were Leslie 43, Luke 47, Bob 55, and Dave 57.