The Westbank Gamers meets every other Thursday evening from 6:00 PM - 11:00 PM (most times even later!) at the the house of John Moore. 

This page will contain a re-cap of what was played over the past several weeks.  Please be sure to check out the  page for a full description of many of the games listed here.

For a listing of previous gaming session reports, please visit our Archives section.

Also check out the Outside Gaming Reports section for reports on gaming sessions our members have been involved in outside of the confines of the Westbank Gamers. 

LEFT COAST GAMERS GAME SELECTION METHOD:  In many reports, I make mention of how we utilize a method to select which game we will  play.  The method was developed by the Left Coast Gamers, an active gaming group based in California.  Click the link above if you desire to learn the details of this method.

On Saturday December 27 the Westbank Gamers held a session lasting from 9:30 am till 6 pm.  John hosted the game session and we had special guest Greg Schloesser.
 

We started off with a game of Straw. We only finished one round because more guest arrived.
 

Battlestar Galactica

Players: Michael - Admiral Adama,  Joey - Boomer, Keith - Tom Zarek, John - Star Buck, Lenny - Baltar, Tom - Cheif.

Most of us were new to this game.  We made one mistake which affected my character.  I was dealt out the Sympathizer Card by mistake.  I thought, I was to reveal that I was loyal or a Cylon when the next round of loyalty cards was dealt.  I played a human during the first part of the game and a Cylon the second part of the game.
 

We made our first jump (2 light years) without any trouble.  Most player guessed Joey was a Cylon so they threw him in the Brig.  Joey immediately revealed himself and started messing with the crew. 

We dealt the next set of loyalty card out durning our second jump.  I revealed myself as a Cylon and tried to blow up the Colonial One.  At the time it had 2 loyal crew members on board.  I was foild by Tom.  Keith also revealed himself as a Cylon so now it was three against three.  The Cylons managed to get a boarding party on the Galactica but the real damage was coming form the cards.  Fuel was very low, so was moral and population. 

With resources running real low Tom tried to make a premature jump and killed off most of his population and losing the game.  The Cylons win.

Dominion

Have been trying to play this game for months.  Greg came to my rescue with a copy.  Tom, Greg, Joey and I enjoyed the different strategies of this game.  I tried using Villages, Markets and Smittys to keep my plays going.  The strategy did give me a lot of options but I didn't notice how may Provinces Greg was buying.  In the end Greg won with 37 points followed by Tom in second me in third and Joey in fourth.

Wasabi

I am not a big fan of sushi or cooking but I still enjoyed the theme of this game.  Greg Tom and I tried our had as sushi Chefs.  I enjoyed playing the game but was glad I didn't have to eat the results.  Tom won with 25 points, Greg was next with 24 points and I was the worst chef with 21 points.

Kingsburg

Paul, John, Keith, Lenny and Joey played Kingsburg on the other table.  I didn't get the scores but Keith won followed by John and Paul who tied for second.

Nottingham

For our last game everyone joined together for a game of Nottingham.  I again didn't get the scores but Kenton won.

Michael

The inclement weather made for a low turn turnout tonight.  On the plus side, two Mardi Gras parades rolling tonight were cancelled and rescheduled. 

On the Table: The Bottom Line, 10 Days in the USA, Formula Motor Racing and Otre Mare.

Players: John, Kenton, Keith and John

The Bottom Line

John set up this 1985 deluxe edition of The Bottom Line.  This roll and move game really showed it’s age.   The object of the game was to accumulate $5,000,000 and be debt free. You started the game with 1 million dollars and 2 million dollars of debt.  We discovered it was a good idea to go deeper in debt if you wanted to make money.  Once per turn you could borrow money.  Borrowing a million dollars cost you 1.4 million of debt before you rolled the dice or 2 million after you rolled.

Like Monopoly you were at the mercy of the dice and had no choice but to land on the space you rolled.  You could also buy property and charge rent.  There were even penalty spaces that required you to pay taxes.  Unlike Monopoly you could sell the properties back to the bank for a large profit.  This required you are another player (acting as a broker) to land on a real estate office (again luck).

Casinos could be purchased by the players and landing on a player owned casino required you to gamble.  To gamble you paid the required stakes and rolled the dice (again luck).  The odds were with the house but there was a chance to break the bank a collect a large some from the casino owner.  Landing on a Goldfix card space (luck) allowed you to buy or sell gold.

The options card space allowed you to draw an option card.  Option cards gave you a boon to the detriment of the other players.  They allowed you to by property or gold from another player at a bargain.

John was lucky enough to land on a spot that allowed him to buy a full set of properties.  He had to borrow at an unfavorable rate since he had already rolled the dice but it would pay off for him later.  I kept landing on goldfix spaces and buying gold.  I did land on a real estate office but John and Kenton thought my 10% brokerage fee was too high.  John was lucky enough to land on the same real estate office and brokered his own sale. 

