September 27, 2003

Hi, everyone! I haven’t heard from some in our game group for a while. I hope everyone's well. The Joneses are doing fine. Rachel’s in 4th grade now and Ben just started Kindergarten. Yikes!

We gamed last weekend and although we thought we’d have a small group, we ended up with eight gamers! Of course, I was there along with Carol and Rachel (for one game). Our guests were Dan K, Eric, and Jay (his first gaming session in a LONG time. :-) ) Rounding out the group were Alex and Jason. It was a great time, as usual.

The tote board is below along with a few comments. The winner is listed in bold. Eric’s detailed timeline (on which all of this is based) is below. Thanks Eric.

I hope we’ll get to see each of you soon.

Bob

Tote Board

• Coloretto - Carol, Dan, Bob. This continues to be our light filler of choice. Easy, quick and, fun.
• Web of Power - Dan 70, Bob 67, Eric 60, Carol 55. A very close game. We thought Eric’s strength in advisors would carry the day but, Dan pulled a great last minute move that guaranteed him the win.
• Bang! - Alex won as the Renegade. (No small feat.)
• Bang! - Jay and Carol won as the surviving outlaws. The third outlaw, Jason, was killed.
• Tigris & Euphrates - Carol 7, Jay 6, Eric 5, Dan 5
• Merchants of Amsterdam - Jason $1,460,000 Rachel $1,110,000 Bob $1,070,000 Alex $850,000
• Acquire - Eric, Jay, Carol, Dan Only one merger was consummated until very late in the game. Eric won by a large margin.
• Titan: the Arena - Bob 14, Jason 13, Alex 3 Another very tight game. Secret bets won the day.
• TransAmerica - Dan & Jay tied, Carol, Eric
• Puerto Rico - Bob 50, Jay 44, Carol 31, Eric 30, Dan 24. Bob went with a mostly corn strategy. Grow a lot of corn and ship it often. He had nabbed three coffee plantations but was shut out from coffee production when the last coffee roaster was purchased. On the last turn, what he thought was a mistake in not choosing Captain to ship his corn worked to his advantage when he was able to build one of the large buildings to add 10 victory points at the end, fending off a very strong surge by Jay.
• Samurai - Bob, Dan, Eric Bob won by having the most in two of the three categories. A very tense game.

Eric’s Notes

• 2:18 pm: Eric arrived at the Jones’ house around 1:30. Dan Korn was already there. Dan, Carol and, Bob were playing Coloretto. Carol won. Next, the four of us played Web of Power.
• 2:48 pm: Jason and Alex Ruvinsky arrived during Web of Power.
• 3:23 pm: Dan won with 70, Bob had 67, Eric had 60 and, Carol had 55.
• 3:45 pm: Bob explained the rules to Bang!
• 3:54 pm: Jay arrived and, joined in the game of Bang!
• 5:11 pm: Carol was the Sheriff. Alex won as the Renegade. We decided to play again. Eric was the Sheriff.
• 5:43 pm: Jay and Carol won as the outlaws (Jason was the third outlaw but, he had been killed before the game ended).
• 5:50 pm: Bob started cooking hot dogs. After dinner, Jay, Carol, Dan, and Eric played Tigris & Euphrates while Bob, Alex and Jason played Merchants of Amsterdam.
• 7:42 pm: Carol won Tigris & Euphrates with 7, Jay had 6, Eric had 5 and, Dan had 5.
• 8:04 pm: After Tigris & Euphrates, we started a game of Acquire.
• 8:44 pm: Jason won Merchants of Amsterdam with 1,460,000, Rachel had 1,110,000, Bob had 1,07,0000, and Alex had 850,000. Bob, Jason and, Alex then started a game of Titan: the Arena.
• 9:27 pm: Eric won Acquire with $52,300. Dan, Carol, Jay and Eric started a game of TransAmerica.
• 10:13 pm: Bob won Titan: the Arena with 14, Jason had 13 and Alex had 3.
• 10:23 pm: Dan and Jay tied for the win in TransAmerica.
• 10:28 pm: Jason and Alex left.
• 10:45 pm: The remaining five of us decided to play Puerto Rico.
• 12:40 am: Bob won with 50, Jay had 44, Carol had 31, Eric had 30 and, Dan had 24.
• 1:02 am: Jay left and Carol went to bed after Puerto Rico. Bob, Dan and, Eric decided to play Samurai.
• 1:59 am: Bob won by having the most in two categories.

August 31 & September 1, 2003

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend. We certainly did.

Thanks to Eric, Kimberly, Royal (and Sammy and Christopher), and the Ruvinsky’s, Bill, Jason and Alex, who made it a game-filled weekend! Eric and Kimberly arrived Saturday afternoon, stayed overnight and gamed until Sunday after midnight. Royal showed up around 3PM on Saturday and stayed until almost midnight. The Ruvinsky’s arrived around 10PM on Saturday and stayed for a few hours.

Since we had a smaller crowd, we postponed showing The Two Towers. I hope to have a showing sometime in September for those interested.

