Ludus

Tonight we played Power Grid: EnBW, Race for the Galaxy, and Dominion.

• Tony won Race for the Galaxy with 38, followed by Jim (37), Shaune (36), and Brian (28).
• Brian won Race for the Galaxy with 50, followed by Tony (36), and Jim (27).
• Brian won Race for the Galaxy with 47 versus Tony (35).
• Brian won Dominion with 52 versus Tony (33).
• Brian won Dominion with 42 versus Tony (21).
• Brian won Dominion with 30 versus Tony (15).
• John won Power Grid: EnBW with 16/16/$17, followed by Craig (16/16/$14), Richard (16/16/$13), and Dave (16/16/$4).  Yes, that was a very close game.

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Shaune Lee, Tony, Dave, and Sallie Montuori, Rachel and Jim "Blaise" Trigg, Brian Carpenter, and John "Fuzzface" McMahon.

Tonight we played Puerto Rico, Set, and Competition Solitaire.

• Dave won Puerto Rico with 53, followed by Craig (51), Matt (49), John (37), and Jim (32).
• Carrie won Set with 15 against Tony (10).
• Rachel and Tony tied in Competition Solitaire.

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Dave, Sallie, and Tony Montuori, Rachel and Jim "Blaise" Trigg, Matt Linn, and John "Fuzzface" McMahon.

Tonight we played Maori.

• Dave won Maori with 45, followed by Jim (44), Sallie (33), Rachel (31), and Craig (15).
• Dave won Maori with 48, followed by Sallie (40), Shaune (37), Tony (25), and Craig (25).

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Rachel and Blaise "Jim" Trigg, Dave, Sallie and Tony Montuori, and Shaune Lee.

Tonight we played RoboRally.

• Craig won RoboRally by touching 3 flags with no deaths, followed by Dave (2/0), Tony (2/1), Sallie (1/0), and Matt (1/4).  Sallie was happy to have only taken 1 point of damage with no screw-ups the entire game!

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Dave, Sallie, and Tony Montuori, Shaune Lee, Matt Linn, and Erik Kervina.

Tonight we played Steam.

• Craig won Steam with 46, followed by Dave (30), and Tony (8).

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Dave, Sallie, and Tony Montuori, Shaune Lee, and Brian Carpenter.

Carrie and I got up, packed everything out to the car, and then went to check on the Puerto Rico semi-finals along with Cathy Raymond.  Cathy didn't make the semi-finals, but Eric made the semi-finals for Monsters Menace America.  Carrie and I went to breakfast at Perkins, nicely beating the after-church rush.

We went back to the hotel to check out, reserve a room for next year, and socialize.  Carrie helped Ken "Burnsy" Burnside organize his demonstration pieces-parts while I sat down with Eric and Cathy and learned how to play Steam, which is a simplified version of Railroad Tycoon (which itself was a simplified version of Age of Steam).

Eventually we went out to Jennie's Diner for lunch with Eric and Cathy, then with a quick stop back at the hotel, drove home to Sterling.

Much like Friday, Saturday started at a sedate pace.  Carrie and I had breakfast, then I headed down to game, then Carrie went to spend the day with Beth and Diana.

• 11am, Puerto Rico (PRO), Heat 3 of 3, won (in fact a tie for first place).  This win plus the earlier one earned me a bye for the quarter finals.
• 1pm, Race for the Galaxy (RFG), Heat 3 of 4, won.
• 2pm, Race for the Galaxy (RFG), Heat 4 of 4, 2nd place.  Collectively, close, but not close enough to make the semi-finals.
• 3pm, Dominion (DOM), Heat 3 of 3, third place of 4.  Collectively, not enough to make the semi-finals.
• 4pm, Ticket to Ride (TTR), Heat 3 of 3, lost.

At this point, I went out for a quick muffin and hotch with Eric and Cathy Raymond.

• 6pm, Puerto Rico (PRO), Quarter finals, third place of 4.  I had earned a bye for this round, but chose not to take it as a favor to the GM (he needed one more player to round out the game).  This ultimately wiped me out of the competition, but I was in the mood to play, and I played well -- just not well enough.

