Our first week had 4 GCOM members, and 3 new-to-GCOM attendees.

Attendees: David & Noreen (Hosts), Mel, Julie, Tim, Bill, John

Games Played: Quarto, Phoenix, Age of Mythology, Transamerica, Alhambra, Wyatt Earp, 6 Takes!, King's Breakfast

The evening started out with a pair of 2 player abstracts, Quarto & Phoenix.

Julie & Noreen played Phoenix while Mel and Tim played several games of Quarto. Julie had never played Phoenix before but grasped the game quickly and beat Noreen by a single point. Mel won a best 2-of-3 match against Tim in Quarto.

As Bill and John arrived, Mel (Norse), Tim (Egyptians) and I (Greeks) decided to play Age of Mythology. I bought this some time ago but had never done more than cut out the mini's and skim the rules. In the first couple rounds I goofed up and spent my resources poorly and found myself unable to gather more. Mel had done a good job of gathering, and therefore he appeared to be vulnerable to my army. Several rounds of attack and a misunderstanding of what it was I was going after led to a decimation of his army and my
stockpiling of 5 of his cubes. Tim gained a nice lead as we beat each other up.

Everyone did passably well in the middle game, Mel used excellent hand management to recover from his earlier setbacks, Tim built and gathered well, and I kept not finding decent hill tiles in my explorations (I was the
Greeks). Dave reached Heroic age first, and Tim reached Mythic age first. Within 3 rounds of that point, we were all at Mythic Age, and Tim had stockpiled enough resources to build the Wonder, and gained points from largest army and wonder to get 15 points and the game. Mel came in second with the most buildings (8 points), and Dave only had the points from
winning various battles against Mel (7 points) and brought up the rear. We had fun, but it was a long game and probably won't be played again for some time.

Meanwhile, Bill, Noreen and Julie played Alhambra. Julie was able to maneuver a very long wall (19 wall sections I understand!) and run away with the game. They all enjoyed the game, from what I understand. I like Alhambra, though it usually runs longer than I like for a game of that depth.

As Noreen and Julie made a quick run to the store, Bill showed John the game Wyatt Earp and they ran through the rules, though the ladies returned before
they actually played, and they all decided to play a different game. I must get to play this soon. I really liked it the one time I played it at GCOM-Silver Spring.

TransAmerica hit the table next, and John, Bill, Noreen, and Julie played while the three of us still finished up AoM. This was Julie & John's first playing of the game and the "use what your neighbor builds" aspect was
highly lauded. Noreen was able to eke out a 2 point victory. John commented that the game was very good and thanked us for introducing it to him.

After AoM and TransAmerica were over, Bill and Tim had to run (around 11:00 at this point) and the rest of us played a pair of quick card games: "6 Takes!" and Kings Breakfast.

In "6 Takes!", John had apparently used up all his luck, and took 46 points on the first hand (it was his first time playing this game as well). It was a blow he could not recover from, and the game ended with the following
order: Mel, David, Noreen & Julie (tied), John. I find this game works best if you don't over-think your card selection and try as best you can to play by instinct.

In King's breakfast, a game everyone was familiar with but Mel & Julie had not played for some time, we had a tough time, and a close game with John winning followed by Dave, Mel, Noreen, and Julie. I like the tough decisions this game gives (take the 4 wine and have more than the King, or let the King have them and make someone else's wine much more valuable, for
example), and yet it still plays fast and light. One of my favorite fillers.

All-in-all, a very successful start to g