Vacation: Lloyd and I went to a local Mexican grocery shop in search of chorizo, a Mexican spicy sausage. Upon our return I found people had already settled into a game of Quiddler. I took over for Kim after the second round since she had to get her munchkin ready for the day. Peggy had the lead through out the game but Roseanne and I made a strong push in the last two hands to at least make the game interesting.
Peggy (273), Kim/Me (272), Roseanne (267), Rohan (254)

Vacation: After breakfast, we got a big game of 6 nimmt going. The game only last three round as Thomas made a strong attempt at breaking his father's point record.
Roseanne (18), Me (24), Rohan (30), PT (34), Kim (49), Lloyd (60), Thomas (69)

Vacation: PT is officially hooked. Lloyd and I decided to give him a copy of SOC as a thanks for the weekend stay. So upon our return from the game store we broke in PT's SOC game. This time we got Peggy to play. It was no contest as the rolls came my way. Upgraded to cities within a few turns. Expanded, upgraded, got the longest road to win!
Me (10), Lloyd (6), Peggy (4), PT (4)

Vacation: Everybody here had play Carcassonne but no one other than me had the expansions. So I went over the rules for the two expansions. Quickly got in trouble as I allocated too many meeples and the builder to secure a cathedral city. Needed one tile and it seemed that everyone was drawing them. I scored small points in order to recover my other allocated meeples. Once I had meeples back in my stock I started farming. Got lucky in the final rounds as I picked up the needed tile to complete my cathedral city. That city score combined with my farmers gave me an overwhelming victory!
Me (156), Thomas (94), PT (80), Lloyd (68), Peggy (64)

Al's: Broke in my recent OOP find. Al really liked this cause it was a quick game.
Game 1: Chris (8), Me (4), Al (3)
Game 2: Al (12), Chris (4), Me (0)
Game 3: Dave (9), Al (7), Dimitri (2), Chris (1), Me (0)

Al's: Broke out Quiddler while we ate dinner. The game was on the slow side due to Dave and Dimitri as they took their time to maximize their word score. Al being a scrabble player loved it and won.
Al (236), Dave (193), Dimitri (186), Me (163), Roberto/Maria (132), Chris (127)

Al's: Variant: Kill of the Hill
Wanted to avoid a racing game so I decided to make up a new variant to increase the combat level.
The rules were:
A flag, the "hill", at the center of the board scores a point for any player that ends a phase on it. Robots enter via one of the eight entry points determined randomly. First player to reach 10 points wins.
I reached the center tile first and scored two easy points. Dave and I were facing each other but he had the higher priority move and pushed Al and I into a pit. He backed up and sat on the flag for 5 phases. Dave eventually was destroyed by the tag team of Maria and Chris Afterwards it was they who struggled for control of the "hill". Later in the round, I showed up to take out Maria and Chris via the pit. Al and I tangoed for the tile and I was the victor. I stay on the flag for a few phases. Dimitri pushed me into a pit to end my stay on the "hill". Dimitri had a minelayer and had dropped all three mines next to the flag. Al rushed back to the tile and took some mine damage to sit on the flag. We called the game cause it was late and Al was definitely going to score the 3 points he needed to win.
Al (7), Me (6), Dave (5), Maria (3), Chris (3), Dimitri (1)

John: I flew to Reno for a job interview. Afterwards I went to my friend's home for dinner and a game. People were looking forward to play the Great Dalmuti but Mike forgot the cards. Luckily, I had brought Quiddler to Reno. Brian and RJ were young kids, so they got some help forming words. James was very lucky getting some high scoring letters several rounds in a row snagging him the lead for most of the game. James falter in the last round scoring zero and allowing Mike to pass him.
Mike (202), James (183), Me (183), PJ (160), RJ (155), Lori (132), Brian (129), John (95)

