From: Eugene Hung <eyhung-vkOw870tNg2Vc3sceRu5cw@public.gmane.org>
Subject: [sb-boardgamers] session Report 07/14/08
To: sb-boardgamers-hHKSG33TihhbjbujkaE4pw@public.gmane.org
Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008, 11:47 PM

South Bay Boardgamers Session Report July 14th, 2008
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John B., Randall, Eric A.* (Pandemic)
Winner: the board

Eric, Candy, Leon, Damien* (Caylus)
Winner: Candy

Sally, Tom A., Kevin (Caylus)
Winner: Sally and Kevin (tie)

John, Tom A.*, Edmund, Kendra (For Sale)
Winner: Edmund

John, Tom A., Edmund, Kendra (For Sale)
Winner: John

Sally, Kevin, Candy (Settlers of Catan)
Winner: Kevin

JC, Randy*, Dave R.*, Thomas*, Aliza (Lords of the Spanish Main)
Winner: Randy

Randall*, Eric A.*, John B.*, Gorov* (Arkadia)
Winner: Randall

Sally, John, John B., Eric A.*, Randall* (Beowulf)
Winner: John B.

Scott, Eugene, Julien, Eddie*, Kaz* (Age of Empires 3)
Winner: Eugene

Josh, Devin, Brett H. (Brass)
Winner: Brett H.

Dan, John, Kendra, Sally, Edmund* (In the Year of the Dragon)
Winner: Dan

Jeremiah, Brett H., Josh, Devin (Tower of Babel)
Winner: Jeremiah

Jeremiah*, Brett H.*, Josh*, Devin* (Metropolys)
Winner: Brett H.

Ted, Jeremiah, Brett H., Josh* (Dominion)
Winner: Jeremiah

Ted, Jeremiah, Brett H., Josh (Dominion)
Winner: Josh

Ted, Jeremiah, Karen, Clark* (Dominion)
Winner: Ted

Ted, Jeremiah, Karen, Clark (Dominion)
Winner: Karen

Ted, Jeremiah, Karen, Clark (Dominion)
Winner: Jeremiah

Ted, Jeremiah, Karen, Clark (Dominion)
Winner: Ted

Ted, Jeremiah, Karen, Clark (Dominion)
Winner: Jeremiah

Ted, Jeremiah, Karen, Clark (Dominion)
Winner: Ted

Ted, Karen, Clark (Dominion)
Winner: Clark

Ted, Karen, Clark, Eugene* (Dominion)
Winner: Eugene

Ted, Karen, Clark, Eugene (Dominion)
Winner: Clark

Two new players attended : Gorov, a Yahoo! employee, and Eric A., a
friend of Randall who is visiting from out of town.

--- Dominion ---

Ted managed to play 11 games of Dominion, the hot new game that was the
hit of the 2008 Gathering of Friends. It takes 10-45 minutes to play
and involves building a deck of cards. You start with 10 cards in your
deck, with 7 $1 cards, 3 1VP (victory point) cards, and 0 action cards.
Money cards are used for purchasing new cards, VPs are scored at
end-of-game, and action cards let you break the rules. You begin the
game by drawing 5 cards to form a hand. Each turn has three phases:

A) use up to one action card in your hand (to break a rule)
B) buy up to one action, point, or money card from the
community supply using the money cards in your hand.
The purchased card goes to a personal discard/reshuffle pile.
C) discard your hand (including money "spent") to your discard pile,
and draw 5 cards from your deck to form your next hand. If your
deck runs out, reshuffle the discard pile to re-form your deck.
That's how purchased cards get into play.

There's a limited supply of cards in the community supply -- once 3
types of cards (or the 6VP card pile) run out, the game ends and the
player with the most VPs in their deck wins. Unfortunately VP are
totally useless during gameplay so the "leaders" tend to have more
"bad cards" in their hand during their turn, a nice balancing mechanism.

At the beginning of the game, the players agree on which action cards
to use -- there are around 25 different action cards, and the players
pick 10, so the game plays differently depending on the available action
cards. Some action cards are fairly simple (Smithy, draw 3 extra
cards into your hand for this turn), others are more complex (Cellar,
discard any number of cards from hand and replace with draws from
your deck, and you may use 1 more action this turn), while some are
interactive (Militia, add 2 GP to your purchasing power of your hand for
this turn, and force all other players to discard their hands down to 3
cards immediately) .

In my first game, we used the suggested "newbie-friendly" 10-card set,
which has only 1 attacking action card (Militia), so players focus
on adding better money cards ($2 and $3 cards) to their deck so
they can acquire 6 VP cards (which cost 8 GP). I was lucky enough to
win, so Ted decided the gloves would come off. We played with many more
interactive cards and I got utterly crushed, with Clark barely edging
Ted. Note that this game is still in playtesting so it's not available
for purchase, but once it comes out I predict it will become a big hit.

--- Age of Empires 3 ---

I won a tightly contested game with 85 points, over Scott (who focused
on money), Eddie (who focused on a discovery/military strategy), and Kaz
(who focused on capital buildings and trade goods) only a few points
behind. Julien was fortunate with discoveries, scoring over 34 points
from them (including both 5-native tiles), but didn't get much luck
anywhere else.

--- Beowulf ---

John B. decided to use most of his resources early to win the early
auctions and went into the final confrontation with the dragon with no
cards. When his risks in the final confrontation continually paid off,
he ended up the victor.

--- Brass and Metropolys ---

Brett wanted to let it be known that he utterly crushed his opponents
in both of these games.

--
Eugene Hung eyhung-vkOw870tNg0@public.gmane.org edu http://www-cse. ucsd.edu/ users/eyhung
The whole world is our dining room, but be careful : it is also our
garbage can.
-- Ashleigh Brilliant