Carrie came back, so we went out to dinner at Cracker Barrel with Eric and Cathy.  I hung out to see who would go to the Race for the Galaxy semi-finals (Cathy Raymond and Ken "Burnsy" Burnside did, Kathy Stroh and I didn't), then socialized for a while, before heading back to the room.

Friday started off more relaxed, so Carrie and I were able to get a leisurely breakfast and stroll through the dealers room before gaming commenced.

• 11am, Dominion (DOM), Heat 2 of 3, 3rd of 4?
• 2pm, RoboRally (RRY), Heat 2 of 2, 4th of 5.  Yeah, I lost, but I never died, and I had a lot of fun.  The game was set up with 2 boards and 3 flags, so that the start and flag 2 were at one side of board 1, and flags 1 and 3 were at the other side of board 2.  At one point, I was so far behind that I was just leaving flag 1 while the leader was approaching flag 3.  I deduced that he was going to take advantage of a certain conveyor belt.  I changed my program so that I met him as he left the conveyor belt, then proceeded to push him back up the conveyor belt, shooting him the whole way ... with ramming gear.  I did 8 points of damage to him, and someone else shot him in the back for one more point.  He ended the turn with all 5 registers locked ... and I finished him off the next phase with the ramming gear.
• 4pm, Puerto Rico (PRO), Heat 2 of 3, 3rd of 4.  This was a close game; I made a mistake and Mayor'd when I should have shipped (I miscalculated the value of my shipping).  I ran a factory where I was producing 3 sugar, 4 corn, and 1 indigo, feeding either the corn or the sugar to my wharf.  A lot of fun.

Carrie and I met up with Paula and Dave Matuszek for dinner at Perkins, then we taught them how to play Dominion.

• 9pm, Race for the Galaxy (RFG), Heat 1 of4, 2nd of 4.
• 10pm, Race for the Galaxy (RFG), Heat 2 of 4, 4th of 4.

Afterwards, I met up with Eric, Cathy, and Jordan, and they taught me Maori, which should be a fun game for Ludus.

Thursday's games started early (9am) and I woke up late (8:15am).  Carrie helped me rush around to get ready, and even get breakfast before gaming.

• 9am, Vegas Showdown (VSD) Heat 2 of 2, 4th of 4. I dominated in people and money, with beaucoup bucks, but just didn't have the  fame.
• 11am, Power Grid (PGD), Heat 3 of 3, 3rd of 5 on the Italy map.
• 2pm, Dominion (DOM), Heat 1 of 3, won.

Met up with Carrie and Cathy Raymond, and taught Cathy (and some kid named Max) how to play Dominion.

• 7pm, Puerto Rico (PRO), Heat 1 of 3, won.

At 9pm, Carrie and I went out to dinner at Perkins with Eric and Cathy Raymond, Ken "Burnsy" Burnsides, Ken Watanabe, and Jordan Malokowski.  Afterwards, we played a couple of 6-player games of Race for the Galaxy.

Wednesday, Carrie and I slept in, ate breakfast in the hotel, and then I prepped for the day's games.

• 12pm, Power Grid (PGD) Demo, I volunteered to run the demo so that the GM would be able to get Heat 2 started sooner.

• 1pm Power Grid (PGD) Heat 2, 5th of 5, on the USA map.  I made a critical mistake early on, and just wasn't able to recover the pace.

Carrie and I went to dinner at Perkins with Beth and Diana, a couple of Carrie's friends from college.  Afterwards, we went to our room and crashed for the night.

Carrie and I drove up Tuesday afternoon.  We got checked into the hotel (and I into the convention) in time to grab an early light dinner.  Appropriate use of Tylenol, rest and food avoided my traditional Tuesday night migraine.

• 6pm, Power Grid (PGD) Heat 1, 4th place of 5, on France.

After the game, Carrie and I met up with Eric and Cathy Raymond, along with Rich Shay and went out to Perkins for dessert.  Afterwards we played Race for the Galaxy and chatted until midnight.

Tonight we played Dominion, Money, Power Grid, Roll Through the Ages.

• Brian won Dominion with 36, followed by Craig (30) and Matt (9).
• Brian won Money with 530, followed by Craig (500) and Matt (400).
• Craig won Power Grid on the Korea map with 17/13, followed by Brian (10/10), Matt (7/7), and John (12/6).
• Craig won Roll Through the Ages with 46, followed by Brian (35), and John (22).

