Euro Quest

Remember, no Damascus gaming tonight. Many of us are at Euro Quest all weekend! Come on by and play some games!

Germantown 11/03/08

Thirteen gamers in attendance on the weekend after Halloween.

• Aubrey & Shannon Bell
• Dave Fair
• Dave Briggs
• Mike Mullins
• Todd Heidenreich
• Laura Reinhold
• Eric Reinhold
• Doug Hoylman
• Bob and Ben Jones
• Doug Mercer
• Leslie Barkley
  

Since this post is so overdue, I'll just include the scores and some highlights.

Race for the Galaxy: The Gathering Storm
(cards + shipping + 6 point cards + Special bonus)
Todd 16+16+6+8=46
Leslie 23+0+15+3=41
Mike 20+13+0+3=36
Laura 15+8+0+0=23
Dave B. 9+1+0+0=10

Powerboats - Dave really likes this game but seems to really stink at it.
Eric 11
Doug Mercer 17
Doug 8
Dave F 0

Carcassonne: New World - I haven't played this yet but, boy, what a beautiful game.
Eric 117
Doug H 116
Dave F 103

Kreta - Kreta doesn't make it to the table very often but it's an under-rated gem. This was an excellent game with nice playing by everyone. A real pleasure.
Shannon 51
Doug M 49
Bob 48
Aubrey 42

Jamaica
Todd 15+12+3=30
Leslie 6+9+12=27
Eric 8+15+0=23
Doug H 15+4+3=22
Dave F 6+14+0=20
Mike 3+10+2=15

Money - I was the only one who had played so I had a large advantage which shows in the final scores. Still, Doug made it reasonably close. Scores for each of three rounds shown.
Bob 840+100+670=1610
Doug M 600+160+670=1430
Shannon 510+460+80=1050
Aubrey 150+410+150=710

Damascus 10/31/08

Because of the holiday, we rescheduled this session for 9PM and held it at the Jones house in Germantown.

Attendance:

• Dave &Martha Briggs
• Ben Jones
• Bob & Carol Jones
• Linda & Rick Pasquale
• Liz & Scott Percival

We started late but still got in a good number of games. First up was the fun trivia and betting game, Wits & Wagers. I had the lead going into the last round but a good answer and a big bet shot Carol into the victory. Final scores were Carol 120, Bob 110, Liz 105, Rick 65, Scott 60 and Linda 45.

Next we broke into two groups. I played Scott and Liz at Race for the Galaxy. Starting with New Sparta and a good mix of military cards, I took the military strategy. Liz went big into production and had a ton by game end. Scott was the first to twelve cards played but unfortunately for him, I had played the the military 6 card and a rebel homeworld on the last turn for 16 points. Final scores were Bob 33, Scott 30 and Liz 27.

After Race, Ben joined us for a four player battle with disease in Pandemic. We started off very well, curing the blue and black diseases in short order. Unfortunately, a bad run of red cards was making life difficult in Asia. Ben the Scientist had the four red cards needed to cure red, but before his turn, a string of red outbreaks brought all the red cubes onto the board and ended things badly for the human race.

Meanwhile, the others were playing Agricola. By the final turn, only two players (Carol and Rick) had all five family members in play. Carol was the only one to go to a stone house. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Final scores were Rick 33, Martha 29, Carol 28, Linda 26 and Dave 19.

We had invited everyone to wear costumes and the Briggs and the Pasquales took us up on it. Unfortunately, we didn't get a picture of Martha. Rick's costume is awesomely appropriate.

Damascus tonight in Germantown!

Remember, we're at the Jones's because of Halloween. Starting at 9PM.

Happy Halloween!!

