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BEWC Meeting Recap 4/19/14

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Attendees: David Olson, Jim Halloran, Scott Harris, Chris Gonau, Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Bruce Clark, and Alex Wright

Club Business:  Due to an issue with cabinet space, a list of games was presented was distributed which contained games the club is considering selling off.  There were no objections to any of the proposed games.  The games will be offered for purchase by club members before other methods are considered.

1)  It was a day for Heroscape!  Scott, Jim, Dave and Chris G.  Fought throughout the day for control of a built up hill.  It was mostly the same hill, but everytime the armies were different.  Spiderman defeated dragons, Capt. America out raced elves, though it was a rare event when the King of the hill actually won a game.

2) Guildhall was also played, with the new (actual) rules.  Though Alex did win and was first, the order of turns was less important this time around.  Bruce, Michael and Chris C were all at least a turn away from winning.

3) Terra Mystic was next for Bruce, Michael, Chris C and Alex.  Michael just edged out Alex in the end 110 to 107.  Both had empires that spanned the board, dwarfing both Bruce and Chris for land area.  Bruce had 102 with a strong cult presence.  Chris did well, though ended up with only 92.

4) With the deconstruction of the Heroscape arena, a game of Bang Dice was played.  Alex the Sheriff won with his two deputies Chris C and Bruce with considerable help from Michael the Renegade (who lost).  Dave Chris G and Jim were all shot dead for the being outlaws.

5) A four player Kemet game was played between Chris C, Michael, Jim and Alex.  Alex played a very aggressive game and managed to win by having the last two turns (due to an extra turn power) and a quick moving beetle shuttle which nabbed him two previously undefended temples.

6)  Finally, the odd game Louis XIV which had Chris Michael and Alex bidding for the favor of the French court in the 18th century.  Chris managed to get a few early quest rewards which conferred bonus abilities allowing him to continually outpace Alex and Michael.  The final score was 58, 46, 4

BEWC Meeting Recap 4/5/14

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Attendees: Ryan Frans, Dan Carey, Alex Jordan Michael Feinberg,Chris Cregan, Brandan James, Dave Olson Scott Harris, Elaine Wright, Alex Wright, Dave Landon, and Karen Landon.

Club Business: None.

1) Dan, Dave L Scott, and Brandan began with a light game of Kingdoms.  Dave won with a resounding 195 followed by Scott at 152, Dan at 125 and Brandan at 103managed to get off to a solid lead after the first turn.  Despite narrowing that gap every turn, Dave still managed to cling to 1st place by two points.  Final Scores: Dave 198, Chris 196, Dan 132 and Kevin 118.

2) Michael, Alex W and Karen played a quick game of Haggis.  Alex won with 85, Michael had 42.5 (+/- .5)  and Karen had 24.

3) Brandan then took on the role of games master in Mansions of Madness.  Dan, Scott, Karen and Dave L all investigated the house of Lynch and despite a few members going insane, managed to solve the mystery and prevent evil from victory.

4) In Rhinlander Dave L was about to complete his hat trick but was Duke blocked in the end and fell one short.  Brandan and Karen tied with 34, Dave with 33, Elaine with 22 and Dan with 16.

5) Ra allowed Dave L to get his third victory.  Final Scores were Dave 42, Brandan 38, Karen 37, Ryan 30 and Elaine at 25.

6)Metro.  Dave L and Karen tied with 49, Ryan had 39 Brandan at 34 and Elaine at 30.

7) While, the rest of the members ruled ancient Egypt, conquered the Rhineland, saved the world from Cthulianic evils and even built up modern days system of rail lines, Chris, Alex J, Alex W, Michael and Dave O, from rise to fall, ruled their Civilizations (with Fame and fortune expansion).  It was an incredibly close game in the end.  Michael had devoted himself into a culture creating machine, Alex W used the Greeks free tech ability to great effect and outshone most of the world with his scientific prowess, Dave O had built the grandest city of them all, three harbor, along with mines, and markets and rotating wonders, Chris had built a military juggernaut, with barracks in several cities and a large hand of unit cards, Alex W played it quiet sitting alone on an island.  Chris made the first grasp for victory, using steam power and a large amount of resources he teleported his 5/6 of his army to the gates of Dave’s city.  In response, Dave carpet bombed all of Chris’ Barracks and built up his own.  Dave defended as best he could, and held off three attacks but was getting weaker.  Alex W saved him with a well placed spy, locking Chris’ final armies in place.  The start of the next turn almost saw Alex J sneak in with the victory.  He had spent his entire game gathering coins, forsaking culture, tech and military.  He was a few coins shy however.  Dave offered him a tech sharing which would have brought him closer, potentially to victory, but Alex came in again to stop the trade.  Michael managed to be one space away from a cultural victory on his turn, and cursed a previous turns error which denied him that last space.  Alex himself was one tech shy of victory, with enough money to buy it in the end.  However, Chris managed to exhaust Dave’s military on his turn and took his capitol.

