Tag Archives: 7 Wonders

BEWC Meeting Recap 9/1/12

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Attendees: Mellissa Bassett, Dan Carey, Michael Feinberg, Linda Galperin, Lionel Galperin, Jim Halloran, Scott Harris, Brandan James, Joe Kauffman, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Chris Leitenberger, Dave Olson, and Jeremy Swope

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1) Once everyone straggled in, Dan, Michael, Jim, and Dave L played The Castles of Burgundy, which was new to everyone. Jim and Dan both managed to rack up impressive points from animals, but Dave’s collection of yellow victory point giving tiles pushed him to a comfortable win with 237 points to Michael’s second place 218.

2) Scott, Brandan, Chris, Dave O, and Jeremy played 7 Wonders with both the Leaders and the new Cities expansions. The 8th card in each age led to a high scoring game, with Jermey winning with 89 points.

3,4) Linda, Lionel, Scott, Brandan, Chris, Dave O, and Jeremy played two games of Tsuro. In the first game, somehow Brandan found himself knocked out on the very first turn and the game wound down to Lionel and Chris sharing victory when the last play took them both off the board. In the second Lionel was able to claim a solo victory.

5) Michael, Lionel, Scott, Dave L, and Dave O played Airlines Europe, which was also new to all of them. Dave L triumphed with 84 points, with Dave O coming in second with 75.

6) Dan, Jim, Brandan, Joe, Mellissa, and Chris played an epic game of Battlestar Galactica using both the Pegasus and Exodus expansions and the New Caprica scenario from Pegasus. It was rough going for the humans with food rapidly becoming critical. With suspicion high against Chris, he managed to steal the admiral title and choose a disastrous jump before being executed. The other cylon, Mellissa, managed to stay hidden, and between the two they easily defeated the humans on New Caprica.

7) While waiting for the game of Galactica to end, Michael, Dave L, Karen, and Zoe played Blokus. Michael was the first out, while Zoe (with a little help) held on for second place and Dave put the rest of us to shame by getting out all of his pieces.

8) Still waiting on Galactica, Michael, Dave, and Karen played Attika. Access to the temples was blocked early, so everyone turned to trying to build their full cities. Everyone had a shot, but Karen got there well ahead of the others.

9) Michael, Brandan, Dave L, Karen, and Chris finished off with Alien Frontiers with the Factions expansion. For most of the early and mid-game there was a fairly balanced build up resources and colonies, but towards the end Michael had two really lucky sets of die rolls, the first turn letting him satisfy his second agenda (for another VP) and stealing huge quantities of resources and in the second turn using those resources to land three colonies (out of the six total in the game) in that one turn. After that there was nothing to be done to keep him from landing his last colony the next turn and winning the game with 11VP.

BEWC Meeting Recap 8/4/12

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Chris Cregan, Tom Dunford, Michael Feinberg, Brandon James, Scott Harris, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Alex Wright, and Elaine Wright

Club Business: None.

Games Played
1) Dan, Chris, Brandon, Scott, Dave, and Karen started with a game of 7 Wonders, that Brandon one with 58 points, followed by Chris then Karen.

2) Dan, Tom, Scott, and Dave then spent a good chunk of the day playing Britannia, the game of various invasions of Britain from 1043 through 1066. On the first turn Tom’s Romans swept onto the island, spreading all the way up to central Britain. Dave’s Welsh held out in the mountains of Wales, and some other groups such as Scott’s Belgae and Dan’s Brigantes lost ground and in some cases raided the Romans. After a few turns, the Roman Empire abandoned the island, and Dave Roman’s left, replaced by Tom’s Romano-Britons led by the legendary Arthur. Other groups such as Dan’s Saxons, Scott’s Angles, Dave’s Jutes moved to fill the vacuum. The Romano-Britons were gone within a few turns. Dave’s Welsh and Scott’s Picts continued to hold their mountainous areas of Wales and Scotland respectively. Dan’s Irish raided a few times, and Tom’s Scots invaded Scotland, but that offensive bogged down and came to a halt. New groups showed up such as Dan’s Norsemen, which wiped out Dave’s Caledonians in the very far north. Dave’s Danes made a major invasion, winning areas from Scott’s Angles which had controlled much of central England. Dan’s Saxons continued to hold south England. Towards the end of the game, Dan’s Saxons consolidated their hold on southern England, Dave’s Welsh continued their control of Wales, Scott’s Picts still held most of Scotland. Tom’s Dubliners and Norwegians invaded late in the game and came to control part of central England. At the very end, the Normans under William the Conqueror landed and captured several territories from Dan’s Saxons led by Harold. Harold though was able to flee, and later counter-attacked and regained some of those territories. Tom’s Norwegians still held part of central England. Dave won with a score of 240, largely due to the performance of the Welsh. Scott came in second with 232, mostly due to his Picts and Angles. Dan came in third with 213 and Tom scored 154.

