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!