December 11, 2007

Five people, including two newcomers, played six games.

• Battlelore - John and Brendan, both new to GCOM Glen Burnie although Brendan has been to the Salisbury location, played a game of Battlelore. I don’t have any details on the game, but John won.
• Yinsh - Phil and I played a game of Yinsh. Phil achieved his first row of five quite early. A bit later in the game, I had a choice of getting my first row of five, and letting Phil get his second, or of stopping Phil from getting his second. I chose to take my first row. After some tough maneuvering, I was able to get my second and third rows before Phil got his third, winning me the game.
• Fibonacci - this is one of my favorite two-player abstracts. Phil and I played two games. In the first game, I crushed Phil pretty quickly. The second game was a long, hard-fought game, in which Phil was eventually victorious.
• Hive - Phil and I played a quick game of Hive, which I won.
• That’s Life! - Eli joined Phil and me for a game of That’s Life! Phil crushed us both with 48(!) points, to my 7 and Eli’s 6.
• Kanaloa - After Battlelore, Brendan had to leave, but John joined Phil, Eli, and myself for a game of Kanaloa. John seemed to be doing quite well early in the first round, as Phil, Eli, and I all picked on each other. It didn’t last, however, as Eli surged near the end of the round. The first round ended with Eli in the lead at 10, me in second place with 5, John with 4, and Phil shut out. Eli continued to dominate the first part of the second round, but we all worked to bring him down. With his last move, John caused Eli to lose control of his last four islands, shutting Eli out of the second round scoring. I won with 15, Eli and John were tied for second with 10, and Phil had 5.

The fourth Tuesday of this month is Christmas, so our next session won’t be until January 8. Hope to see you there.