Who was there: Bob, Brendan, Jeff and Spanky

Phrase of the night: What! No new Christmas games?

Settlers of Catan was the first game again. Due to a mix up in the separation of the two sets of Settlers of Catan last week, Jeff's set was left with almost undistinguishable "red" and "orange" game pieces. We needed to mark the "red" game pieces with a gold dot before the start on the game. We ran out of "development cards" for the first time ever. Jeff won the game without having the longest road or the largest army.

We played Settlers of Catan for are next game. Spanky bought a city after his second dice roll. The other players never really caught up to Spanky. The game was over quickly with Spanky winning with the longest road and one "victory point" card.

Blurt was the next game that we played. This game, one of Bob's favorites, has not been played in over six months. Brendan dropped out of the game early. This left just three people playing. That meant that one person read the question and the other two "blurted" out the answer. The game was over quickly with Spanky winning.

Naval War was the last game of the night. Bob, Jeff and Spanky played till almost four in the morning. At that point Spanky had 96 points, Bob had 33 points and Jeff had 53 points. After the next hand Spanky had 112 points, Bob had 77 points and Jeff had 112 points. That's right, It was a tie. Due to the fact that no one wanted to play the tie breaker hand, the game will be scored as a tie.

Who was there: Bill, Bob, Brendan, Jeff and Spanky

Phrase of the night: I'm sorry, I tried. I don't see any of you trying.

Settlers of Catan was ready to go with Bill, Bob, Brendan and Jeff when Spanky came in. With his arrival the stage was set for the first ever five player game of Settlers of Catan. It took some time to merge the two sets of game pieces. Soon the wild and wide open game was underway. Everyone was in the game till the very end when Bill amassed 10 points with out any victory card points, longest road or largest army.

After much pleading from Bob, The Immortals was chosen to be played next. The rules and the new rule changes were reviewed and then play began. The new rules caused there to be massive build ups of air power and very little battling. The addition of the "out of the war" card ended the game in an odd way. Spanky won the game.

The now wildly popular five player Settlers of Catan was the next game played and again it was a close game. All of the players were very close to winning at the end. Spanky had the longest road with out a challenge. Bill snapped up the largest army card. Brendan was trading cards, wheeling and dealing with reckless abandon. Bill had all the point he needed to win and was just waiting for his turn to take the victory. Before Bill could win, Spanky aquired two "settler" cards and played the one point University card for his tenth point and the win.

Who was there: Jeff, Brendan, Bill, Bob and Spanky

Phrase of the night: If you feel like a traffic cone, it's because you're not moving!

Settlers of Catan was set up with Jeff, Brendan, Bill and Bob ready to play when Spanky arrived. Brendan, who had never played "settlers" before, asked for Spanky's help. Soon the heavy handed leadership of Spanky had scored the longest road and several "cities". Spanky and Brendan won with 2 settlement @ 1 point each, 3 cities @ 2 points each and the longest road for the last 2 points needed.

Settlers of Catan was the second game played. Brendan sat this game out. Bob grabbed the longest road early and never was at risk of losing it. Bill and Spanky traded the largest army back and forth. Bill and Spanky both had 9 points with the largest amry and 7 without it. Bill got the largest army and the win at the end of the game.

Naval War was the last game that we played. Bob, Bill and Jeff scores were very close for the most of the hands. Jeff scored 52 points on the last hand and ended the game with 99 points. The game is normally played to a score of 100, but due to how late it was, Jeff was declared the winner.

Who was there: Jeff, Brendan and Bob

One game of Naval War was the only game played. Jeff was the winner.

Canceled. Settlers of catan was played at Bill and Lori's house with Pete and Jeff.

Who was there: Jeff, Brendan, Bob, Ray and Spanky

Snack of the night: Blueberry Pie

First, Ray showed up. Secondly, we played Guerilla. Third, Brendan left early. Fourth, we only played one game. Fifth, that game lasted over 5 hours. It was one of the strangest games nights ever. After a lot of discussion of current events, the game began. After the first hour of play, Bob was whining. After two hours of play, Brendan left and, Bob was whining. After three hours of play, Jeff had no cards, Spanky and Ray ate pie and, Bob whined. After four hours of play, Ray was racking up big points, Jeff still had no cards and, Spanky surrounded the whining Bob. In the last hour of play, Bob's "presidential palace" fended off countless attacks from Jeff's traitor and revolution cards, Ray gathered up points in the way only a loose cannon can, Jeff waited for the end to come, Spanky walked the razors edge between Ray and Bob And, Bob whined. In the end, The "Rebels" scored their first ever win in a game of Guerilla, coming from behind at the very last minute. With the rebels winning Bob and Jeff lost half of their points. Ray was the winner.

