Lords of Waterdeep
Played by Mike, Jim, Alex, Ben, Rob and Matt
Mike won
Blood Rage
Played by Chris, Dave O, Jay and Jeremy
Chris won
Assault of the Giants
Played by Jay, Dave O, Matt and Jim
Jay won
Power Grid
played by Chris, Vince and Alex
Chris won
Scythe
Played by Ben, Mike and Jeremy
Mike won
Kingsburg
Played by Mike, James. Ben, and Jeremy
James won
The day ended with several quick games of Coup and Bang
Attendees
Matt Ackerman, Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Dave Olson, Jay Olson, Jeramee Scherer
Games Played
Matt, Chris, Dave, Jay and Jeramee played Kingsburg. Final Scores: Chris won with 40 points, followed by Jeramee with 33, Matt with 32, and Dave and Jay tied at 24.
Dave (Free Peoples), Jeramee (Sauron) and Jay (Saruman) played War of the Ring. The shadow armies were spreading quickly across Middle Earth, taking over 7 points worth of cities and strongholds, and with two other strongholds under siege, but the fellowship was able to destroy the one ring at Mount Doom to win the game.
Chris and Michael played scenarios 7, 8, and 9 of BattleLore. In the first game, Michael’s Sir Hugh Calverly used a sneak attack to take the bridge and achieve victory over the forces of Chris’s Sire Arnoul. Chris had his revenge in the second game, where despite Michael’s heavy infantry running rampant through the left flank, Chris’s forces made short work of the rest of the field. In the third match, Chris got off to an early start and defeated Michael’s giant spider, but his goblinoid forces were no match for Michael’s dwarves, and more significantly the luck of the dice which had turned completely against him.
Club Business
None
Attendees: Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran, Matt Walker
1,2) Michael, Jim, and Matt played two games of Dominion. In both games, particularly the first, everyone spent too long building up their decks before cutting over to collecting victory points. In the first game, Michael won with 21 points from a single colony, single province, and a handful of VP chits from playing monument, while no one else had moved on from their starting estates. In the second, all three players were going for villages, bridges, and peddlers, but it was a little closer, with Michael winning with 19 and Jim just behind at 15.
3) Michael, Jim, and Matt moved on to Kingsburg, where Michael won with 42 points and a miscalculation on the final combat by Jim led to Matt just edging him out for second place, 32 to 30.
Attendees: Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Jim Halloran
Games Played:
1) Jim and Michael started off with a game of Tsuro, with Jim winning.
2) Jim triumphed over Michael in a game of Guillotine 46-38.
3) In Kingsburg final scores were Chris 59, Michael 38, Jim 36.
4) In Guildhall Michael beat both Jim and Chris
5) In Twilight Struggle Chris as the commies managed to goad Jim as the Americas to plunge the world into nuclear winter after a (successful) coop attempt in Cuba while on Defcon4. Technically making Chris the winner.
Attendees: Greg Chandra, Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Frank Fulton, Robbie Fulton, Jim Halloran, and Joe Kauffman
Club Business: Nominations for 2013 officers are open.
Games Played:
1,2) Michael and Jim started with two quick games of Lost Cities with Jim winning both decisively.
3) Chris, Michael, and Jim played Kingsburg with all of the To Forge A Realm expansions, with Chris just edging out Jim 46 points to 44 points.
4) Greg, Chris, Michael, Jim, and Joe played Lungarno, where Michael won with 31 points, but the battle for second place was closely fought – Jim had 26 points and the tie breaker of most extra tiles over Chris (also with 26 points) and Greg just behind with 25.
5) Greg, Chris, Michael, Frank, Robbie, Jim, and Joe played a full 7 player game of 7 Wonders with the Leaders expansion. Chris’s money heavy strategy combined with the gamer guild gave him a 69 point victory over Joe’s 68 points from a diversified strategy.
6) Chris and Jim broke of to play Twilight Struggle where history was rewritten. Chris won as the soviets by VP in turn 3 helped by claiming dominance in Asia and three scoring cards coming up that turn.
7) Greg, Michael, Frank, and Robbie finished up with Ascending Empires. Greg went on the offensive early and squabbled with Frank allowing them both to collect victory points from shooting each other’s ships out of the sky. Michael meanwhile was left mostly alone to colonize and then build cities on planets in each of the other quadrants. An endgame attempt from Robbie to steal one of Michael’s planets turned into an opportunity for him to earn more victory points from the back and forth combat, and the game ended with Michael having a comfortable 31 point win with Greg in second at 23 points.
Attendees: Monique Ball, Chris Cregan, Michael Feinberg, Frank Fulton, Robbie Fulton, Jim Halloran, Scott Harris, Michael Kelly, Chris Leitenberger, Josh Lichti, Luke Miller, Heather Murphy, Dave Olson, Alex Wright, and Elaine Wright
Club Business: None.
Games Played:
1) Chris C, Michael F, Dave, and Alex all got there early to try out the club’s new copy of Mage Knight. Having all at least skimmed the rules we got into the game fairly quickly and had a lot of fun with it. There were still a number of surprises though at the end game scoring and one extra crystal that Chris picked up because he had nothing better to do with a card ended up turning into three extra victory points which gave him the win with 38 points to Michael’s second place 35.
2) Jim, Scott, Chris L, and Michael K played 7 Wonders with the Leaders and Cities expansions. Chris’s blue card strategy just edged out Mike’s science strategy 74 to 73.
3) Scott had to leave, so Josh, briefly back from Japan, stepped in for him and joined Jim, Chris L, and Mike K for a game of Kingsburg with the To Forge A Realm expansion. Josh ran away with the game with 53 point wins, but all the players for some reason felt that it was important that I point out that Mike came in last place, despite getting extra victory points for being the fairy.