We played the game for one tour of the 55 spaces and decided the game was not for us.  John looked like he was winning at the time but I had accumulated a massive amount of debt (and cash) for future turns.

10 Days in the USA

Players John, Kenton and Michael

This was the perfect filler until Keith arrived.  I won the game by connecting both ends of my itinerary with a pink plane.  I knew I had a good chance of getting a pink plane because we were almost out of tiles and I had yet to see a pink plane.  At one point near the end of the game three different colored planes were covering the discard piles (none of them pink).

Formula Motor Racing

Players: John, Kenton, Keith and Michael

John and Keith express and interest in Formula Mini De but I didn’t bring it.  So we played the next best formula racing game.

In the first race I lost a car but Keith lost both his cars.  I did manage to come in second place which would set me up for attacks from the winner of the first race (Kenton) in future races.  Score after the first race:  Kenton 12, Michael 6, John 1 and Keith 0.

In the second race John and I lost a car.  I believe the neutral yellow player one this race.  Second race scores: John 6, Kenton 4, Michael 3 and Keith 2

In the final race one again I lost a car.  This time John one the race but it wasn’t enough to overcome Kenton’s lead in points.  Scores for third race: John 10, Keith10, Kenton 2 and Michael 1

Final Scores: Kenton and Yellow racer (neutral player) 18, John 17, Keith 12, Michael 10 and Orange (neutral racer) 3.

Oltre Mare

Players: Michael, John, Kenton and Keith

This is one of my favorite games.  I was teaching this game to John, Kenton and Keith so I didn’t take any detailed notes until the final scoring round.

John didn’t travel much but was using his harbor bonus marker to buy cheap cards and keep his pirates under control.  He also didn’t earn much prestige for trading.  Kenton, Keith and I competed for the most harbor bonus markers.  I was the most successful trader earning 6 prestige tokens in the second half of the game.  I did have the most trouble with pirates and this would cost me the game.   Just before the final scoring John and I were tied at 30 Ducats, Keith had 26 Ducats and Kenton had 24 Ducats.  This was going to be a close game.  John was able to score the most in freight cards giving him the win. 

Here is the final scoring round

Roll Call: John, Kenton, Michael, Steven, Mischa and Marc

On the Table: Buy Low Sell High, Struggle of Empires

Buy Low Sell High

In this short game players are buying and selling the stock of three industries: Oil, Technology and Retail.  A player is limited to how many shares they can buy or sell (one of each share from each industry or 2 shares in a single industry.  A player is not required to buy or sell on his turn but he must play a card influencing share prices at the end of his turn.

There are 13 spots on the board for played cards after which the trading year is over and stock prices are adjusted and dividends paid.  After three trading years players sell their stock and the player with the most money wins.

Kenton started off invested heavily in technology and I went into retail.  Kenton kept his technology stocks throughout the game which cost him in the second year.  I was able to dump my technology before the stocks tanked.  Retail stayed relatively high and paid good dividends throughout the game.  This was enough to give me the win.  Final scores: Michael – 144, John – 133, Kenton – 133, Steven – 117

Struggle of Empires

Players: John - Austria, Kenton – Prussia, Michael- Spain, Steven - Russia, Marc - Britain and Mischa - France

Steven had wanted to bring this game to the table and although we started playing around 7 pm we would not meet our deadline of and 11 pm end game.  Most of us were new to this game so the rules took a while to run through.  Even so, there were may mistakes/rules overlooked in the game.

The game is played in three rounds (wars) with victory points given out after each round. 

Steven warned me that Spain had a disadvantage but I was willing to try it anyway.  Initial placement had me in Central Europe, North America, Africa and the Caribbean.  I would be challenged by Marc and Mischa in my colonies.

I have heard this game was a series of building up forces then fighting.  In our game we mostly did the later.  Everyone attached almost every turn.  Much of the time the results did not favor the attacker.  After the first war John was barely in the lead with 18, followed by Mischa with 17, Kenton and Marc with 16 and Steve and I with 13.

In the second war I did much better.  I was able to conquer 3 sets of natives in three successive turns.  My fourth attempt however was a tie that cost me 9 victory points.  I was also to take first place in Central Europe and the Baltic but dropped to second in the Caribbean. 

The third war was not played because it was getting late (10:30).

Mischa and each had a banking tile which made us overconfident with unrest.  We managed to tie for the most unrest (6) costing me my spot a second place.

Final Scores: John – 49, Marc – 35, Michael – 31, Kenton – 31, Mischa – 30 and Steven - 22

Game Session 1/3/08

We had a good turn out with 10 players and we brought 10 games to the table.

