January 13, 2007

Hey everyone! Here’s the tally from last Saturday’s gaming. We had a full house with Bob, Carol, Rachel and Ben Jones, Dave, Noreen, Andrew and Corwin Fair, Dan, Zachary, Rebecca Korn and Rachel Silber, Eric Haas, Erik, Jenny and Jennifer Light, and Bill, Stephanie, Jason, Alex, Rachel and Rebecca Ruvinsky. It’s been a while since we’ve had such a big group and I really enjoyed it. I am especially glad that Jenny and Jennifer have left Chicago and joined Erik in Rockville. Jennifer is really, really cute and really, really likes pinball. :-) I hope we’ll see more of them.

We played some games we haven’t played in a while as well as a few newer games. I was especially happy to get Merchants of Amsterdam and Vino to the table. Of the newer stuff, Show Manager and Ave Caesar are two really fun games I wish I owned.

Thanks to Carol for making tacos and everyone for contributing to the food bank.

The tote is below (winner listed first):

• Sudoku Card Game - Dave 4, Bob 2
• Gemblo - Carol 6, Bob 7, Noreen 7, Erik 8, Dave 14, Ben 19
• Show Manager - Dave 52, Bob 45, Carol 44, Eric 32, Noreen 26, Erik 23
  
• Can’t Stop - Noreen, Erik, Carol, Bob, Dave, Eric
• Princes of Florence - Dave 56, Eric 53, Dan 46, Noreen 44, Rachel S 40
  
• Pyramids of the Jaguar - Bob, Carol
• Pyramids of the Jaguar - Carol, Bob
• Ave Caeser - Bob 15, Alex 10, Jason 13, Bill 12, Stephanie 12
  
• Bohnanza - Dan 14, Dave 14, Eric 10 Carol 8, Noreen 7, Rachel S 3
• Leonardo da Vinci - Carol 52, Dan 49, Dave 48, Eric 29, Noreen 18
  
• Merchants of Amsterdam - Stephanie 1180, Jason 1120, Bob 920, Alex 870, Bill 750
  
• Vino - Jason 30, Bob 20+, Carol 20, Eric 18, Dave 15

I will post pictures when I have some. Hope to see you all again soon.


Bob

November 18, 2006

Sorry for the delay in reporting. It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

On Saturday, Nov. 18, we had a good group over for gaming. Attending were Bob, Carol and Rachel Jones, Dave, Noreen and Andrew Fair, Eric Haas, Erik Light in his first appearance with the local group, Scott Percival, and Stephanie, Rebecca and Bill Ruvinsky. As usual, it was a lot of fun.

Tote below (winner listed first).

• Verflixxt - Carol, Bob, Dave, Erik, Noreen
• Streetcar - Eric, Erik, Noreen, Carol
• Blue Moon City - Dave 4, Rachel 3, Bob 3, Andrew 2
  • Bob: BMC is unquestionably my favorite of the newer games. The mechanics are a lot of fun with loads of tactical play and some strategic decisions as well.
• Silk Road - Noreen 34, Dave 30, Carol 29, Erik, 28, Eric 25, Bob 21
• Three Dragon Ante - Erik 111, Eric 95, Carol 91, Rachel 4, Dave -3, Bob -5
• Das Störrische Muli - Erik, Bob, Dave, Eric
• Leonardo da Vinci - Scott 67, Dave 50, Carol 36, Eric 25
• Thurn & Taxis - Bob 23, Erik 19, Rachel 14, Noreen 11
• Cash N Guns - Rebecca $105,000, Bill $100,000, Rachel $85,000, Stephanie $70,000, Bob DOA
• Ticket to Ride 1910 - Stephanie 122, Carol 118, Noreen 107, Bill 104, Dave 91
• Rheinländer - Rachel 31, Eric 29, Erik 29, Scott 22, Bob 16
  • Bob: Holy cow, was I piled on. Everyone hammered me in this game.
• Tichu - Carol/Rachel 1050, Scott/Noreen 800
• Kanaloa - Eric 14, Dave 11, Erik 9, Bob 7
• Great Wall of China - Dave 40, Erik 38, Bob 33, Eric 30
• Metromania - Bob 26, Eric 16, Noreen 11, Dave 2
  • Bob: The first game I’ve won while being about 70% asleep. Really, I was swaying in my chair.