8) The night concluded with Bang.  Chris, Michael and Brandan were quickly defeated as the outlaws only managing to take Dave L the Deputy with them. Dave O was a well defended sheriff and watched as the obviously deputy Ryan fought it out with Karen the obvious Renegade.  In the end Karen defeated Ryan in a drawn out struggle, only to reveal that Ryan was the renegade all the time.  We fought the Law and the Law won.

BEWC Meeting Recap 3/15/14

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Attendees: David Olson, Jim Halloran, Victor Liu, Chad Willard, and Chris Cregan

1) Dave and Victor started off with a quick game of Pandemic.  Despite a last minute surge in outbreaks they managed to find a cure for all disease and won the game.

2) Next up Chris Dave Victor and Jim played a game of Exodus.Victor and Jim shared the north but after a couple of risky early game gambles against the centuri Victor’s  fleet was gone and Jim ruled unopposed.  Dave and Chris took a more cautious approach.  Both managed to take out the majority of the centuri in both the south and eventually the center, while carefully avoiding each other.  Jim put his early game advantage into tech, both political and military.  Instead of Ship upgrades, however, he quickly got the planet buster misses and turned his home planet into a massive missile silo.  He only missed the first turn with but a single missile, after that, either a portion of Chris or Dave’s fleet would cease to be.  The end game saw the remnants of Dave’s fleet (the majority of it having just been atomized) Victor’s new though well equipped fleet and Jim’s armada meet in the center, while Chris spread his fleet over the galaxy unopposed, taking several planets from Jim.  The fight was brutal, Dave’s fleet while numerous was poorly shielded and was nearly destroyed in the opening rounds.  However, Victors poor luck followed with him into this battle too and in the end Dave won the center.   Chris got first place with 60 due to combination of Centuri and galaxy control.  Dave ended with 45 with a massive amount of battle points from both NPC and the last round dog pile.  Victor ended with 11 just edging out Jim at 9, mostly due to a couple last minute planet captures.

3) A five player game of Pandemic was set up next.  Throughout the game they beat back all diseases and steadily got cures until the last one.  Unable to get one person enough cards the deck ran out and the players lost.

4) Chad brought out Quarriors which Chris Dave and Jim joined in on.   Chad handily showed everyone the proper way to play the game and wound with 16 points.  Dave quickly picked it up though and managed to turn around 7 points fairly early.  Jim played an aggressive strategy that over the course of the game got him 5 points.  And Chris was happy enough to end with a positive 1 point.

BEWC Meeting Recap 3/1/14

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Michael Feinberg,Chris Cregan,Kevin, Brandan James, Jim Halloran, Victor Liu Dave Landon, and Karen Landon.

Club Business: None.

1)  Starting off the day, Michael, Brandon, Karen Victor and Jim played a game of Smash Up.  Realizing she wasn’t going to win, Karen and her Dinosaur-Bear alliance hoisted Michael with his ninja zombies to win, edging out Brandon with his steam-punk mages.  Jim’s killer plant ghosts proved ephemeral and Victors Robot tricksters broke down during the game.

2) Elsewhere, Chris Dan Dave and Kevin were embroiled in a game of Kingdoms.  Dave managed to get off to a solid lead after the first turn.  Dispite narrowing that gap every turn, Dave still managed to cling to 1st place by two points.  Final Scores: Dave 198, Chris 196, Dan 132 and Kevin 118.

3) Next up, the club’s new copy of Exodus was opened up by Chris Victor, Brandan, Jim and Michael.  Victor and Jim decided to start off slow and build up their reserves while Brandan and Michael expanded throughout their quadrant and Chris hunted the passive Centauri.  Later, Brandan in a sneak attack, destroyed all of Jims forces before they could be properly fitted with armaments.  Michael with a sufficiently advanced fleet found even the advanced centauri child’s play while Chris found his starting fleet nearly decimated after several battles.  Victor’s fleet appeared on the board fairly late but with only the most advanced weaponry and defense.  In the final turns, Victor’s fleet ruled the galaxy but was unable to make any decisive victories with everyone else avoiding him.  Jim’s empire had resorted to WMDs to strike back at Brandan for the earlier loss.  Brandon found a few of his planets reduced to point singularities, though it was Michael who ended up losing his fleet.  Chris had recreated his fleet but found it was fairly outdated compared to Victors and Brandon’s forces.  In the end Brandan won with 64 points, followed by Victor with 57, Chris at 46, Michael at 27 and Jim with 4.