On the table: 10 Days in Africa, Metro, Carrousel, Arkadia, Alhambra – The Dice Game, Struggle of Empires, Vinci, Zombie Fluxx , Bluff, 10 Days in the USA.

Roll Call: Michael, Mischa, Marc, John, Kenton, Jerry, Stephen, Clyde, Keith, and Jim

On the Table: Bluff, Australia, Bang!

Australia

John, Jerry, Lenny, Michael and Mikey flew their bush planes and dropped off their rangers.  John made the best combinations of scoring earning 107 points.  Other scores were Lenny 82, Jerry 80, Michael 79 and Mikey 65.

Bang!

The lawmen had a shut out in this game.  Outlaws Tom, Michael and Jim fell in quick succession.  Renegade John surrendered since he was out numbered four to one.  Sherriff Paul was save half a dozed times by ducking behind his barrow.

Bluff

I remember winning this game but didn't write dow any details.

On the Table: Bluff, Australia, Junta, Abalone

Players: John, Kenton, Keith, Jerry, Mischa and Joey

Bluff was a six player game---Steve, Keith. Kenton, John and Jerry. Jerry won 

Game Session Report 11/8/07

Roll Call: John, Michael, Keith, Stephen, Kenton

On the Table: For Sale, Family Fluxx X 2, Cutthroat Caverns, Zooloretto, Bluff X 2.

Game Session Report 9/13/07

Roll Call: Mike, Jerry, John, Kenton, Clyde and Stephen

On the Table: Saga, Bluff, Junta

Roll Call: Mike, Jerry, John, Kenton, Mischa, Stephen, Clyde and Keith

On the Table:  Quartile, It’s Alive, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, Die Sieban Siegel, Seranissima, Bluff

Game session report 8/30/07

On the table Quartile, Age of Empires, Thebes, Around the World in 80 days and Bluff, Pax Romana, Bluff and others

With eleven members in attendance we need three tables.

On the Table: To Court the King, Age of Empires, Bluff

Players: John, Kenton, Jerry, Stephen, Clyde, Mischa & Michael

We welcome Mischa to the Westbank Gamers.  Mischa has recently moved back to New Orleans after an extensive post Katrina evacuation to Austin, TX.  He is a recent Geek of the week on Board Game Geek and has extensive collection of games.  Welcome Mischa!

Notre Dame, Tikal, TransAmerica

We had a small group for this session but enjoyed three games.

On the Table: Bluff, War of the Ring, Mykerinos, Oasis, Can't Stop

Players: Michael, John, Kenton, Jerry, Spouey, Joey, Joey's Son

Game Session 6/7/07

Roll Call: Kenton, John, Michael, Jerry, Keith, Spouey, Clyde & Joey

On the Table: Die Macher, Bluff, Settlers of Catan, Alhambra

We played some great Euro Classics tonight.

May 10, 2007 Game Session Report

We had a large group tonight so I wasn’t able to collect reports from the other tables.  I participated in the following games.

Game Session Report 4/12/07

Roll Call: Spouey, Clyde, John, Kenton, Keith, Joey, Michael, Jerry

7 Ages

We played only one age of this game that Spoey brought.  Even so, it lasted over an hour.  We decided to call it quits and start another game.

Las Vegas Show Down

This game is very popular with the West Bank Gamers.  There is a good mix of player interaction and the game has a good length of play.  Random events make the game interesting without adding too much luck. Our game was close with Joey edging out Keith.  Here are the final scores:

Joey        62

Keith      54

Michael  52

Spoey     49

Settlers of Catan

While we were building Casinos the other table was building a new land.  I didn’t get a detailed report but John won with 10, Jerry 9, Kenton 8, Clyde – score unknown.

Pirate King

Players: John, Clyde, Kenton & Michael

Object of the game: Accumulate 16 victory points by upgrading your ships and territory.  Or beat the commodore in battle.

Pirate Kings in a very large box.  The box is needed to hold all the bits included in the game.

On the Table:  Manifest Destiny, Pirates of the Spanish Main, Yspahan, Bluff

Roll Call: Ashton, Daren, Mike, Joey, Keith, Clyde, Spouey and John

Game Session Report 1/18/07

We had a full house with eleven players.  John wanted to play Attach again since we played it wrong during our last session.  Spouey wanted to play Manifest Destiny.  Both games were empire building games and would last over four hours.  Since we were waiting for more players to arrive we didn’t get started playing the games until after 7 p.m.  I opted to play Attack since I had played it before and John assured me it would play faster with the correct rules (it didn’t).

West Bank Gamers Session Report 1/4/07

Imperial

This game is on loan from Greg of the East Tennessee Gamers.

