Session Report for Friday 2/1/2008

20 Gamers 15 Games

That's a new attendance record for one of our game sessions. The previous record was 19 at the first session in 2006, which was right after the newspaper article was printed. Thanks to everybody for making this our biggest session yet!

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10 Days in Asia

(August, Randy, Ryan, Rob)

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Taluva

(Marshall, Elizabeth, Carrie, Drew)

Taluva was a volcanically active island in this game, and a lot of huts were swept away by the lava. At first blush it seems like if you play a volcano on somebody's hut then you're setting them back, and if you are the recipient of the volcano it probably feels that way to you too. However, a volcano on your huts can actually be a good thing, it puts you closer to playing a Tower (which can only be played on level three,) and it allows you to play even more huts on subsequent turns (because more huts are placed on levels two and three). So, a volcano is good for stopping Temples, but helps Huts and Towers, it's a trade off.

In this game my first village got volcanoed early but I eventually played a Tower into that village. And I even played a Temple into it on the last turn because by that time the terrain was so rough there was no way to play anymore volcanoes so my village was protected. And that final Temple was enough for the win.

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Pillars of the Earth

(Nick, Bart, Ty, Greg S.)

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Ra

(August, Kevin, Randy, Ryan, Rob)

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Zombie Fluxx

(Clint, Russ, Jesse, John, Georgia, Jason, Anthony)

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No Thanks

(Marshall, Elizabeth, Carrie, Drew)

No Thanks is a filler card game that I recently picked up. It's extremely simple, there's a deck of cards numbered 3-35 (once each) and on your turn you reveal the top card and either take it or say "no thanks" and add a chip to the pot. Play then moves to the next person who must either take the card and all the chips in the pot or add a chip of their own to pass. Your score is the sum of all the cards you took during the game. You want to get the lowest score possible, which is why you want to avoid taking cards. Chips are worth minus one point each at the end, which is why you want to accumulate a lot of chips.

The only other rule is that cards in a consecutive run (e.g. 9 - 10 - 11) are only scored for the lowest number in the run (so the example is worth 9 points instead of 30). So, sometimes it doesn't hurt you at all to take a card.

It's a quick fun game that's easy to play several times in a row. Carrie won this game by taking only three cards that were all in a run (so only the lowest one counted).

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Coloretto

(Marshall, Elizabeth, Carrie, Drew)

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Age of Empires III

(Clint, Russ, Georgia, Anthony, Jason)

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Amun-Re

(Nick, Marshall, John, Bart)

First game for John and Bart, and I think they did pretty well. As you play the game more you realize that getting money in the first kingdom is more important than getting points. The points will come in the second kingdom if you buy the provinces with lots of pyramids (which is why you want the money). Two or three pyramids on a province is worth A LOT. I bought a 3 pyramid province for 21 gold, but I would have been willing to pay 48 for it had I been bid up. That's how much it's worth.

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Ticket to Ride: Switzerland

(Elizabeth, Ryan, Carrie)

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Carcassonne

(Drew, Randy, August)

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Carcassonne - Traders & Builders

(Drew, Randy, August)

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Zooloretto

(Kevin, Greg S., Ty)

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Tigris & Euphrates

(Drew, Kevin, August, Ty)

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Mr. Jack

(Kevin, Ty)

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-- MarshallPhilips - 03 Feb 2008
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