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.

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.

Agricola	60
Star Wars: Epic Duels	28
Dominion	27
Pandemic	17
Race for the Galaxy	16
Unpublished Prototype	15
Star Wars: Episode 1 - Clash of the Lightsabers	14
Poker	11
Cheeky Monkey	10

Hanging Gardens, The	9
Sorry! Sliders	8
Circus Flohcati	7
Crokinole	7
Escalation!	7
R-Eco	7
Diamant	5
Showmanager	5
Uptown	5
Zooloretto	5

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.

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!

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.

Gaming this Saturday in Middletown!

The regularly scheduled session for Middletown is this Saturday, January 31, at 3PM. Please join us at Scott Fisher's for some good gaming.

Germantown 01/19/09

On the eve of a new President, we gathered to play games.

Attendance:

• Aubrey & Shannon Bell
• Leslie Barkley
• Dave, Andrew & Corwin Fair
• Doug Hoylman
• Bob & Ben Jones
• Nathaniel Klinger
• Rick & Linda Pasquale

First up, the new Sushi tiles game, Sushizock im Gockelwok. A cousin to Pickomino, this variant plays more quickly and is a little more forgiving. Ben showed his love of sushi by beating the rest of us. Ben 6, Andrew 5, Bob 4, Dave 3, Doug -4.

Next up, a quick, fun word game that's easier than Scrabble and plays in about 10 minutes, Bananagrams. We were very wary of going against word-game-master Doug, but everyone did surprisingly well. Doug was the first to use all his letters and signified so by saying "Peel", triggering everyone to draw a new letter tile. He then did the same another half dozen times. Dave got in on the act and then Leslie. Once there were only three tiles left in the center, however, the next player to use all their letters would be the winner. In this case, Bob shouted out "Bananas!" first, but, alas, "Peet" isn't a word, thus disqualifying Bob. At the time, Dave had 1 tile left, and Leslie and Doug had 4 tiles each.

Meanwhile, the boys played Cheeky Monkey with Andrew outscoring Ben and Corwin, 48 to 30 to 12, respectively.

Afterwards, Ben, Corwin and Andrew took on worldwide epidemics in Pandemic. Alas, the diseases won.

Next, Dave, Doug, Leslie and Bob took on ghosts attacking a small Chinese village in the cooperative game, Ghost Stories. Despite some close calls, an easy master ghost was quickly wailed upon and the good guys beat the ghosts to win the game! Total number of ghosts banished by the players were Bob 14, Leslie 10, Dave 9 and Doug 8.

When Rick and Linda arrived, they joined Aubrey and Shannon for the fun race game, Power Boats. It seems that every time we play this game, someone gets creamed. This time, it was Shannon's turn. Her son, Aubrey, however crushed everyone. Scores were Aubrey 18, Rick 8, Linda 8, and Shannon 3.

After Ghost Stories, we played a quick game of Worm Up where players play their number cards simultaneously. If your number is unique, move your worm forward that many segments. If not, you don't move. Bob won this fairly easily. Also playing were Nathaniel, Leslie, Dave, and Doug.

Since we had nine and we were on the verge of a new President, I brought out the always fun voting game, Democrazy. Shannon made up for her Power Boats performance by a big victory here. What's really interesting is that scores ranged from 4 to 13 (sans 12) with no number repeated. Scores were Shannon 13, Rick 11, Linda 10, Dave 9, Leslie 8, Bob 7, Aubrey 6,Doug 5, Nathaniel 4.

The boys played two more games of Cheeky Monkey. They didn't record the scores for the first game, but the second game ended Ben 42, Corwin 30 and Andrew 23.

We then broke into two groups for the last games of the evening. I wanted to play Lost Cities Board Game which is a four player version of Knizia's excellent Lost Cities. Shannon walked away with the victory after two rounds of play. Shannon 235, Aubrey 205, Bob 200, Nathaniel 150.

Finally, Dave taught the very alliterative Fast Flowing Forest Fellers. From first to last were Rick, Dave, Leslie, Doug and Linda.

That's a lot of games for a single night!

Germantown 01/05/09

Ah, the first session of the new year!

• Aubrey & Shannon Bell
• Leslie Barkley
• Dave Fair
• Ethan Goffman
• Todd Heidenreich
• Doug Hoylman
• Bob & Ben Jones
• Nathaniel Klinger
• Carol Loman
  
• Laura & Eric Reinhold
• Marianne Szlyk

Joined by GCOM Rockville folk, Ethan (creator of AmuseAmaze) and Marianne, we had a full night of gaming. First up was a six player game of Alhambra with expansions. Eric had a fantastic wall set up early and although it closed off his Alhambra, it gave him enough points to win the game handily. Scores were Eric 100, Todd 77, Doug 75, Dave 71, Carol 63, and Laura 46.