West Bank Gamers Session Report 1/4/07

Imperial, Combo King, Bluff, Can't Stop

Game Session Report 9/28/06

On The Table: Wizard Quest, No Thanks, Ticket to Ride – Europe, and Struggle of Empires

Game Session Report 9/14/06

This has been our largest turn out since Katrina. 

Roll Call: Mike, John, Kenton, Keith, Joey, Ashton, Daren, Spouey, Clyde, Jerry and Tom.

On the Table: No Thanks, Vinci,  Mare Nostrum, Settlers of Catan

Game Report 9/7/06

On the table: Catan: Cities and Knights, Assassin, Bluff

Roll Call: Jules, Mike, Jerry, John, Tom, Paul, Keith, Joey, Kenton.

We had a good turn out this week so we were able to run two games at a time. 

Roll Call: John, Mike, Keith, Jerry and Kenton

On the Table: Walk the Dogs, Tower of Babel, Shadows of Camelot, No Thanks, Bluff

Walk the Dogs

Players: Mike, John, Jerry Kenton

We started this game while waiting for Keith to arrive.  We played with the house rule that you can either draw a card of play a card on your turn.  I started off slow but stared collecting bones.  The Dog Catcher came up 3 times during the game causing many of us to lose long lines of dogs.  John played conservatively protecting his groups of dogs instead of going for the five dog win.  In the end this helped him win the game.

Finals Scores: John 27, Mike 24, Jerry 23, Kenton 14

Tower of Babel

Players: Mike, John, Jerry, Kenton and Keith

I enjoy the multiple ways to score in this game.  You can score Wonders, Uncompleted wonders, Tokens, special action cards and even for offering help but being refused. 

Kenton was the token King in this game.  I received 12 of my points using the triple bonus card.  My second card (extra turn) was useless since I received it on the last round of the game.  John’s win was due to his tokens, completed and uncompleted wonders.

Final Scores John 82, Mike 69, Kenton & Keith 56, Jerry 50

Shadows over Camelot

Players: Mike (King Arthur), John (Sir Palamedias), Jerry (Sir Tristran), Keith (Sir Gwain) and Traitor Kenton (Sir Kay)

We played the squire rules where a knight had to prove himself by completing a quest before he could use his special powers.  Early in the game several Morgan cards came up.  We had to keep the one that added an extra black sword when we lost a quest (Mist of Avalon).  We first completed quest was the Picts giving two of our squires knighthood.  Excalibur was won next giving the remaining squires knighthood.  We also won and extra white sword on Excalibur because of Heroism.

Our traitor reveled himself early and started drawing white cards from our hands as well as drawing black cards.   We lost Lancelot’s Armor and the Black Knight quest giving us four black swords (Mist of Avalon).  At the end we all headed to the Grail and completed that quest for the win.  Score Knights 9 white swords Traitor 4 black swords.

This was an interesting game.  I don’t remember any Picts or Saxon cards coming out.  Also, very few if any despair cards came out.  Blank Knight cards and Lancelot/Dragon cards were plentiful.  There were seven catapults on the board at the end.  I believe the traitor could have won if he would have put catapults down instead of drawing black cards.

No Thanks x 4

Players: Mike, John, Jerry, Kenton and Keith

The group enjoyed this game so much they ask to play it again and again and again……..

Scores:     Game 1        Game 2     Game 3    Game 4

Mike            17               21                 43          32

John             17                 ?                  86          22

Jerry             24              12                  22          29

Kenton         ?                 11                  32          46

Kieth            24               39                 15          19

Bluff

Players: Mike, John, Jerry, Kenton and Keith

First Out:     Mike

Second Out:  John

Third Out:    Kenton

Fourth Out:   Jerry

Winner:         Kieth

Mike and Shanna, hosted The West Bank Gamers at their new house in Metairie.  Greg Schloessher was among the guest tonight.  We had a total of 10 members in attendance.

Roll Call: Mike, Shanna, Greg, Lenny, Keith, Jim, Paul, Tom, Henry and Mike Aucoin

On the Table: Ticket to Ride Marklin addition, No Thanks, Cloud Nine, Diamant, Vegas Showdown, The Great Space Race, The Amazing Labyrinth.

A small Group tonight but good gaming.

We had a small group tonight so we decided to concentrate on one long game.

Session Report 4/5/06

On the Table RA, Can't Stop, Settler of Catan

Roll Call: John, Mike, Jerry, Tim and Ross

Session Report 3/24/06

We had a low turnout this session with only 6 players , half of them crossing the Mighty Mississippi go get there.  The session was hosted by John.

West Bank Gamers – Session report 2/20/06

The West bank Gamers meet at John Moore’s Katrina damaged house this week for our first official game this year.  The Sheetrock was half gone and the floors were stripped but that didn’t stop us from gaming.  Bathroom?  It's just through the wall.

Game Session Reports August 18, 2005

Game report 8/11/05