4) Meanwhile, David, Karen, Dan and Kevin played a game of Thurn and Taxis.  David ended up winning with 25 points, Karen got 2nd with 15, Kevin ended with 9 and Dan at 8.

5) No game of Galaxy Trucker was played.

BEWC Meeting Recap 2/15/14

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Attendees: Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran, Victor Liu,Scott Harris, Alex Jordan, Chris Cregan, Maria and Matt Willey

1) The Game of Thrones was the first game opened.  Jim took control of the Starks in the north, Michael as the Greyjoys in the west with Alex immediately below him as the Lannisters, Chris controlled the Baratheons in the east, Victor had the Tyrells in the south west, and Scott had the Martels in the south east.  At the start the Greyjoys made pacts with both neighbors as did the Martels and Baratheons. The Tyrells expanded quick but were unable to draw in reinforcements and was beaten back forced back to The Reach. The event deck had a profusion of Supply cards but no Musters or movement on the influence tracks had everyone off to a slow start, especially the Tyrells and Grayjoys.  Influence was plentiful though and by the halfway point the supply was almost exhausted for some.  The Starks had marched south progressively and a four way stand off was set up around the neck.  Southward the Martels slowly took territories uncontested by any other house.  Finally, both muster and bid cards were drawn and the stalemate ended.  The Greyjoys had saved the most and bid cunningly to be top or near top of all the tracks with the Baratheons close behind.  Using the new troops and power they struck at Winterfell and soundly defeated the few Stark troops still in the north.  At the same time the Baratheons struck at the Starks fleet, effectively cutting off their army to the south from reinforcing.  The Martels built and consolidated a large host to strike at the Tyrells but held back till victory was assured.  The Starks threw their effort into retaking Winterfell abandoning the fortresses they had taken on their journey south.  Finally, the Baratheons took two of these undefended keeps and the undefended Stormsend from the Martels for a victory in turn 8. Michael had the 2nd most keeps follwed by Alex and Victor who were tied.

2) Next up was Catan with the Cities and Knights expansion and the six player expansion.  Michael won with a heavy commodity driven economy.  Chris was second in the end with 10 points entirely from settlements and cities.  Alex had 9 with a balanced strategy (with one road shy of having longest road).  Matt ended with six after finding himself cut off early game but managing to build an extensive network or roads to compensate.  Jim and Maria both ended with five.

 

Club Business: The club voted to buy Exodus with the early year dues.

BEWC Meeting Recap 2/1/14

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Michael Feinberg,Chris Cregan, Bruce Clark, Brandan James Alex Jordan, Victor Liu Dave Landon, Karen Landon, and Alex Wright

Club Business: None.

Games Played
1) A game of Medici started the day off.Dave ended up winning with 84 to Bruce’s 71 Alex W. at 74, Victor had 61 and Michael ended in 2nd with 76.

2) Bruce had brought his new copy of Caverna and a game was quickly set up.  Michael dominated with 88 points in the end.  Alex W had 65 followed closely by Bruce at 64 and Victor at 59.

3) Alex, Jim, Dan and Chris played a couple rounds of Warparty with a turn limit of 12, though neither game got that far.  The first game had Chris and Dan on a team as Dwarves and Humans respectively.  Jim played the Undead and Alex the Goblins.  Jim immediately got out his hero and levied a magic tax on the Dwarves to slow them down.  Chris moved in on Alex quickly trying to capitalize on his quest to kill goblins.  Alex pulled his entire army and all his heros to defend his outposts which let the dwarves teleport into a mountain range boardering his stronghold and promptly end the game prematurely for a Good Forces victory.

The 2nd game had Dan playing the Goblins with Alex on as the Undead while Chris played the humans with Jim on as the Dwarves.  This game saw a lot more dungeon interactions with heroes scooping up relics or allies from explorations.  The undead and humans both gained mobile forces, the undead with a powerful wizard and bone dragon duo and the humans with a stable of knights backed by mage and priest.  Both Goblins and Dwarves massed large armies and feilded all of their heroes, though at the cost of their more advanced units.  Both Undead and Goblin heroes joined together to take on the dungeon in Goblin territory and were rewarded with a powerful unit.  However, this was within striking distance of both Human and Dwarven armies who converged in an attack.  It was a decisive victory for Good whose heroes jumped in level and power.   With this power the dwarves expanded out and built their third outpost.  Evil conceded after it was clear they could not destroy a good outpost and the goblins could not match the Dwarves (humans and undead already had built their outposts).