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Brian Carpenter, Matt Linn, and John "Fuzzface" McMahon.

Tonight we played TransAmerica, Puerto Rico, Roll Through the Ages, Set, Chronology.

• Craig won TransAmerica, followed by Matt, Jim, and Brian.
• Lije won Set, followed by Sallie, and Carrie.
• Matt won Puerto Rico with 51, followed by Craig (42), Brian (42), and Tony (38).
• Sallie won Chronology with 10, followed by Lije (8), Carrie (8), and Rachel/Shaune (8).
• Lije won Chronology with 10, followed by Sallie (9), and Shaune (6).
• Brian won Roll Through the Ages with 50, followed by Tony (12), Craig (11), and Lije (10).

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Rachel and Jim "Blaise" Trigg, Brian and Lije Carpenter, Matt Linn, Sallie and Tony Montuori, and Shaune Lee.

Tonight we played Race for the Galaxy, On the Underground, and San Juan.

• Craig won Race for the Galaxy with 39, followed by Brian (36), Jim (22), and Matt (22).
• Matt won Race for the Galaxy with 38, followed by Jim (33), Brian (29), and Craig (26).
• Dave won On the Underground with 43, followed by John (39), Tony (37), and Shaune (35).
• Dave won San Juan with 43, followed by Shaune (38), Tony (28), and John (23).

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Rachel and Jim "Blaise" Trigg, Dave, Sallie, and Tony Montuori, Shaune Lee, Matt Linn, Brian Carpenter, and John "Fuzzface" McMahon.

Tonight we played Settlers of Catan.

• Brian won Settlers of Catan with 10, followed by Dave (9), Sallie (9), John (7), Gretchen (6), and Craig (6).

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Dave and Sallie Montuori, Gretchen Allen Johns, Brian Carpenter, and John "Fuzzface" McMahon.

Tonight we played Dominion and Cities and Knights of Catan.

• Brian won Dominion with 30, followed by Craig (26), Dave (24), and John (10).
• Brian won Cities and Knights of Catan with 14, followed by Dave (11), Tony (9), Craig (7), Shaune (6), and John (6).

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Dave and Tony Montuori, Shaune Lee, Brian Carpenter, and John "Fuzzface" McMahon.

Tonight we played 1830, Agricola, and Race for the Galaxy.

• Brian won Agricola with 30, followed by Lije (23), and Matt (18).
• Brian won Race for the Galaxy with 30, followed by Lije (26), and Matt (25).
• Dave won 1830 with $2825, followed by John ($2802), and Craig ($2323).

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Brian and Lije Carpenter, Matt Linn, Dave and Sallie Montuori, and John "Fuzzface" McMahon.

Tonight we played Vegas Showdown, Chronology, and Cineplexity.

• John won Vegas Showdown with 59, followed by Craig (52), Sallie (45), Brian (43), and Matt (32).
• Sallie won Chronology with 10, followed by John (9), Craig (8), and Brian (8).
• Craig won Cineplexity with 9, followed by John (6), Carrie (6), Brian (4), and Sallie (2).
• John won Cineplexity with 10, followed by Craig (9), Carrie (8), and Sallie (1).

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Sallie Montuori, Brian Carpenter, Matt Linn, and John "Fuzzface" McMahon.

Tonight we played Power Grid.

• Matt won Power Grid with 15/15/$10, followed by Craig (14/14/$86), Jim (14/14/$13), Brian (13/13/$73), and Dave (11/12/$143).

Attendees:  Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Matt Linn, Brian and Lije Carpenter, Rachel and Jim "Blaise" Trigg, Dave and Tony Montuori, and Shaune Lee.

Tonight we played Race for the Galaxy, Wasabi, and Puerto Rico.

• Craig won Race for the Galaxy with 51, followed by Matt (38).
• Tony won Wasabi with 32, followed by Shaune (20).
• Brian won Puerto Rico with 60, followed by Dave (53), Matt (44), and Craig (35).

Attendees: Craig Trader and Carrie Hafer, Matt Linn, Lisa Niemcyzk, Brian and Lije Carpenter, Dave, Sallie, and Tony Montuori, and Shaune Lee.