Attendees: Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran, Frank Fulton, Robbie Fulton and Chris Cregan

Games Played:
1) Michael, Jim and Chris started with a game of Guild Hall, a new game Michael brought. Michael was the only one who had played before, but in the end turn order was more important. Chris won the game with 23 points with Michael in 2nd with 19 with Jim closing out at 16. Despite the scores it was incredibly close, with both Michael and Jim one turn away from getting over 20 points and thus winning the game.

2) Jim, Michael, Robbie Frank and Chris played the club’s new copy of Lords of Waterdeep. Jim with the City Guard jumped out to an early lead, buying up the first three buildings. These buildings gained him consistent victory points nearly every turn and a larger bonus from his Lords special bonus for buildings at the end. This allowed him to just edge out Chris’ Silverstars, who focused on high yield Piety and Magic heavy quests, 117 to 116. Robbie and her Knights of the Shield aimed at a diverse strategy of buildings and quests ending with 102. Michael’s Harpers finished a few plot quests early but unfortunately, wasn’t really able to capitalize on both of their special rewards and ended with 95 just edging out Frank who was hobbled by intrigue cards early in the game.

3) The meeting finished off with a round of the club’s Samurai Swords, which was formerly known as Shogun and is currently known as Ikusa.  Jim was the only one familiar with the game, which played similar to Risk if it were in feudal Japan except you can only have three large armies, each lead by a shogun.  Cards of the provinces were dealt out randomly and starting units placed.  Michael had control of the southern group of islands, with Jim just off the coast of those islands towards the eastern side of the map.  Chris and Frank were both far to the north, and Robbie directly in the middle of the map.  The early turns mostly consisted of players solidifying their starting locations.  Jim and Michael traded a few islands back and forth but no major battles happened until turn 3.  Frank took first turn and attacked Chris’ main force and ended up being defeated losing his Shogun.  Jim shifted focus and took out two of Robbie’s less defended Shoguns.  The next turn, Robbie lost her last general when Chris attacked with all three of his shoguns.  Robbie was removed from the game and Chris took control of both armies.  Despite the new territories he was in second place, with Michael having been content to gobble up the southern half of the island uncontested.  There wasn’t enough time to finish the game.  In the end Michael had the largest territory.  However, during the last turn, Michael had lost two of his Shoguns to Jim, his armies having been stretched thin.  Frank was also down to his last Shogun who had taken refuge in this well defended fortress.