Tag Archives: Bananagrams

BEWC Meeting Recap 7/5/14

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Brandan James, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Dave Olson, Alex Wright, Elaine Wright

Games Played

1) Dave L, Karen, Alex and Elaine played Rampage.  Elaine chomped up the most meeples, including multiple full sets, for a resounding 31 point win.  Alex caused the most damage, with a tall stack of building floors in his stash for a final score of 24 points, and Dave spent most of the game chasing blondes, also picking up 24 points.  Karen ended up with a nice pile of monster teeth and meeples for 17 points.

2) Scotland Yard detectives Brandan, Dave L, Karen, Dave O and Alex chased Elaine (Ms. X) through the streets of London.  The detectives were set up in a good position in the middle of the board, but Ms. X led them on a wily chase, using ferries pretty extensively.  She was almost able to sneak out of a trap in the southwest corner of the board, but it was not to be.  The long arm of the law was able to catch up with her, teaching the kids in the room a valuable lesson that crime does not pay.

3) Dan, Brandan and Alex spent most of the day in an epic game of Mage Knight Board Game.  They spent most of the game trying to find the cities, which did not show up until the last ~5 tiles were revealed.  That gave them time to build up their skills by picking on poor defenseless orcs and dragons.  Although the game was semi cooperative and they were able to accomplish their mutual goal of sacking the cities, Alex came out on top as the most revered mage with 225 prestige (?), followed by Brandan with 175 and Dan with 95.

4) Dave L, Karen, Dave O and Elaine played Airlines Europe.  Dave O made an early investment in White Winds out of Russia, playing 2 of the 7 available cards in the first round and confident that he could take advantage until at least the first scoring round, but then Dave L dropped 2 White Winds cards into his portfolio sharing in the benefits for most of the game.  Dave L also invested heavily in Flying is Simply Fun out of London, and was able to capitalize on that investment throughout the game.  Karen diversified significantly, giving her a strong advantage scoring on airlines for which she was the sole owner.  Elaine had a targeted approach, investing heavily in three airlines plus the Abacus airline.  In the end, Dave O was able to grab one more stock in White winds, no longer having to share majority ownership with Dave L in the last scoring round.  Final Score: Dave O – 109, Dave L – 104, Karen – 102, Elaine – 80.

5) Dave L, Dave O and Elaine played the cooperative The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.  The rich theme of Middle Earth adventure was oozing from the game, immersing the players in the rich landscape and lore.  Wait, this is a Knizia game.  We pretty much drew cards and rolled dice until we were done.  Also, since this was really just a movie tie-in it only covered the portion of the story that was covered in the first Hobbit movie.  Still, it was pretty cool.  The party of dwarves/hobbit had to make it from the Shire to the rescue by the eagles at the end of the movie.  We did pretty well, not really feeling too much danger.  We played the game at the easiest level and were able to accomplish our task with a final score of 14 points.  Once we are able to master the beginner level with a 20 point win we can move on to the next level.

6) Dave L, Karen, Dave O and Elaine played Unspeakable Words.  Not really sure what the final score was, but it did not really matter.  Dave O was the only one who did not go insane, so he won by default.

7) Dave L, Karen, Dave O and Elaine played Robo Rally.  Dave L got out to an early lead.  He was pretty far from the pack, so he was able to avoid most of the carnage.  Elaine had some bad card draws the first couple of turns, so she was lagging behind.  Dave O and Karen were following each other around most of the game, which would have been fine except that Karen had souped-up lasers that caused extra damage or allowed her to lock registers.  There was much powering down happening in this game.  In fact, every robot spent at least one turn powering down.  Some (Dave O) spent several turns powered down.  A locked U-Turn register is a fate I would not wish upon my worst enemy.  In the end, Dave L won by touching the last flag, Elaine came in second having tagged the second flag, Dave O and Karen were only able to manage getting to the first flag.

8) Dave L, Karen, Dave O and Elaine played Bananagrams.  Karen was victorious

9) Brandan, Dave L, Karen, Alex and Elaine played Bananagram in which Alex won.

BEWC Meeting Recap 6/2/12

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Attendees: Greg Chandra, Jenna, Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Frank Fulton, Robbie Fulton, Jim Halloran, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Saeed Sadatian, Dave Olson, Jay Olson, Alex Wright, and Elaine Wright

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1) Michael, Karen, Frank, and Robbie started by breaking out the club’s new copy of Eminent Domain, with Dave helping with rules explanation. Despite it taking a little while to figure out what was going on, it ended up being a very close game. Frank just edged out the victory with 24 points to Michael’s 23 and Karen’s 22.

2) Jim and Dave L played Twilight Struggle, where Jim’s luck with the dice on the space race helped him to win as the communists.

3) Chris, Michael, Karen, Frank, Robbie, and Saeed played Citadels. Karen was victorious with 32 points, with Michael and Chris just behind tied at 30.