Germantown 10/20/08

Attendance:

• Leslie Barkley
• Aubrey Bell
• David Briggs
• Dave Fair
• Doug Hoylman
• Todd Heidenreich
• Bob Jones
• Mike Mullins
• Eric Reinhold
• Laura Reinhold
  

With 6 player, we got into the Halloween spirit by playing the run-for-your-life-from-the-monster game, Fearsome Floors. The huge eyeball monster ate well this night as mistakes by nearly everyone resulted in a bloodbath. During the game, the following number of deaths were recorded for each player. Bob 1, Doug 1, Laura 2, Dave F 3, Eric 3 and Aubrey 3. Bob won the game by being first to get two guys out of the dungeon. Final scores were Bob 2, Doug 1, Laura 1, Dave F 1, and Eric 1. Alas, none of Aubrey’s team survived.

Arriving while the Fearsome Floors was running, Leslie and Dave B tried two player Blue Moon City. They report it was a close game with Leslie winning 6 to 5.

Another game of my prototype was played. What made this unique is that I stupidly forgot my own rule about how the game ended. So it should’ve ended a couple of turns sooner. I guess this helped, because for the first time, I won 78 to Aubrey’s 72 to Laura’s 69. Every game we've played so far has ended pretty close.

With 8 players, we broke into two four player groups. I was very happy to play one of my favorite games, Samurai, at Dave’s suggestion. Todd had never played but the game’s similarity to Go puts it right up his alley. Eric had played once or twice before. What resulted was a particularly nasty game with lots of screwage of your neighbor. I started out going for Buddhas, but when they came up in short supply, I switched to Rice Paddies. Good thing I did because when we looked at the final scores, I was the only one with a majority in one of the three pieces, so I won. Final scores were Bob 5 rice, 3 buddhas, 2 high helmets with a majority of rice. Dave F 1 rice, 3 buddhas, and 4 high helmets. Eric 2 rice, 2 buddhas, 4 high helmets. Todd 2 rice, 2 buddhas and 3 high helmets.

Meanwhile, Aubrey, Leslie, Dave B and Doug took on four nasty infectious diseases in the cooperative game, Pandemic. I don’t have much detail to add except that Aubrey was great at pulling Infection cards and that the diseases won.

Todd had printouts of the new start worlds from the then-unreleased Race for the Galaxy expansion, The Gathering Storm, so naturally they had to play. Todd won the race by grabbing a large number of victory points from shipping. Final scores (cards, shipping, bonus) were Todd (14+23+0)=37, Dave F (11+15+5)=31, Doug (14+16+0)=30, and Eric (12+15+0)=27.

Then, a four player game of Monty Python Fluxx broke out. I think this is a big winner among Fluxx variations because the wacky Python humor translates well to the game. It’s obvious that the designers are big Python fans. In this game, Todd lorded his victory over Doug, Eric and Dave F by holding Sir Robin while someone else had the Grail.

With six left, we broke into two three player games. Eric won a game of Blue Moon City with 5 points to Doug’s 4 and Dave B’s 3.

I played Aubrey and Leslie in a very quick and close game of Dragonland. I thought I had hurt Aubrey enough to cinch the win but was surprised when Leslie quietly accumulated a lot more gems and eggs than I had guessed. And I had underestimated Aubrey’s score as well! Final scores Leslie 51, Aubrey 44, Bob 44.

Germantown 10/06/08

Attendance:

• Leslie Barkley
• Aubrey Bell
• Shannon Bell
• David Briggs
• Martha Briggs
• Dave Fair
• Doug Hoylman
• Bob Jones
• Carol Loman
• Mike Mullins
• Eric Reinhold
• Laura Reinhold

BGG link here.

First up tonight, Category 5, aka 6 Nimmt, an excellent filler which plays up to ten players. This time, they started with four players and added new players as they arrived. Final scores with the number of rounds played were David B (29/4), Eric R (32/4), Laura R (39/3), David F (48/3), Doug H (62/4), Carol L (64/4).

After playing the recent release, Batavia, Dave says, “With complete domination of the higher valued goods, Leslie crushed us mortals.” Final scores were Leslie 56, Dave 29, Carol 28, Aubrey 25, and Eric 23. That is a crushing.