4) Brandan Won Castles of Burgundy with 243 just edging out Michael at 229.  It was the Landons first time at the game with David ending at 181 point and Karen with 174.

5)Airlines was brought out with Michael winning at 82, Dave at 71 and a three way tie for 64 between Chris, Brandan and Karen.

6)The night finished off with two games of Unspeakable Words.  In typical Lovecraftian fashion everyone went insane for the first game.  In the 2nd game insanely only Michael went mad after getting to 82 points.  Chris, at 91, was the only lucid one not to break 100.  Brandon won at 106, Karen at 105 and Dave at 102.

BEWC Meeting Recap 1/18/14

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Attendees: Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran, Victor Liu,Ryan Frans, Alex Jordan, Chris Cregan, Maria and Matt Willey

1) Victor Michael and Jim started with a game of Haggis.  It was mearly played through in order to learn the game.

2) Flux came with Michael Victor, Ryan, Jim and Alex.  It was a slow game but eventually Michael had a good turn, able to play both keepers and plot card for a victory.

3) The first of two games of Firefly had Victor, Michael, Alex and Chris racing around the galaxy for money.  Victor spent the game ferrying passengers back and forth and neglected crime and crew a like and so ended up easily getting to the required cash value before anyone else ending with 12,400.  Michael had the fewest active missions and a large stack of cash reserves to end with 410 after subtracting his missions value.  Both Chris and Alex finished well into the red due to some high value, uncompleted missions.

4) Ryan and Jim had the longest and closest game of Twilight Struggle in club history.  Ryan managed to triumph with just a few points after the final turn though it required snatching enough points away from Jim in the last hand.

5) It was only fitting that the next game, Guillotine, was the shortest in club history.  With both the first and second days line ups getting cut short after only a couple executions each, Michael was just edged out by Ryan in the final day.  Ryan won with 12, Michael 10, Jim and Chris had 6 and Alex had 5.

6)Planet Steam was one of the two last games played.  Chris and Ryan had played before, with Chris edging out Ryan 464 to 433.  Matt ended with 254 and Maria 207.  (Scores were calculated with all lowest common value ignored)

7) At the other table Michael Alex and Jim played their last game of Firefly.  The mission this time was Harkons folly with Alex managing to finish first.

Club Business: The club voted in alignment with nominating committee from the meeting before.  The new President is Jim Halloran, the new Vice President is Michael Feinberg, the new Treasurer is Dave Olsen and the new/old secretary is Chris Cregan.

BEWC Meeting Recap 1/4/14

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Michael Feinberg, Scott Harris, Brandan James, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, and Alex Wright

Club Business: None.

Games Played
1) Dan, Michael, Scott, Karen, Dave, Karen, and Alex started off with Unspeakable Words. Michael won with 109 points with Dave behind the 100-point threshold with 99. Alex and Scott went insane.

2) Dan, Michael, Scott, Brandan, Karen, Dave, Karen, and Alex then moved on to 7 Wonders with both the Cities and Leaders expansions. Nobody could stop Alex’s science machine and his 81 point victory, Dave came in second with 69, with the rest of the pack close behind with only five points separating 2nd and 5th places.

3) Michael, Scott, Dave, and Karen split off for Star Trek Catan where Michael made good use of McCoy’s support to go through the development deck and get the cards he needed for largest star fleet, edging out the win from Dave 10 points to 9.

4) Dan, Brandan, and Alex played Castles of Burgundy, which Alex one with a commanding 236 points over Dan’s 191 in second place.

5, 6) Dan, Michael, Brandan, Karen, Dave, Karen, and Alex played two rounds of Ca$h ‘n Gun$. In the first Dan one with $85,000 and Alex just behind with $80,000. For the second game, individual player powers were added, leading to a more brutal game iwht both Dave and Dan dying and Michael sneaking in with a $105,000 win with Alex in second at $95,000.

7) Dan, Michael, Brandan, Karen, Dave, and Karen hunted Alex in Scotland Yard, and despite a nice early breakout by Mr. X, Alex was hunted down in round 10.

8) Michael, Brandan, Karen, and Alex played Smash Up with victory being snatched from Michael’s Alien Zombies when Alex broke a base one round for Michael could break his. Alex’s Ninja Dinosaurs were victorious with 17 points, with Karen’s Robot Wizards in second.