Eric’s pictures taken that day are here.

Hope to see everyone again soon.

September 6, 2006

Attending were Bob and Carol Jones, Paul Czarnota, Dave and Noreen Fair, Scott Percival and Eric Haas. Carol made some excellent beef barbecue for dinner.


Tote Board (winner listed first):

• Coyote - Dave, Scott, Noreen, Bob, Eric, Paul, Carol
  • Fun game of putting cards on your forehead and guessing the total. Plays like a combination of Liar’s Dice and Indian Poker.
• Bolide - Scott, Noreen, Paul, Eric, Bob, Dave, Carol
  • Bob: A mathematical car racing game with little luck. Clever maneuvering system marred by difficulty of actually figuring it out. Some of the group really liked it, others not so much.
• Crokinole - Bob, Paul
• Crokinole - Paul, Bob
• Railroad Tycoon - Scott 65, Bob 56, Paul 56, Carol 55, Dave 50, Eric 35
  • Bob: Excellent game of RRT. Very close and hard fought. Paul did an excellent job in his first playing of this great game.
• Crokinole - Paul, Eric
• Rum & Pirates - Paul 76, Eric 71, Bob 66, Dave 64, Carol 51
• Thurn & Taxis - Bob 46, Paul 40, Dave 37, Eric 35
  • Bob: SDJ winner of 2006. Good, middle-weight game similar in feel to Web of Power and Ticket to Ride.

Thanks to everyone for coming!

Bob

July 22, 2006

Hey everyone! Just before we started gaming on Saturday we received a couple of e-mails from some of the folk who’ve been gaming with us at Borders on Monday nights. Since we were low on attendance from the regulars, we decided to invite them to join us. Attending were Bob and Carol Jones, Dave and Noreen Fair, Eric Haas, Bill and Jason Ruvinsky, and newcomers Lance Slifka and Melinda and Ruben Carbonell. We played a ton of games, ate some fantastic pies made by Melinda (who is a student pastry chef) and had a great time.

Check out Eric’s pictures.


The tote is below, winner listed first.

Tote Board

• Crokinole - Bob, Lance
• Crokinole - Dave/Eric, Bob/Lance
• Show Manager - Bob 49, Lance 42, Carol 35, Eric 35, Noreen 32, Dave 28
• 6 Nimmt - Lance 28, Noreen 39, Melinda 46, Carol 53, Ruben 53, Dave 58, Bob 67, Eric 76
• Thurn & Taxis - Ruben 26, Dave 21, Bob 20, Lance 16
  • Bob: This year’s winner of the German Game of the Year. Fun, middle weight game with beautiful components. Similar in feel to Web of Power. Looking forward to playing this one again.
• Ticket to Ride: Märklin - Melinda 151, Noreen 132, Eric 125, Carol 112
• Blokus Trigon - Ruben 0, Noreen 11, Eric 15, Carol 17
• Cronberg - Melinda 28, Lance 28, Dave 24, Bob 22
  • Bob: First time playing this quick little tile laying game. Lots of opportunities for tactical play.
• Wits & Wagers - Bob/Ruben 165, Dave/Noreen 150, Eric/Carol 130, Melinda/Lance 95
• Formula Dé - Melinda, Lance, Ruben, Noreen, Cary, Eric, Dave
  • Bob: Dave had a huge lead for most of this two lap race. Unfortunately, his widow spent the night scraping his remains off the wall of one of the turns.
• Marco Polo - Bill 16, Carol 15, Jason 10, Bob 8
• Streetcar - Bob, Jason, Carol, Bill
  • Bob: Nastiest game of Streetcar ever. No one had a clean route, mainly because we put rude turns on other player’s tracks. Bill left the depot first and was the last to arrive due to a disastrous reading of the board.
• Tichu - Bob/Noreen 1020, Dave/Jason 880
  • Bob: An awesome comeback by Dave and Jason wasn’t enough to secure the victory.

