Last night was the first official meeting of the unofficial Stardock Board Gaming Group.

It was a blast! Paul was blasted and everyone had at least 5 (count em' 5) good laughs.
Amidst all the counter striking going on in the office, a core group of 5 adventurers set out on a quest to play non-video games in an office that makes video games. Ooooh....

Attendees:
Angie - "Move that here..."
Jeff - "I'm so confused..."
Paul - "What was that again?"
Steff - "Oh good grief!"
Joe - "Hmmm...interesting."

CS Interlopers:
Chris - (didn't say much, but won some games)
Paul - "These are mathematically identical."
Norm - "Chris keeps helping Steff"
Alex - "I don't want to play a hobbit."
Brad - "We're all dead anyways."

Clans [Angie, Jeff, Steff, Joe]
The night started with our lunchtime favorite 'Clans'. We managed to get a couple of games in while waiting for Paul to show up. Jeff and Steff were new to the game so they kept missing some obvious moves. That was ok, Angie and I capitalized on each mistake There were some villages 10+ point villages made. You don't often see that.

I won both games. I don't think Jeff and Steff understand the nuances yet. Give them time though. In the second game, the blind man (uncontrolled player) ended up tying with Angie for second. Go figure.

Paul then showed up with a six pack of his favorite beer, 'Salvatore'. It was something like 11%, like most wines. According to Paul and Angie, the Wine Castle is the best booze house in Michigan and the only place you're going to find Salvatore. I'm going to have to give it a try. Paul allowed everyone to take some beer (to his regret later). The only stipulation that you drink what you take.

For Sale [Angie, Jeff, Steff, Joe, Paul]
After Paul got settled, we deciided to move to the 5 player games. The first one we were going to try was 'For Sale', an old game by Stefan Dora. This turned out to be great fun as everyone quickly got the hang of the game and the lingo:
On the bubble - Making the bid that is most likely to cause the drop chain (see below), leaving you to spend all your money.
Drop chain - The sequence of players dropping out of the bidding (taking back half their bid). Leading to he person on the bubble (see above).

I won the first hand handily. Paul might have had a chance, but he ran out of money. We later found $2,000,000.00 under his chair.
Steff got the hang of things an won one with a record score of 60+.
Jeff won the final found.

People liked it so much that I decided to leave it at the office for a lunchtime game.
NOTE: The pizza was order about 7:30 pm

Apples To Apples [Angie, Jeff, Steff, Joe, Paul, Norm, Paul, Chris]
By the time we finished For Sale, some of the CS players were looking to take a break. They found as the table about to play Apples to Apples. They decided to join us and this is where we had some of the most ruckus laughter of the evening. Who says 'My Body' isn't 'Delicious'? Especially when my wife is the judge.
We played quite a few games of this and I forgot to keep score. The only score I can remember is Jeff winning with 4 straight answers when we played the 'Apple Turnover' variant.

NOTE: Pizza arrived about 9:30 pm. Don't oder from Papa Johns.
NOTE: Paul runs out of beer during the game and is looking for any sign of a stashed bottle.

Take 6 [Angie, Jeff, Steff, Joe, Paul, Norm, Paul, Chris]
After a pee break, everyone was done with Apples to Apples and we decided to move on to a moro analytical game. 6 Takes has two advantages as a gaming group game. First, it's easy to teach and second, it handles up to 10 players. There aren't too many games that go past 6. We only got through one game of this and Chris ended up winning with a low score of 30. Steff had a good second hand where she didn't take any. Paul got confused on the first hand and started pickup cards that didn't belong in his hand.

Lord of the Rings [Steff, Joe, Paul, Alex, Brad, Paul (assisting)]
We were ready to end the night after '6 takes', but I promised the office a quick romp through Mordor. We broke out the 'Lord of the Rings Boardgame'. We just played the standard version, no expansions. It was tough getting started, but after spending 45 minutes in Moria trying to get through the rules, the rest of the game breezed by. It was a nail-biter and a game I think we'll play again. I gotta thank Paul for assisting in the rules explanation.

Here's a breakdown of when people died.
Joe - Died in Shelob's lair, second event.
Paul - Died in Shelob's lair, second event.
Steff - Captured by Sauron in Mordor
Brad - Captured by Sauron in Morder
Alex (ring bearer) - Captured by Sauron in Morder when he was two spaces away from Mt. Doom. Did I say it was a nail-biiter?

That was it. We all went home after that. I think it was a good time for all and we'll try it again next month sometime. If you're interested in attending another session of SDBGG, drop me a line here.