3) Chris, Michael, Brandon, and Karen played Alien Frontiers with the new Factions expansion. After we got over all of the stealing promoted by Chris’s Smuggler’s Alliance faction ability, the game evolved into a race between Chris and Brandon to get their last colony. Chris got there first, winning the game with 9 points, while Brandon and Karen were tied for second with 7.

4) Chris, Michael, Brandon, and Alex then jumped into Eclipse. It was the first game for everyone but Chris, so we all played Terrans. Brandon got off to a rough start, with nearly all of his connected systems penned in by ancient ships, while Chris seemed to have the opposite luck, finding open economy slots everywhere he explored. With the help of an econ bonus discovery tile, Chris was able to bring two dreadnoughts into play early, which he used to cause some havoc in Alex’s territory before over expansion started to constrain his actions per turn. Alex mainly concentrated on defending himself from Chris and once they finally became available turned to monolith construction to earn victory points. Michael also mostly stayed within his own territory and concentrated on technology, but on the last two turns used that tech to outfit a powerful fleet and expand into Brandon’s space. After Michael just barely held off a strong counterattack on the last turn from Brandon we discovered that Michael had miscalculated his cruiser’s energy consumption and that they couldn’t actually power their advanced targeting computers, so we decided to refight the battle without them, but the dice went against Brandon and Michael still managed to hold the system. The extra VP from that system were enough for Michael to just eke out a victory with 39 VP to Alex’s 38. In addition to the energy mistake, we also made a few other rule mistakes (retreating ships don’t retreat till the next combat round, the traitor can’t enter in to new diplomatic agreements, and once you’ve pulled all of the cubes off a track, you can’t take cubes from another track to fill that color planet) but they likely didn’t impact the outcome and we all had a good time with the game.

5) Dan and Dave played Conflict of Heroes, Storms of Steel! Kursk 1943 scenario six, Sneak Attack. Dave’s Soviets attempted to launch a sneak attack by launching an attack with forces positioned in a deep ravine and behind a hill. Dave’s Soviets in the ravine pushed forward, taking some losses. Dan’s Germans were hurt badly on the second turn by the loss of their heavy machine gun. Dave’s Soviets were able to use their numerical advantage to roll up Dan’s left, capturing both control markers and reducing the Germans to one squad. At the end of the third turn, Dan conceded.

6,7,8) Chris, Michael, Brandon, Alex, and Elaine finished up with three rounds of Dixit Odyssey, with Dave jumping in for the third. Elaine ran away for the first game, but the second two were a struggle between Chris and Alex for victory. Chris managed to win both, but for the last game Karen snuck ahead of Alex for second on the last story.

BEWC Meeting Recap 5/5/12

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Attendees: Greg Chandra, Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran, and Michael Kelly

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1) Michael F, Jim, and Michael K started with 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. Michael F’s first leader was Tomyris, which deflects the -1 points from military losses to his opponents, which allowed him to ignore the military and concentrate on science. Combined with a few high value blue cards this led him to a comfortable victory with 66 points.

2) Chris, Michael F, Jim, and Michael K played Jim’s classic copy of Cosmic Encounter. Michael F got out to an early lead in colonies, using his torture ability to broker some good deals, but Chris soon caught up and an allied victory for their fifth colonies gave them a shared victory.

3) Greg, Chris, Michael F, Jim, and Michael K played Puerto Rico. Chris had the most experience with the game and seemed to be leading, but Michael F was racking up a lot of points near the end shipping sugar and corn, while Michael K had both small and large markets so was making great profits at the trading house and plowing them back into guilds. The VP from his buildings allowed Michael K to edge out Michael F, 42 to 40.

