Germantown 03/31/08

Hey everyone! As the fifth Monday of the month rolled around, we found ourselves at Borders. What a shock!

• Leslie Barkley
• Shannon and Aubrey Bell
• Dave and Martha Briggs
• Dave Fair
• Doug Hoylman
• Bob and Ben Jones
• Carol Loman
• Mike Mullins
• Helen Powell
• Eric and Laura Reinhold
• and a new player, Mattie Pascual

First up was one of two known zoo-building games, O Zoo le Mio. We don't play this often enough as it's a fun, cute game with some strategy. Doug was the most adept at designing his zoo, with final scores of Doug 107, Laura 98, Dave Fair 91 and Eric 75.

Meanwhile, the Settlers of Catan dice game, Die Siedler von Catan – Das Würfelspiel, was taught to Carol, Leslie and first-timer, Mattie. Mattie charged right out of the gate, winning 88 to Carol's 69 and Leslie's 48.

I arrived with Ben in tow to find Dave Fair waiting. Ben is often reluctant to learn new games but loves Star Wars so we broke out the light card game of space warfare, Mag-Blast. I started out strong, adding ships to my fleet and taking some big shots. Sadly, my defenses failed at a crucial moment on the turn before I was to take out Dave's flagship. Instead, an attack on my aft flank resulted in the destruction of my flagship. Ben's demise occurred soon after, giving Dave control of the galaxy.

At another table, a battle for another galaxy was being fought in the wildly popular card game, Race for the Galaxy. This was a very close game with Eric winning over Laura by the tie-breaker. Final scores were Eric 32, Laura 32, Mike 30, and Leslie 17.

Meanwhile, Doug taught the hefty development and dice-rolling game, Kingsburg. This was a somewhat long game which ended up pretty close. Dave Briggs was the winner with 39, Mattie (an impressive second place finish in her second game with us) 34, Martha 33, Doug 32, and Carol 27.

Between games, Eric and Mike played the Moose skipping, flicking game Elchfest, where players try to move a moose across a river by flicking stepping stones for him to stand on. Mike proved the more dexterous and won.

With the arrival of Helen, Shannon and Aubrey, Dave and I broke out the game of mining development, saloons, and dynamite, Boomtown. I fared particularly badly while Shannon and Helen fought for first. In the end, Shannon won with 117, Helen 106, Dave 51, Aubrey 50 and Bob 42.

Ben taught Leslie one of his favorite games, the two-player Star Wars lightsaberin' card game, Clash of the Lightsabers. Leslie did what I can't seem to do and beat Ben in two games straight.

When we hit 9PM, we geared up for the last games of the night. A quartet of hearty folk decided to get in a quick second game of Race to the Galaxy. This was risky as the game can take more than an hour. To my surprise, they did manage to finish on time. Dave walked away with the victory using a heavy shipping strategy. Dave 58, Aubrey 32, Helen 28 and Mike 23.

Meanwhile, I took everyone left and we played a couple of quick filler games. First up was Coloretto, the card game on which Zooloretto is based. In a very close game, I won with 35 to Shannon's 33 and Eric's 29.

Finally, Dave Briggs, Leslie and Ben joined us for some card-slapping fun with It's Mine. In this quick game, one person starts laying cards face up on the table. When you want to collect them, you slap the mat. There are several different cards which allow different scoring, including negative points, so you have to watch carefully and slap quickly. I was ahead after the first scoring round, but collecting a huge pile of cards on the second round gave Leslie a narrow victory. Final scores were Leslie 18+33=51, Bob 25+25=50, Eric 4+30=34, Shannon 12+2=14, and Ben/Dave B 13+0=13. (Dave took over for Ben.)