December 15

Glenn and Eric were the first to arrive. While waiting for the others, we decided to play a game of Torres. This is the third or fourth time we’ve played but, unfortunately, none of the earlier games seem to have made it into the log. Having been a while since we last played, we were all a little rusty on the rules at the start but, pretty much had them straight a couple of turns into the game. Eric won with 279, Bob came in second with 261, Carol had 248 and Glenn had 230.

By the time we had finished Torres, Dan and Jay had arrived. We decided to try Jay’s new game, Munchkin. Usually, whenever we play a game for the first time, we get a few of the rules wrong. This time was no exception. At one point, Dan drew the Amazon, which will not attack females. Dan had an elf card which pictured a female elf and, he assumed that the sex of the character on the card was what the Amazon card meant but, the errata page makes it clear that the card refers to the sex of the player. Also, Jay, who was at level 9, won the game by playing a card that gave him a level but, it turns out that you can only reach level 10 by killing a monster.

Tony came in half-way through Munchkin. We dealt him into the game and, he managed to do quite well despite starting out at a significant disadvantage.

Now we had seven people, which is an awkward number for gaming. There aren’t all that many games that can take seven players nor are there many games that are good with three players, which makes splitting into two groups not so attractive. Settlers of Catan can take up to eight if you combine two sets so, we played a seven player game with the “peanut” configuration shown in the Mayfair rules. We also used the rules that you can keep up to 13 cards when the robber is rolled and, no robber on the first two rounds of the game. The game progressed fairly quickly. Bob won, with several other people only one turn away from winning.

Next we decided to play an old favorite, Advanced Civilization, which can take up to eight players. Because of its long playing time (8+ hours), “Civ” rarely gets played at our regular gaming sessions. We used the Western Expansion map. Bob played Babylon, Tony played Crete, Dan played Egypt, Carol played Italy, Jay played Illyria, Glenn played Thrace and, Eric played Assyria. We started at about 6 P.M. Dan and Glenn both had to leave around 11 P.M. so, just before 11 we decided to play one more turn and then end the game. At the end, Jay won with 2240, Bob came in second with 2082, Eric was in third with 1932, Carol was in fourth with 1659, Glenn was in fifth with 1529, Tony in sixth with 1427 and Dan, who got hit with more than his fair share of calamities, came in last with 1106.

After Dan and Glenn left, the rest of us decided to play one more game. We chose Princes of Florence. This was the first time Tony had played the game. Bob again tried the strategy of collecting profession and recruitment cards that did so well in the last game (10/13/01). Near the end of the game had trouble making the minimum point value required to produce a work but, finally won with 61 points. Carol came in second with 55, Jay was third with 54, Tony was in fourth with 44 and Eric came in last with 43.

November 17

The first game up was Evergreen. Kimberly won by a fair margin.

Next came Split. This is a card game that bears a strong resemblance to Sequence. The general consensus was that this game has more strategic depth than Sequence, primarily because the placement of chips is less restricted by the cards than it is in Sequence. We played two games, with three teams of 2: Bob & Kimberly, Stephanie & Royal and, Eric & Carol. Bob & Kimberly won the first game. Stephanie & Royal won the second.

At this point, Royal volunteered to go out and pick up dinner for everyone. While waiting for Royal to return, Bob, Eric, Kimberly, Rachel and Stephanie played Dragon’s Gold (see 10/13/01). Rachel got the “Invisible Hand” card which Carol was able to use so successfully on October 13 but, was only able to steal one treasure before she was caught. Bob won. Royal returned before the game was finished and, while waiting, he and Carol played Atlantis.

Next, Bob, Carol, Eric, Kimberly, Royal and Stephanie played Hare & Tortoise (see 11/05/00). Bob won easily, Royal came in second, Carol in third, Eric in fourth. Stephanie and Kimberly both ended up near the finish line with way too many carrots. Kimberly ended up backing up 34 spaces so she could use most of her carrots in one long run and, she crossed the finish line in fifth place.

The last game of the evening was Landlord! Unfortunately, we got the timing of the rent payments wrong and collected rents at the beginning of the turn rather than at the end, which screwed up the strategy somewhat. Stephanie won.

