BEWC Meeting Recap 6/16/12

Attendees: Dan Carey, Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Ryan Frans, Jim Halloran, Michael Kelly, and Chris Leitenberger

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1) Chris C, Michael F, Ryan, Jim, Michael K, and Chris L spent the morning playing the new Mayfair reprint of 1830: Railways & Robber Barons. It was the first time playing for most of us, but we quickly got into the game and it’s volatile stock market. Ryan proved himself a wily trader, on more than one occasion going in on a deal to float a new railroad and then immediately dumping the stock to set up a different venture. That only got him to second place with $1554 though, leaving him unable to reach Chris C’s $1614 from control of the two most profitable railroads in the game. We did game things a little to force the game to end due to running out of time, so the situation might have changed in the turn or two more that it likely would have run out.

2) Dan, Chris C, Michael F, Jim, Michael K, and Chris L then moved on to Power Grid with the Brazil map and using the New Power Plant Cards expansion deck with all of the promo cards. The shuffle of the power plant deck caused a lot of highly efficient power plants to come out early, which when combined with Brazil’s generous resource restock rate, caused resources to be extremely cheap the entire game. Position became extremely important, with Michael F being able to capitalize on the opening of phase 2 to jump to 9 cities from 4 for only $88, and Mike K also being able to build 5 cities on the final turn, bringing him to 14 (though he could only power 12). Dan however started the game all alone on the NE coast and free access to many cheap connections positioned gave him an advantage no one else could touch leading to him winning with 16 cities (15 powered). The rest of all managed to build and power 13 cities, with Chris C winning the tie-breaker for second place with $25 left over.

BEWC Meeting Recap 6/2/12

Attendees: Greg Chandra, Jenna, Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Frank Fulton, Robbie Fulton, Jim Halloran, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Saeed Sadatian, Dave Olson, Jay Olson, Alex Wright, and Elaine Wright

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1) Michael, Karen, Frank, and Robbie started by breaking out the club’s new copy of Eminent Domain, with Dave helping with rules explanation. Despite it taking a little while to figure out what was going on, it ended up being a very close game. Frank just edged out the victory with 24 points to Michael’s 23 and Karen’s 22.

2) Jim and Dave L played Twilight Struggle, where Jim’s luck with the dice on the space race helped him to win as the communists.

3) Chris, Michael, Karen, Frank, Robbie, and Saeed played Citadels. Karen was victorious with 32 points, with Michael and Chris just behind tied at 30.

4) Needing another 6 player game, Jim, Dave L, Dave O, Jay, Alex, and Elaine broke out Antike. Alex was the first to get to 7 ancient personages, snatching the victory from Dave L who was just one turn away.

5) Chris, Michael, Frank, and Robbie delved into Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon, but were defeated by the dungeon.

6) Dave L, Karen, Alex, and Elaine played another round of Eminent Domain, which Alex won with 22 points.

7,8) Dave O and Jay played two rounds of Mr. Jack, each getting caught in their turn as Jack.

9) Dave O and Jay followed up with Wings of War: Dawn of War, where Jay had an Allied victory.

10) Greg, Frank, Robbie, Dave L, Dave O, and Jay played Battlestar Galactica with the Exodus expansion. As usual, Dave L was a cylon and he and Greg defeated the humans.

11) Chris, Michael, and Alex played Carcassonne. Michael and Alex dueled for control over a giant field, but Alex successfully snuck in an extra farmer when Michael wasn’t looking, leading to him having a commanding 93 point win.

12) Jenna, Karen, and Elaine played Bananagrams, with Elaine beating Karen to the final peel by seconds.

13) Jenna, Chris, Michael, and Karen played a third round of Eminent Domain, with Karen finally winning, defeating Chris 21 to 20.

14,15,16) Greg, Jenna, Chris, Michael, Dave L, and Karen finished up with three rounds of Ca$h ‘n Gun$. Jenna comfortably won the first round with $90,000 and Greg snuck out victory in the second with $85,000. In the third round, we added in the informer, which caused a great deal of confusion due to the illogical patterns of the police being called. On the final draw, when it looked like the informer had no chance, the police were called and Karen, having been killed in the first two games, won as the informer – she also would have one in a classic game, having amassed an impressive $95,000.