Session Summary – 10 March 2010

10 this week with Dave & Ben arriving a little late and playing a few games of Memoir '44.

Memoir '44 40 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Ben C	5
2	Dave C	3
Memoir '44 40 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave C	4
2	Ben C	2
Memoir '44 40 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Ben C	5
2	Dave C	2

Over on another table 2 games were played, being Steel Driver and San Juan.

Steel Driver 110 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy	1350
2	Colin	1190
3	Mike	1090
4	Donald	1030
San Juan 40 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Andy	30+
2	Donald	30
3	Mike	26
4	Colin	15

The other 4 of us played Pillars of the Earth, using the expansion. We have played World Without End a lot and this was a return to the earlier game. I like both and wouldn't like to choose between the 2. I think with 4 players, I would go with World Without End, as I think WWE is best with that number. Pillars is probably a bit too open with the expansion and the opposite without it, but I don't have a problem playing an expanded 4 player game. With 3 I think an unexpanded Pillars would just about shade it. Neither game would be my first choice as a 2 player game and of course you can't play WWE with more than 4.

In this game Steve continued his rich form at the game, which has been played 14 times at the club.

Pillars of the Earth, The 120 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	50
2	Dave F	46+
3	Dave D	46
4	Andrew S	36

The table below shows how Steve dominates this one with 7 wins and a tie in 13 plays.

Game: Pillars of the Earth, The
Plays: 14
Play Time (Hours): 26.08
Player Hours: 101
First Played: May-07
Last Played: Mar-10
	Plays	Wins	Ties
Steve H	13	7	1
Mike	4	0	0
Steve P	1	0	0
Dave D	12	2	1
Richard B	2	1	0
Matt	1	0	1
Gordon	3	1	0
Steve Pe	5	1	0
Jeremy	1	0	0
Simon	2	0	0
Paul	1	0	1
Dave C	1	0	0
Ben	1	0	0
Jonathan	1	0	0
Andy	1	0	0
Dave F	2	0	0
Ben C	1	0	0
Andrew S	1	0	0

Session Report – 3 March 2010

This week saw the return of Dave and Ben C for the first time this year, following a period of being involved in pantomime rehearsals on a Wednesday night. It was also to see John for the first time in a long time. We ended up with 9 players, split initially 3 ways.

While Dave and Ben were introducing John to Mordred and then Power Grid, Colin, Steve & I played World Without End. This time we only had 3 players and Steve went with the Medical path for a narrow victory over myself following the Building route, although I did have a slight bit of medical knowledge. All but one of the building projects were available at the end and I think that this degree of choice may have had a bearing on the fact that the tower was not completed for the first time, this combined with the only 3 players meaning not so many builders. I had thought that with fewer players there might be fewer missed obligations, but it turned out that everyone missed at least one obligation at least once, although this was certainly partly due to a series of above average tax rolls.

World Without End 100 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Steve H	42.5
2	Dave D	41
3	Colin	21

We finished at about the same time as Mike, Dave and Andrew finished Louis XIV and we all giot together for a few rounds of 6 nimmt, a game that I have played a couple of times, but the plays are too far apart so I always need to be reminded of the rules. It seems as if this is the same for other members of the group and there was some discussion about the way to play. We came up with a playable version of the game, but it didn't seem quite right according to my memory. I went home and found a copy of the rules online that did seem to agree with the way I'd played before and there were some differences.

• Only 4 rows of cards to play to
  
• Each player is only dealt 10 cards
  
• It is the 6^th card that takes the row, the player gets the 5 cards already in the row and the 6^th card played now becomes the new base card, meaning there are never any gaps.
  

Our game ended up playable, but that does look better.

6 nimmt 30 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Mike	39
2	Colin	44
3	Dave D	61
4	Andrew S	63
5	Steve H	69
6	Dave F	102

The scores for Louis XIV

Louis XIV 100 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	Dave F	53
2	Andrew S	42
3	Mike	40

Scores for Mordred

Mordred 30 mins.
Posn.	Player
1	John H
2=	Ben C
2=	Dave C

The scores for Power Grid (I think this was on the German map). This was game 49, next up is number 50 for Power Grid and will be the first game that we have 50 recorded games for.

Power Grid 160 mins.
Posn.	Player	Score
1	John H	18+
2	Ben C	18
3	Dave C	15