Session Summary – 14 May 2008

We had 7 this week and it was nice to see Simon again. The main game was Kremlin, for the second time this year, I think this was the first time we have played this more than once a year.
This was one of those games where nothing went right from my point of view. Everyone had influence in Nestor at the beginning of the game, although I never got round to declaring mine, when Mike revealed he had 6. He was able to get 2 waves by turn 3, when things turned in Steve's favour.
Steve started as he meant to go on with a reign of terror card and seemed to spend most of the game in control of the KGB head where he adopted the very even handed policy that anyone who he could influence he would purge. Siberia soon filled up and when the death toll also started to rise, we thought we might be in danger of an early finish due to insufficient people to fill the politburo. This was avoided by bring a few back from Siberia, while Steve moderated his policy a little. Steve seemed to be blessed with some great cards throughout the game, but it was not until the last third that he was really able to press home, achieving his winning third wave on the last turn.
I was seemingly in the situation where it always seemed that someone had a bit more influence than me in a particular politician. The exception was Viktor Wasolin who I had 10 in and I hoped for the chance to get him straight up to the KGB using a card to bypass the progress by age rule, but the opportunity never presented itself and it was not until the end of the game when I had 2 people who were potentially in a position to wield some power by which time it was far too late.
I suspect that Simon was also in a similar position and we both failed to get anyone to party chief let alone wave.

Kremlin 150 mins
Player	Posn.	Points
Steve H	1	3
Mike	2	2
Dave D	3=	0
Simon	3=	0

Over on the other table Dave, Ben and Alec played Power Grid, having been introduce to the game, they are mad keen on it like, I think, everyone else in the club and Dave had gone out and bought a copy. They played on the US map and the game was unfinished, probably because they had no experienced player in the game and also because of an interruption by someone whose name I don't recall (Steve knows him from Stourbridge Wargamers) looking for volunteers for the up and coming expo.

Power Grid 150 mins
Player	Posn.
Dave C	1=
Ben	1=
Alec	1=