GSG: I was in a no win situation here, "Cold War" or "I'm the Boss". At least "I'm the Boss" would be over in an hour. Early in the game I was able to steal Phil's permanent investor and Bob had acquired two more permanent investors. The monopoly of investors allowed us to spilt several deals with minimal interference. It was either Bob's grin or stable of three investors that earned him the "Leader" tag. As a result his investors were stolen and everybody tried to make deals without him. Taking that as a cue I would try to include everybody in my deals and it seemed to work. It wasn't till the near the end of the game that people noticed my big stack-o-money. I was shutout in the last two deals.
Me (52), Eric-4 (51), Bob (42), Matt (38), Phil (24)

GSG: Another Sackson game. I like this game but I really don't play it well. After that last game people didn't believe me. My problem with this game is I can't see how to make money early so you can keep buy shares later in the game. I had the lead in Quantum and Phoenix early but ran out of money and couldn't keep the leads. The only good thing was I got them early enough to make a good a return from them. Bob was looking like the clear winner but somehow Eric sneaked by.
Eric-4 (41,100), Bob (39,000), Phil (35,300), Matt (33,200), Me (29,800)

GSG: We went over the rules for Matt and Phil. The game was well liked by all that we play two games of it before Phil decided it was time to leave.
Game 1: Matt (59), Me (55), Eric-4 (50), Phil (49), Bob (15)
Game 2: Bob (69), Matt (67), Eric-4 (61), Phil (58), Me (50)

GSG: Well I've learned my lesson. Never tried to maximize your score if you can go out. You'll get screwed if you don't!!! That's what happened to me in the third round. I love this game, I must start going to yard sales!!!
Matt (17+19+25+15=76), Eric-4(15+23+21+12=71), Me (15+14+21+21=71), Bob (12+14+25+18=69)

Ilise's: Well, now that everyone knows I'm moving to Reno, everybody is trying to get one more game session with me. Tonight, I went to Ilise for dinner and a few games. First up was John's favorite, Puerto Rico!
Staring order: Me, Ilise, John
I decided that I was gonna try a builder strategy, Ilise and John jump on the factory strategy. I start producing a coffee crop rather quickly and tempting as it was I passed on buying the factory. I bought the office and both markets, which allow me to crank out the cash like there was no tomorrow. At one point I had 20 gold on my mat. My mistake was not buying the big buildings the instant I had the money. I was able to build the Guildhall and City hall. John picked up the Fortress while Ilise had the Customhouse and was able to steal the Residence from me. I had one point in shipping. Now if I can only figure out how to increase my shipping and keep the money flow this could be a winner.
Ilise (40), John (38), Me (31)

Ilise's: We played three hands of Katzenjammer Blues. John and I had a tie in the second hand.
* most mice of the game
Game 1: Ilise (7), Me (6),John (2*)
Game 2: Me, John (9), Ilise (1*)
Game 3: John (5), Ilise (2), Me (2*)

Ilise's: This was a quick game of Alhambra in which Ilise totally dominated the high scoring tiles and created a very long wall. She got the wall to length of 10 during the initial round but didn't get have any of the problems that usually comes with it. The result of the game was sealed in the second round and the last round was a battle to determine second place. At the end, Ilise's wall segment (24) was equal to the total of John (13) and my wall segments (11). Spanked!
Ilise (161), Me (113), John (106)

Ilise's: This was a weird numbers game. The four came up quick often, which for most of the game benefited only me. I was able to upgrade cities quickly which allowed me to ground more settlements. Initial we all had knights and tied twice for Defender of Catan. Once John got to level three of the political he dominate the knights which scoring him two Defender of Catan points. Ilise got to level three of the science but the rolls were coming in her favor so it didn't really help her out. I eventually secure the longest road and cranked out another settlement for the win.
Me (13 - longest road and a progress VP), Ilise (12 - Green Metro and a progress VP), John (1 - 2xDefender and the Blue metro)

