Germantown 01/07/08

On this first session of 2008 in Germantown, attending were:

• Leslie Barkley
• Aubrey Bell
• David and Martha Briggs
• Dave Fair
• Doug Hoylman
• Bob, Carol and Ben Jones
• Carol Loman
• Ken McAuliffe
• Eric Reinhold
• Bill Salvatore

First up was the ever-popular Showmanager with Dave Fair, Leslie, Eric, Carol Loman, Doug and Bill. Dave tanked his Wolf in NY and used the money to maximize his other three shows, a risky strategy, but he still ended up in 4th in NY when others did even worse at their Wolf shows. This, and the last-minute pull of the final remaining "9" in the deck (which he got for free when Carol flushed) gave him the oomph needed to push his King Lear to the top. While usually not an issue, the rule that says a player may have "only a single card left over on the last show" burned several people when they were forced NOT to take a more valuable card than one they already had. Eric, for example, was unable to take a free 9 to replace the 5 in hand. The 4 point difference in the show value likely would have won him the game, as he would have moved up two places in Ballet, and Dave would have moved down one place. Final scores were Dave 46, Leslie 43, Eric 43, (same money amount as Leslie as well), Carol 40, Doug 32, and Bill 18.

When I arrived, I joined David Briggs and Martha teaching Ticket to Ride: Marklin Edition to Aubrey. Before we started, Ken McAuliffe arrived so he joined us for this first game at GCOM Germantown. For the longest time there was no passenger action, but when Aubrey launched his first passenger for lots of points, the rest of the passengers quickly followed. I made some poor choices in my initial tickets and when Aubrey and David both cut me of from Switzerland and France, I was doomed. Final scores Aubrey 124, Dave 118, Martha 111, Ken 90, and Bob a pathetic 62.

While waiting for Showmanager to finish, Carol Jones and Ben played a game of Battleship. Alas, poor Ben was the one to utter "You sunk my battleship!" and Carol won. (Note: Ben did not literally say this, but metaphorically experienced it.)

After Showmanager, Carol Jones brought out her favorite game, Dragonland, and faced off against Doug, Carol Loman and Leslie. Doug proved the most adept at saving the dragon eggs and jewels and won a very close game. Final scores were Doug 44, Carol J 43, Leslie 42 and Carol L 33.

Dave Fair, Eric and Bill played a good gateway game that hasn't gotten much play in Germantown lately, Thurn & Taxis. Bill missed the chance to end the game on his turn, costing himself at least 6 points, and Eric ended it at the right time, as both of Dave and Bill were poised to score. Eric 15, Dave 14, and Bill 10.

Ben joined Carol Jones, Doug and Leslie for his favorite game, Star Wars: Epic Duels. For a genre-based game, Epic Duels has a really good set of rules and is extremely well balanced considering how many characters there are. Ben was Obi Wan Kenobi, Doug was Yoda, Leslie played Mace Windu while Carol played Count Dooku in an all-against-all brawl. Obi Wan came out immediately after Yoda who was the first to die. Obi Wan's aggressiveness got him pretty banged up however, so in the end it was down to Count Dooku against a virtually unscathed Mace Windu who won the day. Well done, Leslie.

Eric and Bill were looking for a two player game and ended up with the excellent Alhambra. Unfortunately, they ran out of time before they could finish.

Finally finished with Ticket to Ride, Bob taught Aubrey, David Briggs and Martha, the ultra-quick filler Escalation! where players are neighbors trying to escalate the, well, violence against each other. We played three rounds, and I proved the most adept at suburban warfare. Scores (low score wins) were Bob 7+9+13=29, David 17+12+9=38, Martha 16+12+11=39, Aubrey 15+22+19=56.

Thanks to Ken for coming out to his first GCOM session. Hope we'll see you again soon.