There were only 12 (!) of us on May 27, with several regulars sadly missing. Devil JonathanC arrived a little too late to stake out the dining table, as the newly acquired German import Downtown was commencing its inaugural run. Downtown seems pretty fun, though it has that lucky guesswork element like El Grande where everyone picks a region simultaneously, and you hope you don't pick the same one as another player. In El Grande, that was an occasional event; in Downtown, it's a central part of each turn. Downtown also has a voting element, which I enjoy, and some of the elections actually led to some spirited haggling and diplomacy.

Perhaps I'm just biased in Downtown's favor, since I won it!

Five games of the quick card game Fluxx were played, with RussD winning twice, Tim once, and both Jonathans once.

We actually did another 7 player RoboRally like last week! We seem to be finally getting the hang of not putting the flags too far apart... Tim won it again, too! Most impressive, winning 7 player RoboRally twice in a row...

James won Atlantic Storm.

James also won Heroes of Asfar, a very low-budget card game of battling fantastic characters vaguely analogous to Magic the Gathering or Enemy in Sight, but with cheesy b&w art! I'd seen Jonathan & Dawn playing this at Millenium Con last year. One of these days I'll have to try it.

Rank ratings:
 0.4545 RussW (2 games played)
 0.3333 James (3)
 0.2857 RussD (6)
 0.2571 Tim (7)
 0.1333 JP (3)
-0.0323 JonathanC (6)
-0.0833 Stefan (3)
-0.0968 Doug (6)
-0.1613 JonathanB (6)
-0.1724 Dawn (6)
-0.4545 Jay (2)
-1.0000 Clayton (2)

Win ratings:
 0.8058 James (3)
 0.7073 RussW (2)
 0.3793 RussD (6)
 0.3222 Tim (7)
 0.0145 JonathanC (6)
 0.0145 JonathanB (6)
-1.0000 JP (3)
-1.0000 Stefan (3)
-1.0000 Doug (6)
-1.0000 Dawn (6)
-1.0000 Jay (2)
-1.0000 Clayton (2)

This gives the partial ordering:

   James     RussW
     \         /
      \       /
       \     /
        RussD
         Tim
         / \
        /   JP
 JonathanC  |
     |  \   |
     |   \  |
     |   Stefan
     |      |
 JonathanB  |
      \     |
       \   Doug
        \  /
        Dawn
        Jay
      Clayton

Thus James and RussW are truly tied for Devil this week! And we wish to say that the allegations of bribery involving a gift of a lamp in exchange for Devil Points are completely unfounded! A nonpartisan committee has determined that no ethical violations occurred.

See you Wednesday night!
RussW