4) After lunch, Greg, Chris, Michael F, and Michael K played Innovation. Chris quickly acquired a strong tableau, a special achievement, and a lot of score, but it was his first time playing and a misunderstanding of the rules causes him to miss picking up some regular achievements that were then taken by Michael K and Michael F. This kept Chris from having an early win and settled the game down to a fairly even match. Both Greg and Michael F racked up high scores and looked to be able to snag some of the last achievements, but Michael K dogma’d fission and everyone was nuked back to the stone age with only three cards below age 8 left in the game. Michael F drew and melded the age 1 card ‘Oars’ which gave him a scoring opportunity and when the game ended three rounds later with all of the age 10 cards drawn, the score from oars gave him the victory.

5) Greg, Chris, Michael F, and Michael K finished up with a quick game of Munchkin. Some lucky monster encounters and treasurer draws had Michael F quickly gain levels and while he was beat back down a little, some helpful allies and generosity with the treasurer quickly got him to level nine. To gain the 10th (winning) level in Munchkin, you need to win a combat, with one exception – the divine intervention card causes all clerics to gain a level and that level can be the winning one. Michael was a cleric and on his next turn, kicking down the door revealed the divine intervention card. In addition to winning, the text on the card gave him permission to mock the other players mercilessly.

BEWC Meeting Recap 4/7/12

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Chris Cregan, Frank Fulton, Roberta Fulton, Jim Halloran, Scott Harris, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Dave Olson, Alex Wright, Elaine Wright

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1) Dan, Chris, Scott and Dave L, played Carcassonne: The City, with Dan coming away with the win.

2) Frank, Roberta, Karen and Dave O. played Dominion, Dave won this one.

3) Scott and Dave L. played Conflict of Heroes, with Dave coming out on top.

4) Dan, Chris, Alex and Elaine played Ora et Labora, a close game where Alex edged out the win with 200 points to Chris’ 194.

5) Frank, Roberta, Jim and Dave O. played Andromeda. Dave was the most successful trader.

6) Roberta, Jim and Dave O. played Settlers of Catan with the Cities and Knights expansion. Roberta was looking strong throughout, but Dave O. managed to edge out the win.

7) Frank, Dave L. and Karen played Medici, with Dave coming out the victor.

8) Frank (Mr. Jack) and Dave L. (The Investigators) played Mr. Jack, which saw Dave’s investigators nabbing Mr. Jack as he attempted to escape.

9) Dan, Chris, Frank, Karen, Dave L., Alex and Elaine played 7 Wonders, with Alex taking the win.

10) Chris, Dave L., Karen, Dave O. and Alex played Medici, with Chris coming out the winner.

BEWC Meeting Recap 3/17/12

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Attendees: Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran, Joe Kauffman, Michael Kelly, Dave Olson, and Alex Wright,

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1,2) Chris and Michael F started with two rounds of BattleLore. In the first, First Chevaucheé, Michael as Charles of Blois was unable to develop any momentum and Chris as John of Montfort completely walked over him, 5 to 0. In their second game, they added in wizards, playing the Wizard and Lore scenario – Aquitaine 1369. It was a little less unbalanced, but Chris’s sir Robert Knolles was still victorious over Michael’s Sire Bertrand du Guesclin 6 to 3.

3) Jim, Joe, and Michael K played Tanto Cuore, where Joe was victorious and crowned King of Maids

4) Michael F and Dave sat down for their first play of Star Trek: Fleet Captains. Michael controlled the Federation fleet and turning around his earlier bad luck with BattleLore, drew some readily achievable missions, which combined with some lucky die rolls, brought them game to a fairly early end with 10 VP to Dave’s Klingon’s 4 VP.

5) Chris, Jim, Joe, Michael K, and Alex played Betrayal at House on the Hill. Surprisingly quickly, Chris was revealed as the Haunt, but the banshee he summoned was only able to kill two of the other four players before he was defeated, so the investigators won.

6) Chris, Jim, Michael K, and Alex played 7 Wonders, where Chris won with a commanding 61 points, specializing in science, and Mike K came in second having earned the maximum possible 18 points from his military.

7) Chris, Michael F, Jim, Dave and Alex played a surprisingly slow game of Battlestar Galactica with the Exodus expansion. Chris was a cylon from the start and tipped his hand a little earlier due to a misunderstanding of the rules (it was his first time playing) so he got sent to the brig, but did a valiant job of protesting his innocence and until after the first half. Unfortunately with the revised loyalty deck of Exodus, one card doesn’t get dealt out, and against the odds, this time it was the other cylon card, so Chris was on his own. The rec center closed before we finished the game, but it was still up in the air which way the game would go – the humans had just made their 8th distance of jump, so just needed to get through the jump track one more time, but several of the resource dials were down to two or three, galactica was damaged, and a large cylon fleet had just jumped in.

