Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Germantown 02/16/09

A night filled with a lot of light and medium weight games.

  • Leslie Barkley
  • Dave and Martha Briggs
  • Dave Fair
  • Todd Heidenreich
  • Doug Hoylman
  • Bob and Ben Jones
  • Mike Mullins
  • Eric Reinhold
  • Bill Salvatore
When Ben and I arrived, the Catan Dice Game was already in progress. I haven't played this version yet, but Settlers of Catan is certainly a classic. Mike was the best settler in this game. Mike 78, Leslie 70, Bill 69 and Doug 67.

When Eric arrived, he joined Ben and I for Cheeky Monkey. There's always one player who consistently draws the same animal after two or three pulls and this time it was Eric. I won 50 to Ben's 25 to Eric's 19.

We then pulled out Knizia's Bucket Brigade which is a reprint of Honeybears. My first round score put me ahead and gave me the game. Bob 23+27+28=78. Eric 17+26+28=71. Ben 16+27+28=71.

While Catan continued, Dave joined us for the great filler Uptown. After a strong start, I stuttered and died, while Ben managed to connect his far flung groups. Neither of us could hold on, though, against Eric. Final scores (groups/captured tiles) were Eric 2/5, Bob 2/8, Dave 2/9, Todd 2/12 and Ben 4/6.

Next a group tried Tiki Topple, a Gamewright game I bought at Barnes & Noble. The bits are very nice, featuring nine awesome resin tiki heads. Gameplay is a little bit Guillotine with a little bit Schrille Stille. This filler will get a lot of play. Leslie 26, Mike 18, Doug 13, Bill 9.

We mixed the groups into two 5 player games. One group played two games of Race for the Galaxy with The Gathering Storm expansion. The first game was over very quickly and the scores were pretty close, the second game considerably less so. First game - Eric 25, Bill 22, Bob 22, Dave F 18, Todd 17. Second game - Dave F 52, Bob 35, Todd 32, Eric 27, and Bill 26.

Meanwhile, the other group played the Egyptian-themed bidding game Ra. Final scores were Martha 43, Doug 42, Mike 32, Leslie 29, and Dave B 27.

Tiki Topple again hit the table. Bob and Ben tied at 21, Dave F 16 and Bill 5.

The other group played one last game, the popular Cheeky Monkey. Dave B and Leslie tied at 30, Mike 21, Martha 8 and Doug 4.

Hope to see you next time!

Monday, February 16, 2009

Germantown 02/02/09

A large group tonight in Germantown.

  • Leslie Barkley
  • Aubrey Bell
  • David and Martha Briggs
  • Ethan Goffman
  • Todd Heidenreich
  • Doug Hoylman
  • Bob Jones
  • Nathaniel Klinger
  • Carol Loman
  • Eric and Laura Reinhold
  • Marianne Szlyk
First up, Doug taught us Aquadukt, the game of building housing units in pre-arranged plots and moving water to those units. (Yes, that sounds completely boring. It's not, though.) If no water is delivered, the unit is removed and scores no points. I was able to score more of my units and had the victory. Bob 40, Carol 32, Laura 29, and Doug 27.

While we were finishing up, Aubrey and Leslie had time for one round of Lost Cities. Aubrey demolished her, 83 to 23. I'm sure she would have caught up in the second round.

With more people arriving, we broke into two groups. The first played the game of Egyptian archaeology, Mykerinos. an underrated game in my opinion. Eric put together the best exhibit in the museum for the win. Eric 56, Bob 49, Todd 36, Carol 24.

Meanwhile the other five played the classic Knizia game of pastel camel placement in the desert, Through the Desert. Based on Go, the players try to claim scoring spots, create the longest caravan and surround the most empty spaces. In a very close game, final scores were Aubrey 58, Martha 56, Leslie 55, Doug 53, and David 24. Don't know what happened there.

As Ethan, Marianne, and Nathaniel arrived, they played three-player Puerto Rico. Scores were Ethan 55, Marianne 47, and Nathaniel 45.

Next out came the perenniel favorite, bean-growing game, Bohnanza, in an apparently cooperative, hugely high-scoring game. Final scores were Doug and Aubrey tied at 21, Martha 17, Leslie 16 and David 14. Usually 14 would be a winning score.

Meanwhile, I taught one of my favorite games, Michael Schacht's Web of Power. This was an excellent game. Ethan made huge numbers on his Advisors for the win. Ethan 54, Nathaniel 49, Todd and Bob 38, and Marianne 32.

Finally, Leslie, Doug and Aubrey played a quick game of recycling-themed, R-Eco. Leslie won with 16, Aubrey 14 and Doug 9.

Thanks for coming out.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Bob's Five and Dime for 2008

For the past several years I've been keeping track of the games I've played. This was mostly inspired by curiosity and by Dave who has kept records for a long time. Until 2007 I had a log book which I carried with me which meant that at the end of the year I had to transfer my scribblings into a spreadsheet, an exceedingly tedious task. In early 2007 I was on the verge of quitting when I started to use the tracking system on Boardgamegeek.