We hope to see you at our next session in late August or early September!

Bob

P.S. - I forgot to mention Cary Abend who gamed with us again for the first time in a long while. And he brought Nathan. My apologies to Cary.

June 24, 2006

Sorry for the delay in the report. Busy last week.

On Saturday, June 24, a mere six of us gathered to play games. Attending were Bob, Carol and Rachel Jones, Dave and Noreen Fair, and Scott Percival. The tote is below (winner listed first).

Tote Board

• Crokinole - Bob and Scott, Dave and Carol. (This was the inaugural game on our brand new Crokinole board! Bob and Scott teamed up against Dave and Carol. Fun game.)
• Dance of the Eggs - Scott 3, Bob 3, Carol 2, Rachel 2, Noreen 0, Dave dropped. (Wacky game with rubber eggs. You roll a die and then have to perform an action such as bouncing an egg to see who catches it, holding an egg under your chin, snatching the die, etc. When someone drops an egg, the game is over. Whoever has the most eggs wins.)
• Gemblo - Dave 0, Scott 10, Noreen 11, Rachel 13, Bob 13, Carol 16. (Blokus with hexagonal pieces suitable for up to six players. A beautiful game and fun to play.)
• Cleopatra and the Society of Architects - Carol 53, Scott 45, Dave 44, Noreen 43, Bob 60 but disqualified from winning. (Lavish, overproduced game with amazing Egyptian bits. Players collect cards to build monuments in Egypt. Mixture of familiar mechanics works well. Looking forward to trying this again.)
• Crokinole - Bob and Scott, Dave and Rachel
• Crokinole - Dave and Rachel, Bob and Scott
• Crokinole - Bob and Scott, Dave and Rachel
• Lord of the Rings - Sauron, Dave, Noreen, Scott, Carol, Bob (In a very close game, Sauron corrupted the ringbearer (and pretty much everyone else) and won against the free peoples of Middle Earth.)
• Wiz War - Bob, Scott, Noreen, Carol, Dave
• Fossil - Carol 123, Bob 85, Dave 73, Noreen 52, Scott 47 (Carol destroyed us. Enough said.)
• Die Sieben Siegel - Scott 10, Bob 15, Dave 17, Noreen 22, Carol 31

All in all, a fun day of gaming.

Hope to see you soon!

Bob

Babycon XIII

Photos from Babycon XIII.

April 29, 2006

We had the smallest group in quite some time for gaming on Saturday. Scott Percival couldn’t make it so it was Bob and Carol and Dave and Noreen for most of the day. Jason and Alex Ruvinsky joined us for one late night game of Elfenland. It was still a very fun time. The Tote Board is below (winner first).

• Can’t Stop - Noreen, Dave, Bob, Carol. (Noreen showed us how she won the Can’t Stop tournament at the Gathering of Friends. Good, quick filler, dice game with some tough decisionmaking.)
• Ticket to Ride: Marklin - Noreen 174, Dave 160, Carol 156, Bob 141 (The newest Ticket to Ride game did not disappoint. Passengers who travel from city to city collecting victory points add quite a bit of tension to a normally laid-back game.)
• Silberzwerg - Dave 509, Noreen 485, Bob 441, Carol 389 (One of my recent acquisitions, this is a good set collection game of dwarves digging for gems to fulfill contracts. Lots of backstabby goodness! Everyone enjoyed it.)
• Tichu - Dave and Carol 945, Bob and Noreen 55 (Tichu is an ancient, highly popular card game with lots of strategy. This was an absolute disaster of a game. Dave got good hand after good hand. A complete slaughter.)
• Elfenland - Bob 18 (5 cards), Carol 18 (3 cards), Alex 18 (a card), Dave 17, Noreen 16, Jason 16 (Great game. We played with the “home village” variant which added another level of strategy. I won on the tie-breaker.)

Not a lot of games played but three of the five were new to me and four out of five were new to Carol. Looking forward to playing some of these again at Babycon.

Bob