BEWC Meeting Recap 1/21/12

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Attendees: Jason Bowen, Jeff Bowen, Josh Bowen, John Boyle, Dan Carey, Chris Cregan, KC Deitrick, Michael Feinberg, Ryan Frans, Joe Kauffman

Club Business:
2012 Officers elected:
President: Dave Olson
Vice President: Dave Landon
Treasurer: John Boyle
Secretary: Michael Feinberg

New games: We voted to purchase the Battlestar Galactica: Exodus Expansion, Kingsburg, the Kingsburg: To Forge A Realm Expansion, and the new Stronghold Games reprint of Outpost which should burn through a chunk of the new dues money.

Games Played:
1) Dan and KC settled down for a day of playing Avalon Hill’s Turning Point: Stalingrad, Dan as the German, KC as the Soviets.  Dan’s Germans launched their assault behind a massive artillery bombardment.  KC caught some of Dan’s tanks in a weak position and destroyed them.  Dan’s attack on the southern portion of the city bogged down into a slugging match, especially around the Kuibyshev Sawmill, where KC committed reinforcements to hold the area, which is worth a victory point.  Dan shifted to the center of the board, and behind his Stukas captured the key hill of Mamayev Kurgan.  KC counter attacked and was only able to contest it, not retake it.  Late in the game Dan’s panzers slipped through KC’s lines in the north and captured the Red Barricades Factory and landing on the Volga River, worth two victory points.  KC launched counter attacks, but the German advantage in mobility was the telling factor as Dan was able to reinforce the forces at the factory and widen the gap in KC’s lines.  KC’s last turn attacks were unable to change the situation, so Dan won by gaining 7 victory points.

2) John, Chris, Michael, Ryan, and Joe played a round of The Resistance, where Joe and Ryan as the spies had no difficulty undermining the resistance.

3, 4, 5) Jason and Jeff joined them for three more rounds of The Resistance. The spies (Chris, Michael, and Joe) again fairly easily won the first round, taking advantage of good placement in the turn order, but in the second round Jason, John, and Joe were finally unable to succeed as spies and the resistance overthrew the government. The final round returned to what is apparently the norm for the base game and Jeff, John, and Joe (again!) were successful as the spies.

6) Jason, Jeff, John, Chris, Michael, Ryan, and Joe played 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. Joe won with 77 points, mostly from money, leaders, and yellow cards, but Chris was close behind with 73.

7) Jason, John, Chris, Michael, and Joe moved on to Kingsburg with the To Forge a Realm expansion. Joe tried a new strategy by rushing to build the embassy as early as possible so as to maximize the number of seasons he got the extra VP. It paid off and he was well ahead most of the game and won comfortably with 49 points, but others were catching up and Michael just edged out Chris for second place, 43 to 42.

8) Jason, Josh, Chris, and Michael played Tikal, which none of us had played before. Chris quickly mastered the art of placing tiles to create sections of jungle only he could cost effectively explore and ran away with the game, 151 points to Jason’s second place 100 points.

9) Joe and Jeff finished with a quick game of Chopper Strike that Joe won.

BEWC Meeting Recap 1/7/12

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Karen Deitrick, KC Deitrick, Tom Dunford, Michael Feinberg, Linda Galperin, Lionel Galperin, Joe Kauffman, Michael Kelly, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Alex Wright, Elaine Wright, Shawn Yoon

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1) Dan, Tom, Michael F, Joe, Michael K, Dave, and Karen L started with a full 7 player game of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. Joe took advantage of his Babylon wonder to acquire 3 full sets of science cards and then Aristotle’s bonus to get 3 extra points per set for a whopping 57 science related points and 70 total points, just edging out Dan’s 69 points (fairly evenly split between blue cards, military, and wonder points.)

2) Dan, Tom, Michael F, Michael K, Dave played Mare Nostrum. The game was fairly balanced but minor border skirmishes between everyone except Dave’s Roman empire kept everyone distracted with the military side of the game. Michael F’s Carthaginians had just managed to acquire the first of three wonders/leaders needed to win the game when Dave’s massed armies swept in, stealing a rich province before it could be reinforced. Those additional resources gave Dave the Director of Commerce title and allowed him to steer the trading phase so he could acquire all 12 unique resources and built the pyramids winning the game.