4) Needing another 6 player game, Jim, Dave L, Dave O, Jay, Alex, and Elaine broke out Antike. Alex was the first to get to 7 ancient personages, snatching the victory from Dave L who was just one turn away.

5) Chris, Michael, Frank, and Robbie delved into Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon, but were defeated by the dungeon.

6) Dave L, Karen, Alex, and Elaine played another round of Eminent Domain, which Alex won with 22 points.

7,8) Dave O and Jay played two rounds of Mr. Jack, each getting caught in their turn as Jack.

9) Dave O and Jay followed up with Wings of War: Dawn of War, where Jay had an Allied victory.

10) Greg, Frank, Robbie, Dave L, Dave O, and Jay played Battlestar Galactica with the Exodus expansion. As usual, Dave L was a cylon and he and Greg defeated the humans.

11) Chris, Michael, and Alex played Carcassonne. Michael and Alex dueled for control over a giant field, but Alex successfully snuck in an extra farmer when Michael wasn’t looking, leading to him having a commanding 93 point win.

12) Jenna, Karen, and Elaine played Bananagrams, with Elaine beating Karen to the final peel by seconds.

13) Jenna, Chris, Michael, and Karen played a third round of Eminent Domain, with Karen finally winning, defeating Chris 21 to 20.

14,15,16) Greg, Jenna, Chris, Michael, Dave L, and Karen finished up with three rounds of Ca$h ‘n Gun$. Jenna comfortably won the first round with $90,000 and Greg snuck out victory in the second with $85,000. In the third round, we added in the informer, which caused a great deal of confusion due to the illogical patterns of the police being called. On the final draw, when it looked like the informer had no chance, the police were called and Karen, having been killed in the first two games, won as the informer – she also would have one in a classic game, having amassed an impressive $95,000.

 

BEWC Meeting Recap 3/3/12

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Attendees: Dan Carey, Chris Cregan, Karen Deitrick, KC Deitrick, Tom Dunford Michael Feinberg, Rhonda Frans, Ryan Frans, Linda Galperin, Lionel Galperin, Brandon James, Michael Kelly, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Chris Leitenberger, Ian Rojas, Dave Olson, Alex Wright, and Elaine Wright

Club Business: None.

Games Played:
1) Planned games kept getting shuffled as people trickled in in the morning, but eventually Karen D, KC, Michael F, and Karen L started a game of Amun-Re. KC hoarded his money through much of the New Kingdom, and in the last round engaged in massive pyramid construction, giving him the win with Karen D coming in second.

2) Dan, Chris C, Tom, Brandon, Dave L, and Dave O played Power Grid with the China map, with Brandon winning and Dave L coming in second in a close game.

3) Linda, Lionel, and Ian played Wasabi where Ian won.

4) Chris C, Chris L, Dave O, and Alex faced off against Michael F in scenario 4C of Mansions of Madness, “Classroom Curses.” Things started off poorly for the investigators, which much of the school plunged into darkness and their sanity slowly being chipping away, but they persevered, steadily exploring and working their way through the clues. Ultimately it game down to a slugfest, to see if the players could kill the witch Helena Detaigne, before one of the Mi-go’s killed them. Michael’s luck as keeper had turned and none of the mythos and trauma cards he drew were helping him inflict damage, and so while he got close to killing several of the investigators, he couldn’t quite do it before Helena fell and the investigators were victorious.

5) Karen D, KC, Ian, and Elaine played a learning game of London that Ian won.

6) Dan, Rhonda, Ryan, Brandon, Michael K, and Dave L played Imperial. Michael was the best investor, with Rhonda coming in second.

7) Continuing the Cthulhu theme, Karen D, KC, Karen L, and Elaine played The Stars are Right, which Karen L won.

8,9) Chris C, Michael F, Ryan, Brandon, Michael K, Dave L, Dave O, and Alex played two rounds of The Resistance. In the first round, Michael K and Chris were the spies, the problem was Dave L was also a spy, but didn’t realize it having misread his card. This led to a lot of confusion and an easy resistance win. In the second round, Michael F, Dave L, and Alex all realized they were spies, but some miscommunication and bumbled cards led to an equal degree of confusion. Team after team got voted done under near farcical conditions, until at the last possible chance a resistance team was approved and succeeded for another resistance win.

10) Karen L and Elaine squeezed in a quick game of Bananagrams where Karen came from way behind to win.

11) Chris C, Michael F, and Karen L played Stone Age. Karen was ahead in victory points through most of the game, but Chris skillfully acquired civilization cards that pushed him to a commanding victory in the final accounting.

12) Ryan, Brandon, Mike K and Dave L finished up with a game of Pandemic with the On the Brink expansion. Ryan took the role of bio-terrorist and successfully sabotaged all of the team’s research stations bringing them to a point where they could only survive one more outbreak, leading to a crushing defeat for them on a turn that brought six.