Siano's: Staring order: Ilise, John, Al, Me, Steve
I went to Siano's Annual pig roast for some Hawaiian Style pork, yummmieeee! After the feasting, some of the non-comatose people were eager for a game. Al and Steve wanted to give PR another try so I rounded up two more that are always game for PR, Ilise and John. Once again I was going to try my trader strategy by getting the tobacco storage in the first build phase. After that I proceeded to acquire the large market and office. Al to my right went big time corn whore eventually getting six plantations of corn. His problem was money. He picked up the wharf late in the game for one big shipment. John went factory and picked up the harbor for points scoring. Ilise also went the factory route with quarries and used that to buy to big buildings. New strategy when playing against Ilise, always take the factory away from her! Ilise (48), John (42), Me (40), Al (28), Steve (26)

SN@C: Chris wanted to give this game a try and we convinced Maria to join us in. Went over the rules for all. The bidding rules confused some. Once the game got started people got it. Vitas was holding 4 jokers when the game ended. He thought those would score zero points, which is only true if they are played. Doh!! I must remember to stress that rule next time!!!
Maria (7), Me (7), Chris (4), Todd (3), Vitas (-2*)

SN@C: During the rules explanation I stressed the rule for the rare event, in which a player gets more than four of a set. Wouldn't you know it, it happened to Maria and lucky for me Chris was paying attention. I got lucky in the final hand, as I was able to sell two sets to double my score.
Me (14), Chris (13), Maria (11), Todd (6), Vitas (4)

SN@C: We were able to get Maria to join us for another game. This was more up her alley since she works at a museum. This game had Gitter and Christin P as the heavies. Chris thought I was winning, so he made a couple of maneuver to screw me. One of them was to hosing Yoko so that my collection became worthless. Thank God for Vitas, I didn't come in last
Chris (442), Todd (406), Maria (405), Me (354), Vitas (282)

SN@C: We used the 5-6 player expansion rule in which everyone starts with a upgrade of their choice. Plain and simple Vitas spanked out collective butts!!! Everyone built colonies in the first few turns except Vitas who build a trade ship (the secret?). He used the trade ship to get the Carbon production bonus card. Then Vitas got some colonies and the game was pretty much done with. Vitas was so far ahead that the rest of us conspired to prevent him from getting another trader bonus but it didn't help. On the next turn he converted an ice planet and founded a colony for the last two points. Chris celebrated a rare Vitas victory by spilling beer all over the resource cards.
Vitas (15), Me (11), Todd (8), Chris (7)

SN@C: We decided to start with 7 dice apiece. Chris was knocked out by some of Todd's lucky bids. Vitas made some crazy bids that Todd wisely challenged. For the final duel I had the lucky rolls, which allowed me to make some crazy bids.
Me, Todd, Vitas, Chris

Lunch time: Well, Chris found a rules clarification that I missed which means I've been teaching and playing wrong. Chris and Dimitri came over for my weekly game of lunchtime golf. Afterwards we played a game of Klunker while we ate some grub. The new ruling makes the shop window placement really important. You either want to place a card into your shop window that you don't mind acquiring or placing card to attract a buyer. I was able to get a couple of sets to pay full value while Chris seems to have the bad luck of getting several sets but never able to complete any of them. Dimitri had almost the same problem but was able to unload most of his sets by the end of the game.
Me (28), Dimitri (18), Chris (16)

Al's: Maria has a sharp mind for numbers and boy was it sharp. Thankfully she had to leave to take care of the kids otherwise it would have been a massacre. We got Steve to jump in for Maria but it only took him a round before he started kicking our asses.
Maria/Steve (105+29+68=202), Al (70+26+61=157), Me (56+36+55=147)

Al's: During dinner we gave Quiddler a try. During the first round I got 'O', 'R' and 'E'. On my first draw I picked up an 'N'. I had to show the group my four-letter word "RENO" which will be my new home city beginning next week. Everyone ooohhhhhed. The only other outstanding event was Chris' amazing ability of acquiring useless combination of letters. He only was able to score three points in four rounds. Chris's bad luck was the primary reason of stopping after the fourth round.
Al (94), Dave (72), Steve (66), Me (55), Maria (36), Dimitri (35), Chris (3)