There was a lot of talk about the game that is being developed by Bob. Some new suggestions for changes were offered by the group. Bob's game shows much promise of viability. We all await the return of The Immortals.

Here's a bonus: Games Night Stats.

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Bill, Brendan and Spanky

Phrase of the night: How can you NOT have a corkscrew?

Since Bill was in attendance, with his games, we played Settlers of Catan first. The play of the game was most likely the placement of Bill's second settlement. Bill placed it so as to get what he needed to build a pivotal road in a pivotal place. This was a close game till the end. In the end Bill's move early on made the difference. Bill won the game. He had the longest road and the largest army. Brendan decided to watch us play, as to learn the game.

Sharks was the next game we played. Bill won this game by driving up the price of the "red" stock. Bill ended up with 22% more money than the second place Brendan.

Split Second was the next game played. We have come to realize that Bob enjoys an advantage over normal people in this game. Bob was quick on the trigger and won.

Jenga was the next game played. Playing the game on a kitchen table that had a bit of flex to it call for the addition of a few new rules. e.g. No one except, the person removing a piece, may touch the table. The first game was a quick one. It ended suddenly when Bill tried a risky move. Bill's risk payed off for Bob. As he was the last person to successfully remove a piece, i.e. the winner. The second game of Jenga lasted a long time. The tower was very tall when Jeff knocked it down. Spanky won.

Naval war was the final game of the night. Bill was out early in the first hand. Misfortune found Bill with 5 points of damage on all of his ships due to mines laid on him. In the end Brendan won. He beat Bob by only 3 points in this truncated game.

Who was there: Jeff, Chuck, Brendan, Bob and Spanky

Phrase of the night: "Ya' lose this game on the first roll."

The Immortals was the first game that we played. It is a brand new game that Bob created. It contained lots of hand made cards and lots of dice. The Immortals is an air war game set in WWII. To get everyone comfortable with the rules, we started an open handed game. In only one or two turns, this open handed game, became a "real" game. After a number of hours we decided to end the game. Brendan had just taken a commanding lead and was declared the winner. Brendan then got up and left for home undefeated. Due to poor shuffling some of the game's finer points may have not shown themselves. The group seemed to think that the game was playable and that only a little fine tuning was needed to make The Immortals a very fine game indeed. "Good job on the new game Bob."

A single level game of Triopoply was the next game played. It lasted much longer then any other single level game of Triopoply had. A great deal of wheeling and dealing near the end of the game made for interesting play. Chuck was the apparent leader and was declared the winner.

A single game of Puppies was the nightcap. Jeff won the tiny pot.

Who was there: Jeff, Joe, Bob, Bill and Spanky

Phrase of the night: "It must have been the cigar"

This halloween night may have been one of the best games nights ever. We played seven games in total. Joe, Jeff, Bob (dressed as father Guido Sarduci) and Spanky played a quick game of Split Second and Spanky won. Bill arrived in time for the next game of Split Second. With five players, the game was a little longer than the first one but, with the same result. Spanky won again. At this point, Joe left to go home.

Now that the group was down to four people we could play, what maybe the new favorite game of games night, Settlers of Catan. We rolled dice to see who would get to play first. Spanky won the dice roll. After Spanky placed his first settlement Bob said the game was over and that Spanky would win. Well Bob was right, sorta'. Spanky won a hard fought game that, I guess you could say, was never really close.

The next game we played was Settlers of Catan again. This time, after rolling the dice, Jeff went first and Spanky went last. Bob and Spanky battled for longest road. Spanky won this battle when he bought a card that gave him two road pieces. Bill spent his last three turns with points enough to win but, was blocked from winning by rolling sevens or other players blocked him. Before Bill could win Spanky took the "largest army" card from him. Spanky, now with the largest army and longest road, had the points to win. For those of you keeping score at home. That's four games in a row won by Spanky. That's right, the mood got ugly.

Next, while Bob took a break, we played a couple of games of Puppies. Bill won both games. Triopoply was the next game played. Due to the hour we decided to play a single level game. It was soon clear that Bill had the edge in the game and that it was just a matter of time till he would win.

Who was there: Jeff, Chuck, Brendan, Bob and Spanky

Phrase of the night: I hate monopoly! (Spanky was the only one saying it)

Well the night started with a game of Split Second. Brendan sat out the game so he could read all the rules for the new game that Jeff bought. Bob was a little late so we started without him. Chuck won the game.

Triopoly was the next game played. When someone spends forty bucks on a game, we have to play it at least once. After checking all the rules and looking at the board it was clear that it was very close to Monopoly. The differance being that Triopoly has three times the properties, game board spaces and "fun". Well three times the fun maybe going a bit far. A time limit, "midnight", was set for the first game. When midnight came all holdings and monies were counted. Spanky ($3685) won with Chuck ($3610) a close second.

