Attendees: Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran, Chris Cregan, and Dave Olson

Games Played:

1) Dave showcased Lord of the Rings expansion Friends and Foes as the first game for Jim, Michael and Chris in order to determine if the club should buy it.  All four played as the well remembered hobbits from the movie, leaving Fatty back in the shire.  Jim played as Pipen and staying true to the series had troubles with corruption through most of the game.  Dave played as Merry and had great success with defeating monsters, a new feature introduced in the expansion.  Michael played as Frodo and used his charecters ability to overcome difficult checks.  Chris played Sam, and took control of the ring for most of the game due to his ability to reduce the corruption it caused.  The party fought through to Isengard but it was clear that they would not make it to Mt. Doom before Sauroun’s corruption killed the hobbits, so instead they choose not to skip Helm’s Deep and instead make it their final stand and hopefully finish off all the agents of Mordor.  They were doing well, with only a few more foes to vanquish when an event forced Pippen to gain corruption and be fully taken by evil and thus dead to the group.  Frodo offered to use an item to save him, but Sam and Merry talked him out of it, they need to protect the ring bearer at all cost, and in this case it was Pippen.  The three remaining Hobbits then promptly won the game the next turn calling up the last foes and dispatching them.

2) Jim then advocated a game of Samurai Swords to get some desired revenge on Jim, Chris and Michael.  Chris was dealt the majority of the south island cards and proceeded to use that as his base for the game.  Jim out in the center of the island, just a little north.  Michael rallied his forces on the southern side of the main island between Jim and Chris.  Dave split his forces along the eastern coast fortifying the  island just North of Chris.  The map was very much south heavy, with the northern lands lightly occupied.  The game started off predictably, Jim expanded a bit north, Chris and Dave solidified their islands and Michael solidified the coast.  An alliance was formed between Dave and Michael, which prevented Dave from fully taking the island that lasted until the end of the game.  Later Jim and Dave fought for control of the North, eventually Jim would push Dave out towards the coast.  Michael and Chris danced around each other on the main southern peninsula, but their major battles would happen on the outskirts islands.  Eventually everyone had lost one of their leaders, with Chris’ being the last to fall to Dave.  The battle had taken a large toll on Dave’s forces and soon a rush was on to take out his leaders and take control of his territory.  Michael was next and took out the daimyo responsible for the latest offense.  Michael then tried to make the final assault on Dave’s island fortress but was rebuffed shortly after making landfall, both armies weakened but still alive.  Jim arrived next from the north, following in Michael’s path, and crushed both armies.  Chris was too late to make an attack on Dave so instead rallied to take out Michael s last daimyo, bring both of his remaining daimyo’s into the fight and succedding.  After tallying up total territories, Chris won due to Michael’s land size greatly exceeding Dave’s.

3. Finally a game of Carcasonne was played.  Final scores Chris 173 Michael 104 Dave 158 and Jim 123.  Dave and Chris “cooperated” to create an immense city with a cathedral.

Club Business

It was determined the club would purchase the expansion of Friends and Foes for Lord of the Rings.