The second three player version of Ticket to Ride, TTR: Nordic Countries, boasts an incredibly tight board that plays fast and mean. Wait too long to claim a route in this game and you’ll regret it. Finishing up an incredible 8 tickets, Doug amassed an impressive 117 points. Also playing were Laura 83 and Mike 67.

Oregon has a similar meeple-placement mechanic to Carcassonne with a clever extra turn and wild card mechanism. I really like this one. Unfortunately, it didn’t like me as my strategy of going for as much gold and coal as possible didn’t pan out. Get it? Pan out? As in pan for gold? Okay. Final scores (points accrued + points from coal and gold mines) were Eric 71+19=90, Doug 57+17=74, Bob 43+28=71 and Mike 59+7=66.

We played another game of my recent prototype (name and theme forthcoming). It plays quickly, has some good decisions and is, I think, pretty enjoyable. I hope to add some themeing soon to see if that enhances the game play. Of course, since this is my prototype, I inevitably lost again. Doug 68, Eric 61, Mike 55, and Bob 52.

And finally, the remaining six played another recent release, Jamaica, which has some really awesome bits. Dave says, “We all had fun racing around the island picking up Gold and trying to win the race. Shannon came second in the race, but had huge stacks of coins. Leslie had secret cards that gave her second, and Dave came first in the race, but his paltry gold holdings led to his third place finish.” Scores were Shannon 28, Leslie 21, David F 19, Aubrey 15, Martha 13, and
David B 5.

Damascus 10/03/08

We a nice double-handful of gamers to start off the autumn gaming season right...

• David & Noreen Fair
• Jason Cheng
• Tim Rothenhoefer
• Rick & Linda Pasquale
• David & Martha Briggs
• Bob, Carol, & Ben Jones
• Luke Conte
• Paul Harada
• Nathaniel Klinger

We had a nice mix of games played, including some old and some new ones.

• Started with a 2-player game of Race for the Galaxy, where someone set a new high score...
• then we played the new Batavia from Rio Grande Games.
• We had a couple of fillers, starting with Cheeky Monkey...
• and ending with Escalation, from Z-Man games.
• There was a 4-player game of Agricola...
• and a 4-player game of Die Handler.
• Bob brought another prototype, which was played twice...
• and we played a second game of Race for the Galaxy.
• Oh yeah, there was a game of Dominion in there as well.
• What, No Tichu?

Thanks for coming, see you at Germantown on Monday, back here on Friday, and then in Frederick (remember to RSVP) on Saturday.

Germantown 09/29/08

Attendance:

• Leslie Barkley
• Aubrey Bell
• David Briggs
• Martha Briggs
• Todd Heidenreich
• Doug Hoylman
• Ben Jones
• Bob Jones
• Eric Reinhold

The BGG entry for tonight's session is here.

First up, the clever and transparent card game, Gloom, where parts of the cards are literally transparent. Players try to inflict misery on their poor pathetic characters before their inevitable death. This night, Dave Briggs was by far the most miserable with a downright forlorn winning score of -50. Dave was followed by Eric -25, and Doug -20. Leslie brought up the rear with a merely relatively depressed score of -10.

When I arrived, Aubrey was waiting, so I taught him the wonderfully balanced two player game by Reiner Knizia, Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. Aubrey was the Dark Lord Sauron and his minions while I captained the Fellowship of the Ring. The early game was a bloodbath with multiple characters on each side getting killed, a strategy that usually leads to a Dark Player victory. Unfortunately for Aubrey, his inexperience led him to leave an opening for Frodo to slip past his forces and zip straight to Mordor for the win. I doubt Aubrey will make such a mistake a second time.

The enormously successful Settlers of Catan started the whole Euro game trend back in the early nineties. It’s been quite a while since I played so I was eager to bring it to the table with Doug, Dave B and Martha. What followed was a tight, very close game. Dave was cut off and had difficulty finding spaces to build, although he did manage a sizable road for the Longest Road bonus. About halfway through the game I found myself with lots of sheep, grain and ore so I started acquiring development cards to get the Largest Army card and its two victory points.

