GCOM-Milestone, December 5th

I was surprised and happy at the great attendance for our inaugural session at GCOM-Milestone.

People in attendance:

• David & Noreen Fair
• Henry Ho
• Bob and Carol Jones
• Alf Shupe
• Nick Ferris
• Jen Glinzak
• Eric Haas
• Mark Broski
• Eric and Laura Reinhold

Games played (players listed in finishing order):

• Pi Mal Pflaumen (Nick 36, Jen 35, Alf, 30, Eric H. 28, Dave 20)
• This is an interesting little bidding/trick taking game with set collection. Great artwork. The game play may not be very deep, but it works and is a nice filler.
• Black Spy (Dave -5, Eric H. 0, Alf 34, Mark 91)
• The game is a little like Hearts, but with different point values for certain cards, and the ability to dodge tricks by following with numbers rather than suits.
• Libertalia (Eric H. 66, Jen 61, Alf 58, Nick 57)
• This is a tactical card game of pirates and treachery. I had never heard of it before, but it is in BGG's top 250 so may be worth checking out.
• Shakespeare (Bob, Henry, Carol, Noreen)
• Bob and Carol won a copy of this game at Euroquest and have been tying to get it to the table ever since. It involves bidding for turn order with the player who bids the least actions getting to start. Sounds interesting.
• Dice City (Eric R. 51, Laura & Dave tied at 49, Mark 47)
• When I got this game, the box was so heavy I thought it must have tons of dice in it, but it only has 25. The weight comes from the massive player boards. It was an interesting resource management and building game. I often felt that there was not enough ways to carry over progress from one turn to the next, but maybe we were all just too conservative.
• Splendor (Alf 15, Henry 15, Eric H, 9)
• So I asked Noreen how you play Splendor and have 2 people get to 15, and it turns out there was a miscount, so the game went on a bit longer than it should have. Alf reached 15 first, but miscounted, and the game stopped when Henry got there a bit later. LOL.
• Codenames (2 plays)
• Game One: W: Dave, Noreen, Alf, Jen L: Bob, Eric H., Henry
• Game Two: W: Noreen, Alf, Carol, Jen L: Dave, Bob, Eric H., Henry
• A great party game for any number, Codenames has 2 players trying to get their team to pick the right 8-9 words from a set of 25 before the other team picks theirs. Equally fun as the clue-giver, and as the guesser, in my opinion, and the best party game in a long time.
• Igel Argern (Alf, Noreen, Dave, Eric H., Henry)
• A tactical racing game of hedgehogs. A favorite of Doug Hoylman's, a good friend and gamer whom we will miss at the table.

Thanks for coming out everyone, we will see you in January!

Lebertalia image from BGG user Niquilibrium