Many of us in the group track our games played on BGG, which has an easy to use interface, making data entry fairly simple and quick. I only track the date on which I play each game, but the system will actually track scores, opponents, where the game was played, how long it took, and has expansive room for notes. It really is a nice resource that enables you to run some interesting statistics. Here's where Dave keeps track of the GCOM West games played.

In 2006, I played a total of 439 games. In 2007, I was way down with a total of 346 games. Yikes! What's worse, I had only one "dime" (that is games I played more than 10 times), and only fourteen "nickels". My most played game was Poker.

In 2008, I turned the trend around. Here's my list of games played at least five times.

Agricola60
Star Wars: Epic Duels28
Dominion27
Pandemic17
Race for the Galaxy16
Unpublished Prototype15
Star Wars: Episode 1 - Clash of the Lightsabers14
Poker11
Cheeky Monkey10
Hanging Gardens, The9
Sorry! Sliders8
Circus Flohcati7
Crokinole7
Escalation! 7
R-Eco7
Diamant5
Showmanager5
Uptown5
Zooloretto5

It won't surprise anyone in our group to see that Agricola now dominates my plays. I don't think I've played anything as many times as I've played Agricola. Interestingly, Poker was way down this year.

What's more significant is that I now have nine dimes and ten nickels!

Alas, my total plays for the year was 499. A huge leap up, but one game short of 500! Rats. Maybe this year.

If you're interested in tracking your games on BGG, just ask. There are lots of us who can help you out.

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Damascus 02/06/09

Again, on the road, this time at Reinhold Manor.

In attendance:

  • Eric & Laura Reinhold
  • Doug Hoylman
  • Dave Fair
  • Rick & Linda Pasquale
  • David & Martha Briggs
  • Bob Jones
Game records were not completely kept, but we do know that the following games were played:
  • Gloria Mundi
  • Chicago Express
  • Amun-Re
  • For Sale
  • Cluzzle
See you again soon! Thanks to the Reinhold's for hosting us all, we had a great time!

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Middletown 1/31/2009

We had sixteen gamers make the trek to Middletown for some great gaming:

  • Scott Fisher
  • David Fair
  • Tom McCorry
  • Bryan Snyder
  • Noreen Fair
  • John Weber
  • Rick Pasquale
  • Linda Pasquale
  • Leslie Barkley
  • Lige Carpenter
  • Brian Carpenter
  • Karl Musser
  • Ben Jones
  • Robert (Bob) Jones
  • Corwin Fair
  • Andrew Fair
Another great night of gaming that welcomed two new persons to our game night. I hope everyone met and had an opportunity to welcome Brian and Lige Carpenter to our group in Middletown. We look forward to seeing them again in the future.

This game night was also a birthday celebration for Noreen. Happy Birthday! We enjoyed a ham, scalloped potatoes, many vegetables and desserts! Now on to the gaming!

A quick rundown follows:

A few games of Tichu were played. The first game pitted the Scott & Noreen Vs. Linda & Leslie. The score ended with a victory for Scott & Noreen winning 1030 to 170. Another game pitted Rick & Linda Vs. Noreen & Lige. This game ended in victory for Rick & Linda 1045 to 555.

A couple of games of Ticket to Ride were played. The first was the original game of TtR with the 1910 expansion. This game was played by Karl (85), Scott (81), Noreen (116), Linda (103) and Leslie (157) getting the win.

TtR:Nordic Countries was played by Leslie (87), John (63) and Bob (115) taking the victory. Bob reported that he "hosed" the others often! Nice victory.

We played a card game that I picked up at Essen call Mow. It is similar to Take Six but with a cow theme. The object of this game is not get stuck picking up flies. The game was played by Karl (8), Leslie (36), Noreen (6), Rick (8), Linda (10) and getting the victory was Scott (5). The game is designed for maximum of 5 so we may have not gotten the best example of play. It was OK but I enjoy Take Six more.

A very good game of Alhambra was played. I really enjoy this game and will always join a game if it is available. The game was played by Scott (107), Leslie (86), Noreen (80) and getting the win was Karl (114).

The new Zoch game, from Reiner Knizia, Sushizock in Gockelwok was enjoyed by Noreen (7), Rick (4), Lige (1) and Linda (4). I am not sure if the object is to get points or have low score so I am not sure who was the winner. Anybody??? (High score wins - Ed.)

A very competitive game of San Juan was played by Bob (31), John (30) and Leslie (25).

Another new game that was released at Essen that got played was Fast Flowing Forest Fellers. The game was played by Lige (4th place), Linda (3rd), Noreen (2nd) and Rick winning this racing game of log floating.

Tom, David, Brian Carpenter and Bryan Snyder played a game of Tichu.

Others played: Battlestar Galactica (Cylons Tom and Scott won), Steam over Holland, and Dominion.