Attendees: Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran, Chris Cregan, Dave Olsen, John Alaimo, Dave Slaby, Ryan Frans, Dan Carey, Joe Kauffman
Games Played:
1) The day started off with the classic game, Hey! That’s my Fish!. Dave Olsen out penguined everyone else ending with 28 total fish, Michael ended with 24 fish and Ryan had only 21. Jim claimed to have caught 105 fish, however 83 of those were too small and had to release them ending with only 22.
2) Michael and Dave Olsen played a quick game of Guildhall while Ryan was helping set up Starcraft. Michael managed to win by luckily drawing a farmer for his last point, otherwise Dave would have won the following turn.
3) Kings of Air and Steam was next, Dave Olsen learning from his last game won with 174, followed by Michael at 167, Ryan at 166 and Dan with an honorable mention at 4th place.
4) Dave Olsen continued his winning streak in Ticket to Ride, proving that he is an equally good Airship captain, Train Engineer and penguin. Final scores were Dave 140, Michael with 131 Joe with 116 and Dan with 74.
5) Meanwhile in a galaxy far away a game of Starcraft was wrapping up. In the hotly contested wishbone system two Protoss clans, a swarm of zerg and a human confederation battled for dominance. Dave “Slaby” Mengsk, commander of the human dominion, began his campaign off of a nearly isolated planet at the far edge of the system. For him it was total victory at the end or nothing. On the other side of the system, the protoss under John Tassadar were looking to expand. JT knew if he could control more areas then the other races would have to agree that he was a pretty cool guy. Next door to John a new zerg overmind was waking up, Cerebrate Cregan. It knew if the zerg built and held atleast three different bases, the system would be overrun by zerg. Jim Aldarus was afraid of any one of the other factions from gaining too much power and so set himself between the humans and the rest of the planets. He hoped to play for time, knowing that if nobody else won after an arbitrary amount of time he would win.
At first things were peaceful, the zerg and Tassadar’s protoss both went off to colonize other areas. Cregan took a planet rich in vespian gas to breed an army of scourges to control the skies while John restarted a space station to build up his space port production. On the other end of the system a cold war was brewing between the other protoss and the now trapped humans. A few aborted invasion attempts by both sides allowed an uneasy peace to settle.
This peace did not last, the humans had marshaled up a small airforce to support its ground troops in an assault on the protoss main planet. The attack soundly gave the terran a foothold on the planet. Over the next several cycles the zealot force tried to drive the humans back to their home planet but were unsuccessful. The Terrans though would grow to power and their small airforce quickly grew to take control of the skies, making the zealots nearly useless.
Tassadar’s home system was likewise invaded. The zerg plotted a sneak attack and a horde of zerglings overwhelmed the single national guard defending a quarter of the planet. John’s troops quickly responded, using their newly developed technology to create a Carrier, the single most powerful unit in play, as well as suring up their defenses with added ground troops and a reaver. This seemed to be enough to halt the advance, though elements of the zerg remained on the planet.
This advanced quickly, the terran eventually drove the protoss from their home planet. The zerg, fearing the growing carrier fleet on its boarder developed multalisks and hydralisks. Tassadar’s protoss amassed its fleet on their home world, either to drive out the zerg once and for all or launch their own attack. They weren’t prepared when the zerg changed tactics and attacked their space station. Several of the newly grown hydralisks invaded the station and slaughter the few stationed guards while the equally new carrier could only watch from outside. Everyone knew the end was drawing near.
Despite everything that had happened, one planet remained uncolonized, the center of the system which connected everything. In fact, except for a single scout, no unit had set foot on the planet. Though in the final turn, both protoss and zerg made plays for this planet. In then end this planet would determine the fate of the four factions. The zerg consolidated their forces, bringing as much as possible to their home system. Sensing weakness, Tassadar sent his forces to retake his space station, and retaking it. It was at this point things were looking well for John, he but needed to build a base on the center planet to assure largest dominion. The overmind though did not allow this but bided his time delaying the protoss form building and ensuring there would be no turn after. Finally, the entirety of the zerg rained down on the planet, the solitary scout was lost as a scourge kamikazed into it. Quickly a hatchery was constructed on the surface. In the end it turned out Jim’s play for the planet was a ruse.
After the dust settled the Zerg had completed their objective, to have three bases on three different planets however, Jim’s protoss were also in the running, despite being nearly destroyed by Dave Mengsk. Had it been allowed to play out, enough time had passed such that the game was over thus making Jim the default winner. However, the special victory conditions took precedence over future events. All factions were allowed a leadership change before that though, it had little effect in the end. The zerg lead by chris gained another base on the undefended human home world and won the game.
6) Ryan, Mike Dan and Dave Olsen played a game of Age of Industry. Ryan won with a final total of 36, Mike in 2nd with 30 and Dan just edged out Dave for third, 29 over 28. This game contained no hybrid scoring.
7)Chris Dave Slaby, John and Jim played a game of Power Grid. Using the Great Britain map. Since it was most peoples first time though, Ireland was crossed off making it a fairly vanilla game. Jim won by forcing the game to end just after stage III started up, finishing with only 15 out of his seventeen houses powered. Chris was second powering all 14 of his houses, John was able to power 12 and Dave 10.
8)Another game of Guildhall was played with Ryan managing beat out both Michael and Dave Olsen. It was another close game, with Michael a turn away from winning.