Al's: A pair of first timer for the duel and the pressure was present on their faces. They alternated in victory and defeat until Dimitri came out victorious, much to his surprise.
Dimitri, Steve, Chris, Me, Dave, Al

Al's: Chris push for a little game of chance. In the first game Dimitri was soooo lucky. He rolled triple dots to score the pot four times. Somehow Al and I were able to knock out Dimitri before both of us ran out of tokens at the same time. The case wasn't in the rules so we decided to split the pot. The second game Al's luck dominated.
Game 1: Al & Me, Dimitri, Rob, Dave, Steve, Maria, Chris
Game 2: Al, Roberto, Chris, Dimitri, Maria, Me, Dave

Al's: With the gambling itch satisfied among the crew, we went back to real gaming. The other group decided to play Alhambra while we started a game of Carc with all expansions. Chris and I were sharing a large city but he got greedy and stole it from me. Bastard, doesn't he know I'm leaving!!! Roberto and Al scored a huge cathedral city. Al got one set of commodities while Chris had the other two.
Al (167), Roberto (155), Chris (134), Me (112)

Holly's: Holly threw me a going away/game party. Plenty of people show up to wish me a good farewell. We milled around drinking beer waiting for the arrival of the pizza man. After dinner we started the gaming. Dimitri's wife, Christine, wanted to play Quiddler. A bunch of people wanted to play, even Chris "Mr Full O'Crappy letters" Siano. Everyone experience at least on bad hand except for Hope who always seemed to get words. Holly's mudslides started giving dyslexia like effects. It was a friendly game so we weren't penalized for goofs.
Hope (240), Dimitri (189), Holly (177), Annette (169), Me (164), Don (143), Chris (123), Christine (98)

Holly's: Staring Order John, Matt, Me, Chet
John and Matt were gunnin' for a game of Puerto Rico but they excluded Ilise. For some odd reason Chet jumped in our game and I thought he hated the game. I started out by buying tobacco storage for my cash crop and planned on a Corn Whore shipping strategy. I was able to pick up lots of tobacco and corn plantation but I lacked enough colonists to make it work. Next time I must get the Hospice. John went Factory strategy. Yawn, how boring! Chet and Matt were trying builder but both ended up shipping more than me. Wow I sucked!
John (40), Chet (39), Matt (36), Me (33)

Holly's: After the game of PR we started a quick game of Kingdom. Matt and Chet tied for first after the first round but Matt used up several of his high level castles to get those points and paid for it in the second round with a very low score. John had trouble understanding the scoring mechanism but he cranked out a huge third round. Yeah, what a bluffer.
So end the Boston chapter of my gaming life. Next up Reno.
John (67+56+156=279), Me (84+42+109=235), Matt (100+15+120=235), Chet (100+55+75=230)

GSG: I cruised down to the Gadget Tree at the Hilton to meet the local group of gamers. Sadly, no one was there. The clerk said that the next scheduled meet was Oct 7th. Sigh, It looked like I was going to be another week before I would play a game. I decided to explore the southern part of the city and I ended up at Borders. Lo and behold there was a group of people playing a Settler game, the Great Wall of China from the historical scenario II expansion. I turns out that this was the Gadget Tree group in an unofficial gathering since Mike thier leader wasn't around this week. I stuck around and got to know the group. During our conversation, I mentioned Modern Art, Taj Mahal and Traumfabrik. It drew blank stares. It appears that they are bunch of newbie gamers. Ann left after their game. We played a couple games of King's Breakfast.
Game 1:Bruce (37), Tim (34), Nate (32), Joe (27), Me (20), Dale (19)
Game 2:Nate (46), Dale (40), Joe (36), Bruce (27), Tim (24), Me (16)