The third game played was Triopoly again. Try as we might, in over three hours, no one aquired a monopoly that they could build on. At 3:30 a.m. all assets were counted and Spanky won this game also.

Who was there: Jeff, Bill, Bob, Ray and Spanky

Phrase of the night: He's winning! Put the robber there.

Bill came to games night for the second week in a row and, Ray resurfaced. Everyone was glad to see them. The first game was Settlers of Catan with Bill, Jeff, Bob and Ray playing. I am told that Jeff was winning till Bill came from behind and won. Ray left after the game was over.

Spanky came in, after spending the early evening at a reverse raffle, just in time to play the next game. Settlers of Catan was the game chosen for play. After rolling dice to see who goes first, Spanky snapped up the best location for lumber. Everyone else placed both of their settlements. Spanky than placed his second settlement on a port for lumber. Spanky's road building went unchecked. (used all road pieces available in the game, a lot of road envy going on at this point "hehehe") Spanky was the winner even though the robber was permently parked on the most productive of his land.

Nuclear War was the next game played. After weeks of asking for this game to be played, I can't remember why I ever wanted to play it. It was a good game of Nuclear War. Jeff and Bob were blown away early. Bill and Spanky battled back and forth till Spanky killed the last of Bill's people. Bill was then allowed to launch all of his remaining weapons at Spanky. This last strike by Bill kill the last of the poeple in the game. So, There was no winner. Political commentary in a game?

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Chuck, Bill, Brendan and Spanky

Phrase of the night: I wish someone had told me that!

Bill showing up at games night means that we will have a new game to play. This was true once again this week. Bill brought the game Settlers for us to play. The four early birds (Chuck, Bill, Spanky and Jeff) played the first game. Eveyone who played the new game liked it. We all learned a few new rules after the game was well underway. Even Bill, the only player to have played Settlers before, learned something about city and resource. Chuck was the winner of the game.

Split Second was the next game played. All six players now were playing. It was a quick game and Bob was the winner.

Choosing the next game came down to using "the system". (see Aug. 15, 1997) This time a change to the system was tried. The voters could use their votes in favor or against the games they would like to play. This worked well but, ended in a tie. After working out a tie breaker (flip of a coin) Sharks was the game pick to be played next. Chuck objected to using "the system" to choose games at all. He felt that this was something that need to be voted on by the group. Maybe someone will type up "the system" so it can be voted on. It was a good game of Sharks with Bill squeaking out a narrow victory over Spanky.

Naval War was the last game of the night. Only one hand was played and Spanky won with a score of 61 points.

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Dave, Andrew and Spanky

Conclusion of the night: Jaret Wright did great against the Yankees!

Since Dave and Andrew were new to games night, we started the evening with a game that would be easy for them to learn. Split Second was the game chosen. In the first game of Split Second played we learned a lot about Andrew. Andrew's personal history was used for the answers to many of the questions. Questions like "how many times had he been fingerprinted in his life". The answer to that question was 3 by the way. Jeff won the chatter filled first game. Humbled but laughing, Dave and Andrew left. Spanky won the last two games of Split Second played.

Guerilla was the next game that was played. With only three players in a game of Guerilla, everyone is pretty sure who is on what side. If you are on the losing side at the end of the game, your personal score is cut in half. The biggest drama of the game was when Bob drew the "revolution" card. (revolution card may be used to force two player to exchange sides unless one has the "presidential palace" card.) Bob, having the "presidential palace" card, chose not to force Jeff and I to change sides. To make a long story shorter, The rebels, who had been in the lead all game long, were crushed in the end. Spanky won again.

Somehow it just doesn't feel like games night when Brendan isn't there. "aaaUUUgaaaaa"

Who was there: Jeff, Chuck, Brendan, Bob and Spanky

Phrase of the night: What do you think of that Cav's trade deal?

We started the night with a brand new game that Spanky brought. Everybody jumped in to help assemble the game's parts. After 15 minutes the Split Second game device was assembled and in place on the table. Owing to the fact that Split Second was a speed and trivia game that lent itself to people who do not filter their thoughts, Bob won big in the first game played. The second time that the game was played the scores were much closer and Chuck won. Most everyone agreed that the quick playing time of this game made it likely that it will be played often at games night.

Choosing the next game to be played came down to a vote using "the system". (see Aug. 15, 1997) Monopoly won the vote and at 11:45 p.m. the game began. After a short time almost all of the properties were bought with Jeff having the only monopoly. (Boardwalk and Park Place) The first person to fall prey to Jeff's now built upon properties was Chuck. Chuck was out of the game at 12:10 a.m.. Spanky then landed on Boardwalk and survived only to land on Boardwalk again five rolls later. Spanky was out of the game at 12:20 a.m.. Brendan, Bob and Jeff battled with Jeff really never in any trouble till 3:20 a.m.. Jeff end up winning after the bank was completely out of money. (due to monies being payed to "free parking" and not the bank. A common variant of the rules) Jeff end the game with $17,589 in cash.