9) Dave, Karen, and Alex finished up with a game of Samurai.

BEWC Meeting Recap 12/21/13

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Michael Feinberg, Rhonda Frans, Ryan Frans, Jim Halloran, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Victor Liu, Dave Olson, Beth Voss, Eric, and Alex Wright

Club Business: Dave Olson, Dan Carey, and Jim Halloran were appointed to the nominating committee for 2014 officers.

Games Played:
1) Dan, Michael, Karen, Dave L, Victor and Alex played Lords of Waterdeep with the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion. At the end of the game, Michael was slightly ahead in points, but Alex’s lord gave him 5 additional points for every 10 point quest he had completed, putting him over the top of Michael 120 points to 114.

2) Jim and Dave O settled down to Twilight Struggle where Jim’s USSR was forced to launch his nukes first, making Dave’s Americans the “winner” of the global thermonuclear war.

3) Jim, Dave O, Beth, and Eric moved on to City of Remnants with Eric just beating Beth by two points.

4) Dan, Michael, Dave L, Victor and Alex filled a couple of minutes with Trans Europa which Victor managed to end victoriously in the first round.

5) Dan, Michael, Rhonda, Ryan, Karen, Dave L, Victor and Alex played Robo Rally. Dave ran away with the game, getting to the 3rd glad while only Michael and Ryan had managed to reach even the first flag.

6) Dan, Michael, Rhonda, and Karen moved on to Puerto Rico, which Michael one, with Karen edging out Rhonda for second place by the tie breaker of having more money remaining.

7) Ryan, Dave L, Victor, and Alex played EVE: Conquests, where after a few too many mistakes and too much time, they decided to call and learning game and write off as a draw.

8,9) Dave O, Beth, and Eric played two rounds of Escape: The Curse of the Temple. From what we could hear over the soundtrack, they won one and lost one.

10) Michael, Rhonda, Karen, Dave O, and Beth played Ra, with Michael winning with 48 points and Dave in second with 36.

11) Michael, Karen, Dave L, and Alex finished up with Guild Hall. It was a close game that Dave might have one if Alex hadn’t stolen the cards he needed, and then Alex one on the next turn, just before Michael would have if the turn order had reached him.

BEWC Meeting Recap 12/7/2013

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Attendees:Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Michael Feinberg. Alex Wright, Jim Halloran, Chris Cregan,  Alex Jordan, Ryan and Ronda Frans.

1)First off a game of Ticket to Ride: Europe – It was a frantic struggle for trains in the West at the start.  Mid game slowed down considerably and most everyone connected their routes with ease.  Karen, Alex and Michael took this opportunity to reach in for more destinations while Chris pushed on for some of the longer more lucrative train routes and ended up going out of trains.  Easily with longest route Chris ended with 130, Karen was incredibly close behind with 128, managing to reach all of her extra destinations.  Alex and Michael were less fortunate with their new destinations: Alex J 105 Michael 79.

2) Twilight Struggle Jim won over Alex W in the late era.

3) Terra Mystica: It was a close game, with mistakes made by everyone.  Michael managed to end in first with 115.  He took the dwarves and put their tunneling skills for great effect managing to connect all his cities and rival Alex for largest empire.  Chris played the alchemists and got bonuses for building dwellings and merchent houses and spent most of the game doing that and ended with 111.  Alex W also ended with 111 though would like it known that due to an oversight he should have won.  He played the swarmlings and built and built and built. Ryan picked up the cultists and despite being 1st in two different cult tracks only ended up 82.

4) Lords of Waterdeep was played with the Scoundrels of Skullport expansion. Karen won with 112 followed by Alex W with 10, Ronda with 102.  Jim’s score was “not so good”.

5) Dominant Species Michael as the arachnids dominated 95% of the entire game.  On his arctic shelf fortress he nearly lapped the reptiles before the last round.  Chris as the Reptiles had an incredibly slow start, and his species was endangered by the 3rd turn.  Ryan as the Birds was everywhere, picking up similar eating habits as the reptiles they fought for control of the greener lands for most of the game.  Then the last turn happened.  The Reptiles in mass migration swarmed the arachnids in the tundra hoping to drive them off.  While most of the reptiles died out they took several of the spiders with them.  The Birds did similar to the green lands.  Scoring over 100 points in the last round Ryan managed to not only catch, but pass Michael with a 232 over 222 win. Chris was surprised to find himself only 40 points behind at 183.  Both Chris and Michael were not fully aware of how end game scoring worked and so this game may have gone much differently.