4) After finishing Mage Knight, Chris C, Michael F, Dave, and Alex were joined by Frank and Robbie for their own game of 7 Wonders with both expansions. Chris continued his trend of beating Michael by 3 points, winning with 75 points to Michal’s second place 72.
5) Jim, Chris L, Josh and Michael K took over the Mage Knight board, but unfortunately they ran out of time to finish before the rec center closed. They got through one day and one night of the first scenario, and at the end Josh was leading with 26 points with Jim in second with 20.
6) Chris C, Michael F, Luke and Alex moved on to Castles of Burgundy. Through most of the game it looked like Chris was comfortably leading, but at the end when all of the extra points from yellow tiles were tallied up, Michael finally made up for his two losses to Chris earlier in the day by edging him out 225 points to 224.
7) Monique, Frank, Robbie, Heather, and Dave played the Germany map of Power Grid, where Robbie dominated the game.
Monique ball
8,9) With a little time left before the rec center closed, Chris C, Michael F, Luke, Alex and Elaine played two rounds of Tsuro. It came down to the last piece, but Michael just barely edged out Elaine in the first game. In the second, Alex held on the longest, followed by Luke.
10) Monique, Heather, and Dave started a game of Pandemic and were working on their second cure when we had to leave.
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.
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.
Attendees: KC Deitrick, Michael Feinberg, Ryan Frans, Lionel Galperin, Scott Harris, Joe Kauffman, Michael Kelly, Dave Olson, Jay Olson, Alex Wright, Elaine Wright
Club Business: We voted to purchase copies of Mystery Express and Samurai Swords (recently republished as Ikusa) that Dave Olson picked up cheap. We also voted to order Ascending Empires and Lionel donated a copy of Duel of Giants to the club.
Games Played:
1) Michael F, Dave, and Jay started with a game of Martian Flux, but stopped once Starcraft was set up.
2) Michael F, Scott, Ryan, Joe, Dave, and Jay played an epic 5.5 hour game of Starcraft with the Brood War expansion. It was a very well laid out map with a lot of interaction between all of the players. The game culminated in a sprawling last turn with many changes of fortune and almost everyone having a shot at victory. With it fairly clear that this would be the last turn, everyone raced to satisfy a victory condition. Scott as the Overmind had just managed to satisfy his special victory condition, building a 4th base, right before his 3rd was destroyed, bringing him back to the three he needed. Dave as Jim Raynor also just managed to satisfy his special victory condition, as his one lone marine managed to survive against a vastly superior Zerg force and hold on to his sixth resource producing territory. Dave had an extremely depleted combat deck, so drew randomly from the top of the pile and managed to come up with the one card in the entire deck that had sufficient defense for his marine to survive. Leading up to the end, Jay as Arcturus Mensk had been reasonably set up to satisfy his special victory condition, but then Michael as Aldaris sent a huge invasion fleet to one of his planets, while the other became the most contested territory in the galaxy as every player but Michael issued orders on it try and claim its two conquest points. Joe as Queen of Blades and Ryan as Tassadar managed to split those conquest point territories, and so were going to be tied with 16 points, satisfying the regular victory condition and having to go to a tiebreaker. However, stage III had been triggered, so everyone had an opportunity to play a leadership card and upset the game dynamics. Michael chose to not play the card that would have blocked checking regular and special victory conditions this round, since it was nearly impossible for him to catch up on conquest points with only one more round and the game would likely be forced to end anyway by the End Draws Near Cards, considering how many event cards were drawn last round. Ryan had a card that he thought would cost Joe one conquest point and give him the win, but a last minute attack on his forces caused the card to also lose him a conquest point, keeping them tied at 15. Scott’s leadership card secured his special victory condition, since it allowed him to build another base. The final leadership card however was Dave’s and he played To The Bitter End, causing all other players to loose two conquest points, pushing Ryan and Joe below the threshold for regular victory, which then allowed special victory conditions to be checked for. That final card gave him the win, as Dave and Scott were the only players satisfying special victory conditions and in the tie breaker of most conquest points, Dave easily beat out Scott’s zero.
3) KC and Michael K played Race for the Galaxy, where Michael just edged out KC, 37 to 36.
4) KC, Lionel, and Michael K played Merchants & Marauders, but didn’t finish the game before Lionel had to leave.
5, 6, 7, 8) Alex and Elaine had their timing off from everyone else’s games, so got in two player games of Lost Cities, Innovation, Ticket to Ride: Europe, and Kingsburg. Alex won the two rounds of Lost Cities, but Elaine was victory in Innovation and Ticket to Ride, not sure who won Kingsburg.
9) Michael F, Joe, and Michael K played a remarkably quick game of Settlers of Catan. Joe got stalled at 9 VP and it seemed like the tide might have been turned when Michael F stole longest road, but Joe was able to take the title back and then bought the first development card of the game, which turned out to be a 1 VP card, giving him the win.
10) Ryan, Dave, and Jay played Thunderstone, which Ryan won.
11) Michael F and Michael K played Innovation. Michael K managed to scoop up almost all of the low point achievements and had built an impressive tableau, but mid-game Michael F got into a rhythm with the Pottery dogma, allowing him to score 5 more points and achieve every turn. With all of the regular achievements taken, it turned into a race for the special achievements. Michael K was able to claim Wonder using Invention, though he also simultaneously satisfied it’s five colors splayed right requirement, and was only a turn or two away from claiming Monument or Empire, either of which would have given him the win, but Michael F finally drew a blue level 6 card, which when melded allowed him to dogma Astronomy and claim the Universe achievement for his sixth achievement and the win.
12, 13) Ryan, Dave, and Jay played two hands of the three-player variant of Bang! which has just the deputy, renegade, and outlaw and no hidden roles. Ryan won both games as the deputy.
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.