Thanks for the session report Brian and thanks to scholars for
providing the space. I'll add Comments for games I had the pleasure
of playing.

Puerto Rico
This game held up to all of the buzz I was reading about. When
Princes of Florence came out, I was so impressed with the creative
design that I knew other games would soon follow. I like PR better
than PoF as PoF tends to be a lot of analysis and you can not really
affect the other players. PR allows a lot of interaction and
frequently your strategy is very much affected by other players. I
chose the captain three times because the player before me chose the
production card and I wanted first choice in loading ships (a very
powerful benefit). I was lead to my winning strategy as I started
with a corn field and soon had a second as it was the only field left
to chose from. By the end I had 5 corn fields and was able to cash
in a lot for victory points. I never managed a warehouse or my own
ship which would have been very good at generating even more VPs. An
excellent game I can't wait to play again and will soon be in my game
closet.

Royal Turf
I like this Riener horse race/betting game. It is very simple to
learn and 4 of the six players never played before. I taught the
game with Terry and got absolutely spanked ($700 for last place). I
still liked it, especially cherring "Go Nougat!" even though I had no
bets on him, it just sounded good.

Flower Power
Matt taught me this one late in the evening and after 2 hours of a
pretty intense PR game, it was good to just start planting flowers.
Matt started the game by cultivating the neutral area while I focused
on my own field. I would occassionaly try to foil a large patch in
the middle if it was getting too good. I tried for a big patch early
for a 3 point field but then realized it was next to impossible and
just started throwing down 3 space/1 point fields. A close game I
took 21 to 18.

Chez Dork
I learned this largely mindless game and didn't appreciate it much.
It was 1:30 AM and hard to get into the Beer and Pretzels spirit of
the game, especially with no beer nor pretzels around. I guess you
have to get into trading weird things around for the hilarity to
start.

For those who have made it this far through my rantings, thanks!

-Greg