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.