Alas, on my penultimate turn, I forgot to play one of the two Knight cards remaining in my hand. Had I done so, I would have gotten the 2 point bonus on the next turn and won the game ahead of Doug. Since I didn’t, he won by building up to 10 Victory Points, leaving the rest of us with 8 points each. A harsh lesson in paying attention.

Thurn & Taxis is another recent Euro that, like Ticket to Ride, plays quickly and is easy to learn but also requires a decent amount of strategy and is just plain fun. In this game, Aubrey proved the most adept at setting up post offices throughout Europe with 19 points to Eric’s 17, Leslie’s 14 and Todd’s 8.

What a shock! We played Race for the Galaxy again! Todd won with a huge shipping score. Final scores (cards, shipping, bonus) were Todd 21+28+0=49, Aubrey 13+4+24=41, Eric 9+20+4=33, and Leslie 21+2+6=29.

Finally, with three of us left, Ben joined us for four hands of Poison. After two rounds, Doug had a good lead. Unfortunately, a bad third round did him in. Dave and Ben were pretty much out by the second round. Bob 6+0+4+2=12, Doug 2+0+11+4=17, Dave 11+8+4+7=30, and Ben 4+15+4+8=30.

Middletown 09/27/08

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

• Scott Fisher
• David Fair
• Tom McCorry
• Bryan Snyder
• Steve Lollis
• John Weber

We played some terrific games, and everyone had a good time, we ate some pizza and generally just enjoyed the whole experience. it really was a great day.

• Our Prologue game of Descent, in preperation for the full campaign starting soon.
• John Weber played a Solo game of The Next President, as we tied things up.
• We played a great simulation of team bicycle racing, Maillot Jaune.
• We threw each other into chum-infested water while we escaped a shipwreck, in Lifeboat.
• We had a memorable game of Time's Up: Title Recall.

In October, there will not be a Last Saturday session at Middletown, but we will have both a First Saturday and last Saturday session in November, so we plan to see you on Nov. 1!

Descent - The Overlord Awakes - Prologue

Several of us got together and decided to play an ongoing Descent: Road to Legend Campaign. In preparation for this, we started with a regular game of descent, just to get more familiar with the rules and the flow of the game. I expect that the full RtL campaign will give us enjoyment for the next year or two, as we are only going to play approximately once a month, on days where we are playing at GCOM-Middletown.

The inaugural, get-to-know-the-game session, that pitted four unlikely heroes (Tom: Battlemage Jaes, Bryan: Varikas the Dead, Scott: Trenloe the Strong, Steve: Ispher) against the Mighty OverLord (Dave).

The heroes had heard tales of the legendary Blade of Light, and they set off in search of it, only to find that the map that had fallen into their hands was a trap, set by a new power on Terrinoth, and that by obtaining the blade, they would inadvertently release this new power and it would be able to wage war on the entire world...

They set off into the dungeon, only to find that the Blade was guarded by an unstoppable warrior who fought them and harassed them every step of the way. It was a hard-fought battle throughout, with the Heroes constantly hampered by the Guardian. Once they found the Blade of Light, they were able to use it's power to kill the Guardian. In his dying breath the Guardian warned them that the Demon who had imprisoned him here would do the same to him if they did not kill the demon quickly. The heroes found and fought against the great nameless demon, and were finally able to vanquish him from the land. In doing so, however, a portal was opened, and the Overlord was able to come directly to Terrinoth, and begin a campaign of destruction and death the likes of which Terrinoth has never seen before.

The Heroes won 1 turn before the Overlord was about to take their remaining Conquest tokens (1 hero was near death, and the deck was about to run out), but as it was, a hit with exactly the damage required to kill the final demon won the day for them. They ended with 8 conquest tokens.

Kill Log:
Trenloe: 15 (4 masters) (Died Once)
Varikas: 11 (3 masters) (Was Not Killed)
Jaes: 36 (13 masters) (Died Twice)
Ispher: 7 (3 masters) (Died Once)