Still no Cosmic Encounters & Nuclear War at games night. *sigh*

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Chuck and Spanky

Word of the night: Geez

With four you get Spades. Bob and Spanky played a nearly flawless game of spades. Highlight of the game included several nil bids that were played without error. The points Bob and Spanky gained from the nils forced Chuck and Jeff to bid into the risky range. The risk set them up to be "set" in a few hands. Chuck and Jeff never recovered.

They may start to call Spanky "the Bus Driver". Why you ask? Because He took everyone to school playing outwages. Spanky made three and a half laps around the board. Seemingly answering questions at will, Spanky was too nice to answer wrong, even when it would have been beneficial for him. Chuck was a close second.

Here's a bonus: A photo of Jeff and his camping buddy.

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Brendan, Chuck and Spanky

Phrase of the week: 50 foot woman

We played outwages first and that was a huge victory for Chuck, who had his "mojo" workin'. He went against the odds and played the long shots to build up his cash. Most of all he rolled well and never landed on the "spelling" spaces. After the game, Chuck said, "It's easy whan you know the answers".

Jeff won speed circuit by saving his wear points till the last two corners. This allowed Jeff to pass Spanky at the finish line, even though Spanky had lead the entire race to that point. Brendan shot off the race course in the last corner, as usual. When we last saw Brendan's car it was, "eatin' weeds", spinning in the grass on its rims.

Still no Cosmic Encounters & Nuclear War at games night. *sigh*

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Chuck and I think Brendan

Week two A. K. (Apre Ken):
This was Bob's week, he is a master at maniplating the random number generator. First he played Monopoly to a win without making a trade. He even hit the big cash in the Free Parking when he only had $68. Thus victory was his! He then proceeded to trounce his enemies playing Chuck's new game. Things looked bleak for Chuck and Jeff until, Jeff came from behind to win dice next. Jeff's luck ran out and Bob beat him at Sega football in overtime with a 288 yard rushing effort from Bernie Parmalee beating Antonio Freeman's 12 catch 198 yard effort. I guess Jeff was looking for a pass.

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Brendan

I don't think games night starts till the arrival of the third person. Therefore games night this week started at 11:30 p.m. with Bob's arrival. A video soccer game was played with the penalties turned off. Bob won the game with an inferior team to Brendan's. It was a fast paced, high scoring game.

Naval War was the only other game played. Bob came very close to winning with a score in the high nineties but, was beaten back allowing Jeff to score over 40 points and win the game.

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Brendan, Spanky, Chuck, Ray

The words of the week: leap, look and peek

Last time Chuck was at games night he was challenged to create a new game. Chuck developed a game using dice, chips and a deck of playing cards. Chuck's new game was the first game played this week. Chuck won the inaugural game. Suggestions for rule changes where made by Spanky. They were to add a poision number to the die roll and abandoning the "Chuck always deals" rule.

Speed Circuit was the next game played. An erroneous top speed was used by one of the cars, (Chuck's), altering the end of the game. Bob was the first to cross the finish line. It was a close race with all of the cars in a tight pack for entire game. In the last two corners Brendan and Ray blew up their cars and Spanky spun out.

Look or Leap, Chuck's new game, was the final game of the night. It was played with the rule changes discussed above. The new poision roll being added lengthed the game. Chuck won this game also.

The new method of game selection was employed only once and was met with some resistance. My personal apologies to Bob. It did, never the less, succeeded in finding the least abjectional game for this group.

As a special note to the group, I would like to ask that someone take notes at next weeks games night. I will not be there and will need them to update this web page.

Who was there: Jeff, Bob, Brendan, Spanky

The words of the week: Choda and Moses

Well, Jeff was the big winner this week. Only two games were played. Guerilla and Naval war were the games played. Jeff pulled come from behide wins in both games.

There was a little tension early in the first game as there was a dispute arose about when a die was "cocked". Two of the players, who will remain nameless, (Spanky and Bob), Threw fits. After a short cooling off period play resumed. The final word on dice rolls is, a die that stops on anything but the bare table top is a "cocked die", also if two or more dice are to be rolled at one time and one of them is "cocked" then all of the dice are rerolled.

A special award was given to Spanky for creating a system to pick which game the group will play. The method for game selection created is this: First all possible games are listed. Everyone chooses five games they would like to play, ranking the games in a decending order and listing them on a piece of paper. The papers are collected. Points are awarded for each vote. Five points for every first game selected, fore for every second game, and so on. Points are tabulated and the game receiving the most points is played.

The only other thing of note was the new glasses, mugs and bowl at Jeff's house.