3) Lionel, Joe, Alex, Elaine, and Shawn played Kingsburg with the To Forge a Realm expansion. Alex just edged out Joe for the victory, winning by 3VP.

4) Karen D, KC, Linda, and Karen L played Galaxy Trucker where Karen L ran away with the win.

5,6) Linda, Lionel, Dave, Karen L, Elaine, and Shawn played two rounds of Ca$h ‘n Gun$, with Linda and Lionel winning one each.

7) Michael F, Joe, Michael K, and Alex played Innovation using the Echoes of the Past expansion for the first time. The game settled down into a fairly balanced game with Michael F, Joe, and Michael K all acquiring 3 of the 5 necessary achievements and Alex having just caught up with 2 when Joe dogma’d Fission and a red card was revealed destroying the world and removing all of the accumulated score, tableau, and hand cards from the game. With most of the low age cards eliminated, we rebuilt from the ground up, drawing and melding trying to work back up to the largely untouched age 9 and 10 decks. Joe managed a few combinations to accumulate a decent score and likely would have one if the game ended from exhausting the age 10 deck, when Alex comboed stem cells and bioengineering to leave him with the most leaf icons and satisfy bioengineering’s special win condition.

8) While the game of Innovation rebuilt from the stone age, Dave and Shawn finished up with a game of Lord of the Rings: The Confrontation. Shawn controlling the forces of Mordor managed to wipe out almost all of Dave’s fellowship, but Sam sacrificed himself to the cave troll, allowing Frodo to sneak past and make it to Mordor and win the game for Dave.

BEWC Meeting Recap 11/5/11

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Tom Dunford, Michael Feinberg, Ryan Frans, Joe Kauffman, Michael Kelly, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Jesse Lute, Jason Molstad, Lane Taylor, Alex Wright, Elaine Wright

Club Business: None

Games Played:

1) Dan, Michael, Dave, and Jason started off with a game of Pandemic, but were fairly quickly overtaken by outbreaks and lost when we ran out of black disease cubes

2) Tom, Dave, and Ryan then spent most of the rest of the day playing Space Empires 4X. Ryan spent his efforts beating Tom back most of the way to oblivion, allowing Dave to sweep in for the victory.

3) Dan, Michael F, Jason, and Lane played Merchants & Marauders. It was the first time playing for everyone, but Michael had gone through the rules and we picked it up pretty quickly. Dan got off to an early lead striking it rich as a merchant, while Michael has some early success as a pirate picking off NPC merchant ships. Michael thought he had achieved victory when in two turns he picked up 4 (of the 10 necessary) glory points through completing a mission, selling 3 good in demand, proving a rumor true, and sinking a French naval frigate, and he needed only to get back to his home port and stash his gold to win. Just after he made it to port, but before his next turn when he could stash his booty, Dan cashed in his own earnings and won the game.

4,5) Joe and Michael K teemed up to play Attika, which Joe won, then played Axis & Allies: D-Day, where Joe upturned history, successfully defending as the Germans.

6,7) Karen, Alex, and Elaine played a round of 7 Wonders and then were joined by Jesse for a second round with the leaders expansion. Alex won both games, with impressive scores of 67 and 72.

8) Michael F, Karen, Jesse, and Alex played Ra, where Alex just edged out Karen, 47 to 46.

9) Michael F, Joe, Jason, and Alex Galaxy Trucker. Joe always seemed to take the longest to assemble his ships, which is usually a significant handicap, but this time perfection paid off and let him haul home big cargo loads in the second and third rounds and win the game.

10, 11) Michael K, Jesse, and Elaine played two games of Dominion Seaside with Elaine winning both.

12) Joe, Karen, and Jason played Metro with Karen wining.

13) Dave, Karen, and Elaine played Guillotine, where Dave was victorious.

14, 15) Joe, Michael K, Jesse, and Jason played two games of Ca$h ‘n Gun$ (the second with the advanced rules) where Jason won the first and Joe the second.

16) Michael F and Alex finished up with a game of Twilight Struggle. It was Michael’s first game and he was completely unable to overcome the experience disadvantage, with Alex’s US achieving complete domination over the Soviets by the 5th turn.