About 10 minutes before midnight, several of us went out back to look for meteors. We saw one really spectacular meteor and, then another about 15 or 20 minutes later. Then we all went back in and said good night.

October 13

Eric and Jay arrived first. While we were waiting for Glenn to arrive, we played Dragon’s Gold. During the course of the game, Carol got a magic item which allowed her to steal treasures from face up dragons until she was caught. Nobody noticed anything until a dragon which should have had 11 treasures was slain and was found to have only 7. Carol won.

Glenn arrived during the game of Dragon’s Gold. After that game was over, Rachel dropped out and we played El Grande, which Eric won. Next up was Carcassone, won by Bob.

Then we played Princes of Florence. Eric and Bob adopted a strategy of collecting as many profession and recruiting cards as they could early in the game. Both were able to complete six works and, ended up tied at a score of 53. However, Eric had 300 florins left to Bob’s 100 so, Eric won.

Last was Air Baron. Carol suffered a crash early on. Then several early fuel price hikes forced Carol, Eric and Glenn to take out loans. Throughout the rest of the game, few of Eric’s chits were drawn, leaving him on the verge of bankruptcy, while repeated draws of LAX and several foreign airports controlled by Glenn gave him an easy victory.

October 6, 2001

Axis & Allies was the only game of the evening. Glenn played Russia, Steve played Germany, Dan played the U.K., Bob played Japan and Eric played the USA. The USA never got involved in Europe, and was basically stalemated against Japan in the Pacific. Russia and Britian did well against Germany in Europe. The Allies won.

August 4, 2001

Thanks to Kimberly, Royal, Stephanie, Eric, and my friend Marc Schneider, from work, for coming out Saturday night. We played Carolus Magnus, Carcassonne, Raj, Formula Dé, Air Baron, and Ice Towers.

Bob, Carol, Eric and Kimberly played Carolus Magnus. Bob was partners with Kimberly and, Eric was partners with Carol. Bob was the only one who had played this game previously, and the Bob/Kimberly partnership had an easy victory.

Carol, Kimberly, Rachel and Stephanie played two games of Raj, while Bob, Eric, Marc and Royal played one game of Carcassonne. Rachel won both games of Raj.

Marc played only one game, Carcassonne, before having to leave, but he emerged victorious in his first ever game with us and his first time playing Carcassonne.

Royal discovered a new strategy for Air Baron based on a rule that, we think, we had never known before. Unfortunately for Royal, only Bob was able to successfully utilize it!

Benjamin was the big story of the night, literally bringing the walls down! (Show up to game and you’ll see what I mean.)

Babycon VIII

Babycon 8 is history. From May 25 to 28, upwards of 16 players attended at the Jones house in Germantown, MD. Our thanks to everyone who attended. Carol and I had a great time.

Bob will endeavor to produce a Babycon report quicker than last year’s report. At first blush, it looks like the theme for B8 was “Oh, no. C-c-c-carol and K-k-k-ken are c-c-coming to k-k-kill me!”. Both Carol and Ken cleaned up.

We learned several new games including Princes of Florence, Plague and Pestilence, Dune, Cities and Knights, and Carcassonne. All were big hits.

Thanks to those who donated games we had an ample prize chest this year. And special thanks to those who came in from out of town, Brady, Marvin, and Joe and Karen (and Samantha). We hope to see you at future Babycons.

Brady took a bunch of pictures. Some of them will go into the report. If you’d like Bob to forward the actual images to you, let him know. See you next year.

February 18, 2001

Attending: Bob, Carol, Eric, Jay, Kimberly

January 14, 2001

Thanks to Jay, Eric, and Glenn who came out Sunday for some good old-fashioned gaming at Honeybear Lane.

Jay arrived at 1PM and joined Carol, Rachel and me for two games of LOTR. First time we were toasted. Second time we were incredibly lucky and sailed through rather easily. We’re looking forward to playing this with the larger group.

When Glenn and Eric arrived, we played Taj Mahal (Jay), Big City (Bob), Castle (Eric), Landlord (Jay), Acquire (Eric), and Ra (Eric and I tied at 50 but he had the highest sun tile and so won). After Jay and Glenn left at about 11PM, the remaining three of us plus Rachel played Frank’s Zoo (Rachel). All in all, a good night.

Looking forward to next time!