Meanwhile, Shannon, Aubrey, and Leslie played the brutal Ticket to Ride: Nordic Countries. In a battle of the titans, Leslie finished an astounding 13 tickets only to lose to Shannon! Oh, and Aubrey played too. Shannon 135, Leslie 126, Aubrey 94.

When I arrived, I engaged Ben in a quick game of Cheeky Monkey. Ben narrowly edged me out 53 to 51.

Ben wanted to play Wasabi and since it's a great game, I taught it to Ethan, Marianne, and Nathaniel. Ben's experience proved decisive. Ben 30, Nathanial 20, Marianne 18, Ethan 16.

With Laura leaving, I joined the Alhambra crew in the "cooperative" game that's seeing a LOT of play, Battlestar Galactica. In a game with a full two Cylons and a Cylon sympathizer, it pays for the Colonials not to be doing exceptionally well at the halfway point. Unfortunately, we were and so Cylon Sympathizer Dave, who happened to be Admiral Adama, joined the Cylons to make it three against three. Things went downhill from there. The Colonials, Bob, Eric and Todd, correctly identified the two Cylons, Doug and Carol, but by that time we'd had it. The Cylons wailed on the humans. See here for a cool drawing of us playing BSG.

Having exhausted TTR, Leslie, Aubrey and Shannon played a quick game of Cheeky Monkey. This was a complete blowout. Leslie 63, Aubrey 19, Shannon 17.

With a small switchup, Nathaniel joined Leslie and Aubrey for Blue Moon City. Nathaniel won in a close game. Nathaniel 5, Aubrey 4 and Leslie 4.

Then came Cheeky Monkey with the same group. Aubrey 51, Leslie 32, Nathaniel 14.

Marianne and Ethan wanted to try Wasabi again and so played with Ben. This was a much closer game. Final scores were Ben 30, Ethan 26, Marianne 26.

Finally, Ben, Ethan and Marianne played one last game of Cheeky Monkey. I didn't get the scores as we were hustling to close up.

Thanks to everyone for coming out!

Damascus 01/09/09

With Damascus on Hiatus, we took to the road, and played games at the Jones house in Germantown.

In Attendance:

• Rick & Linda Pasquale
• David & Noreen Fair
• Jason Cheng
• Bob & Carol Jones
• Bert Feliksik
• Dan Hucker
• Eric & Laura Reinhold
• Luke Conte
• Aubrey Bell

Games played:

• Sorry Sliders, with Bob and Dave tying for the win on the same turn, over Dan and Bert.
• Fast Flowing Forest Fellers, With Rick winning, followed by Bert, Dave, and Jason.
• San Juan, with Dan crushing the opposition, Carol, Eric, and Luke.
• Sushizock im Gockelwock, where Rick won handily, followed by Jason, Dave and Bert (who was stuck with -13!)
• Gloria Picktoria, With a win by Eric, followed by Jason, Rick, and Dave.
• Agricola, in which Linda out-farmed Laura, Bob, Aubrey, and Noreen.
• Stone Age, where Luke won, followed by Bert, Carol, and Dan.
• Powerboats, where Linda raced like a pro, followed by Noreen, Rick, and Dave maintained his losing streak!
• Tichu, where Dave & Noreen won in a long slugfest over Rick & Linda.
• Silberzwerg, with Bob winning over Luke, Aubrey, and Jason.

See you again soon! Thanks to the Jones'for hosting; We had a great time!

Gaming This Friday!

While we're still looking for a permanent home for the Damascus Friday Night sessions, since we haven't been able to get together for a few weeks, the Joneses will be hosting this Friday night, January 9, starting at 7PM. So if you've got the gaming bug, please come on by. Please note that this is an hour later than the usual Damascus start time.

E-mail for directions if you need them. RSVPs are not necessary, but are appreciated.

Hope we'll see you this Friday night!

Gaming Image

This past Monday, while enjoying a game at Borders, a woman approach our group, handed us a piece of paper, and then walked away quickly, when I looked at it, this is what I found (click for a larger image):

From L-R: Aubrey, Todd, Carol, Dave, Bob, Eric, Doug

It was very nice of her to share it with us. Hope you like it.