BEWC Meeting Recap 9/17/11

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Attendees: Jason Bowen, John Boyle, KC Deitrick, Joe Kauffman, Michael Feinberg, Scott Harris, Josh Lichti, Jesse Lute, Lane Taylor, Dave Olson

Club Business: We voted to purchase Power Grid. There was also strong interest in Alien Frontiers and we’ll likely decide to purchase it when the third printing becomes available next month. [For those interested in Alien Frontiers, Clever Mojo is currently running a kickstarter campaign to fund an expansion. At certain backer levels you get a copy of the base game – http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/clevermojogames/alien-frontiers-factions]

Games Played:

1) John, KC, Michael, Scott, Josh, and Lane played 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. Lane and Josh got into a military race, which tied up their resources leaving them tied for last pace, while Scott just managed to edge out John for the victory, 67 to 66.

2) Jason, John, KC, Joe, Michael, Scott, Josh, and Lane had an epic game of Red Dragon Inn. After some early players were knocked out, mostly by running out of money (the wench kept thinking the pot was her tip…), it settled into a game of pick on the leader, whittling the pack down to Josh’s Deidre the Priestess, Scott’s Dimli the Dwarf, and John’s Wizgille the Tinkerer. Deidre was drunk under the table first, then Wizgille and Dimli were both teetering on the edge when Wizgille’s random gear deck forced John to draw more cards then he had left, giving Scott the win.

3) Once KC was out of Red Dragon, he joined Dave for a game of Battle Line, which Dave won.

4) Jason, KC, Lane, Michael, and Dave played Kingsburg, which was close the whole game with Lane leaping past KC at the very end to win 44 to 42.

5) Joe, Jesse, and Scott played Pandemic, but succumbed to a triple outbreak in the Middle East.

6) Joe and Jesse played one round of Lost Cities, which Joe won, but there were some misunderstandings on the rules, as it was the first time playing for both.

7) Jason, KC, Joe, Michael, Jesse, and Dave played Battlestar Galactica, where Dave and Michael enjoyed a cylon victory. Interestingly, Dave and Michael were also the two cylons at the last club battlestar game…. The game started off very slow, but turned disastrous for the humans after the sleeper agent phase when Joe’s Tyrol was thrown in the brig as a sympathizer (where he was stuck for the rest of the game) and then Jason had to leave early, leaving the humans one player down. Suspicions were flying like mad, particularly after Michael’s Admiral Adama (who became a cylon during the sleeper agent phase) choose a particularly disastrous next jump, leaving the fleet with only one fuel. With only two free players, the humans couldn’t manage to send him to the brig before he revealed himself on his next turn, immediately followed by Dave’s Starbuck, which sent Joe’s Baltar and Jesse’s Tigh to the brig and sickbay respectively, leaving the humans completely overwhelmed by a cylon super crises, consuming the last of their fuel.

BEWC Meeting Recap 9/3/11

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Attendees: John Boyle, Joe Kauffman, Michael Kelly, Michael Feinberg

Club Business: None

Games Played:

1,2) John, Joe, and Michael F started with 2 games of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. John ran away with the first game with 66 points, but Michael came back in the second game to edge John out 55 to 53, despite both concentrating heavily on military.

3) Michael K joined us for a game of Red Dragon Inn. John got a bit picked on and his Zot the Wizard fell out first, leaving a tight game until Joe’s Eve the Illusionist took out Michael K’s Dimli the Dwarf before succumbing to his own drink at the end of the round, leaving Michael F’s Fiona the Volatile the last adventurer standing.

4) Settlers of Catan came out next for the first time in a long time. Joe dominated the longest road contest, cutting the whole world in half, but couldn’t turn it into more victory points. John then snuck in to edge out Michael K for the victory, 10 points to 9.

5) We next played Race for the Galaxy, which was the first time playing for just about everyone, but we soon got into it and Joe built up a rare earth production machine that led him to a comfortable victory.

6) After John left we finished up with a game of Carcassonne. It looked like Joe was going to win this one when he drew the one piece left in the pile that let him simultaneously close three cloisters, while Michael and Michael fought over a sprawling city that kept getting bigger and seemed to have no chance of closing, but with the second to last piece in the game, Michael K found one that closed that city, giving both Michaels 46 points, and propelling Michael F to victory with a score of 120.