Below is the tote. (Thanks to Eric for keeping the tally.) The winner is listed in bold:

• Wettstreit der Baumeister - Bob 36, Eric 33, Kimberly 27, Carol 24
• TransAmerica - Royal, Bob, Eric, Kimberly, Carol
• Chrononauts - Carol, Kimberly, Eric, Bob, Royal . The space/time continuum was destroyed by Royal creating the 13th paradox. Everyone lost.
• Emerald - Royal 30, Kimberly 24, Eric 19, Bob 16, Carol 12
• Puerto Rico - Eric 47, Royal 41, Bob 40, Kimberly 39, Carol 28. A hard fought victory by Eric.
• Africa - Bob, Alex, Rachel, Jason
• Coloretto - Bob, Jason, Rachel, Alex
• Coloretto - Jason, Rachel, Alex, Bob
• Wyatt Earp - Carol 32, Bill 31, Kimberly 21, Eric 21
• Frag - Alex, Bob, Eric, Kimberly, Rachel, Carol
• Settlers of the Stone Age - Bob 11, Kimberly 8, Eric 4, Carol 3. This is a very good new variant on Settlers. Lots of options but still the basic Settlers mechanics.
• Princes of Florence - Bob 63, Carol 58, Rachel 58, Eric 45, Kimberly 25. A very hard fought game that nearly ended in a three way tie!
• Acquire - Carol $47900, Bob $41900, Rachel $37600, Kimberly $29800, Eric $15100. Kimberly never got a single merger, but still beat Eric!
• Coloretto - Rachel 40, Carol 22, Eric 15, Kimberly 14
• Amun-Re - Eric 38 and 8 pyramids, Rachel 38 and 6 pyramids, Carol 35, Bob 34, Kimberly 34
• Vampire Hunter - Carol, Kimberly, Benjamin, Eric

Check out Eric’s pictures.
Next weekend I'll be in Chicago for Erik Light's wedding! I hope to see you all soon.

Below are Eric’s notes, taken as we gamed.
Saturday 8/30/03

• 3:07 pm: Eric arrived at the Jones’ around 1:30. Kimberly was already there. We played Wettstreit der Baumeister. Royal arrived while we were playing. Despite being the only player to not complete his city, Bob won with 36. Eric had 33, Kimberly had 27 and, Carol had 24.
• 4:09 pm: Royal joined us for TransAmerica. Royal won, connecting his cities in record time in the last round.
• 4:30 pm: Next we played Chrononauts.
• 5:10 pm: We all lost when Royal created the thirteenth paradox.
• 6:12 pm: We took a break for dinner and, then Bob set up Emerald.
• 7:02 pm: Royal won with 30, Kimberly had 24, Eric had 19, Bob had 16 and, Carol had 12.
• 7:36 pm: After Emerald, we played Puerto Rico.
• 9:56 pm: Bill, Alex and, Jason Ruvinsky arrived during the last couple of turns. Eric won with 47, Royal had 41, Bob had 40, Kimberly had 39 and, Carol had 28.
• 11:42 pm: We watched the preview for The Return of the King. Royal left after the preview. We then split into two groups. Jason, Alex, Rachel and, Bob played Africa while Carol, Bill, Kim and, Eric played Wyatt Earp. Bob won Africa. Jason, Alex, Rachel and, Bob then started a game of Coloretto.

Sunday 8/31/03

• 12:05 am: Bob won Coloretto. Wyatt Earp still wasn’t finished so, they played Coloretto again.
• 12:26 am: Jason won the second game of Coloretto.
• 12:43 am: The Wyatt Earp game finally finished. Carol won with 32, Bill had 31, Kimberly and Eric both had 21.
• 4:34 am: We chatted for a while, then Bill and Jason left. The rest of us played Frag. A couple of forgotten rules made the game drag on much longer than it should have. Alex won. After Frag, Bob took Alex home. Then we all went to bed.
• 1:06 pm: People started waking up about 10:30. After breakfast, we started gaming again around 12:15. Bob, Carol, Kimberly and Eric started with The Settlers of the Stone Age.
• 2:57 pm: Bob won, Kimberly had 8, Eric had 4 and, Carol had 3.
• 3:15 pm: Rachel joined us for Princes of Florence.
• 5:05 pm: Bob won with 63, Carol and Rachel tied at 58, Eric had 45 and, Kimberly had 25.
• 5:48 pm: Next we played Acquire.
• 6:40 pm: Carol won with $47900, Bob had $41900, Rachel had $37600, Kimberly had $29800 and, Eric had $15100.
• 7:06 pm: We ordered dinner from Old Shanghai.
• 7:23 pm: Carol, Rachel, Kimberly and, Eric played Coloretto while waiting for dinner.
• 7:34 pm: Carol had 22, Rachel had 40, Eric had 15 and, Kimberly had 14.
• 9:30 pm: After dinner, we played Amun-Re.
• 11:27 pm: Eric won with 38 and 8 pyramids, Rachel had 37 and 6 pyramids, Carol had 35, Bob and Kimberly had 34 each.

Monday 9/1/03

• 12:15 am: Carol, Kimberly, Benjamin and, Eric played Benjamin’s new game, Vampire Hunter. Carol won.