Tag Archives: Pandemic

BEWC Meeting Recap 9/17/11

Posted on by

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 8/20/11

Posted on by

Thanks to John Boyle for the meeting Minutes

Attendees:

Scott Harris, Joe Kauffman, John Boyle, Josh Lichti, Michael Kelly, Jesse Lute, Dave Olson (for 5 minutes), Chad Willard & Haley Willard

Game 1: 7 Wonders

Scott, Joe, John. Scott won with 57 points focusing mostly on Blue VP and 15 points on the Pyramids, Side A.

It was Joe’s first game

Game 2: 7 Wonders. Jesse and Josh showed up.

Scott, Joe, John, Jesse, Josh

Josh squeaked out a first place win with 47 points, combining 16 points in science with 21 points in Blue VP. Jesse and Joe were a close second with 46 points.

It was Josh and Jesse’s first game.

Game 3: 7 Wonders + Leaders expansion. Michael Kelly showed up.

Scott, Joe, John, Jesse, Josh, Michael

This was Michael’s first game of 7 Wonders period, but everyone’s first game with the Leaders expansion. The expansion introduces a new game mechanic via Leader cards. Before Age I begins, all players are dealt 4 Leader cards. Each player selects one card and passes the rest to the next player (just like the regular game). Continue until everyone has 4 cards.

Now, at the beginning of each Age, each player selects a Leader card to play. The leader cards provide similar abilities or resources found in the base game such as more resources, extra gold, science symbols, etc. However, there are new abilities such as allowing the player to spend one less of any resource for the different colors of cards, or increasing the Money bonus at the end of the game. It’s almost like playing with 3 extra Wonder abilities which really mixes the game up in a fun way.

Scott won Game 3 with 61 points, banking up an impressive 23 blue card VPs, despite Jesse’s dominance with 28 science points.

Game 4: 7 Wonders + Leaders expansion

Scott, Joe, John, Jesse, Josh, Michael

The final 7 wonders game of the day ended in a second Josh victory with 63 points (26 of which were blue cards). Scott was second place with 58 points, 43 of which were Science. He had two leaders that gave him extra science symbols, but it wasn’t enough to pull ahead.

Overall, I think everyone enjoyed the Leaders expansion, though it may have been a bit overwhelming for some of the new players (except Josh, obviously).

Game 5: Pandemic + expansion.

Jesse, Scott, Joe, Michael, John

This game was a nail-biter, going down to the wire.

Jesse: Scientist

Scott: Troubleshooter

Joe: Ops Expert

Michael: Researcher

John: Epidemiologist

The group got out to a decent start, quickly curing 3 of the 4 diseases. However, in addition to the 4th disease, since we were playing the expansion, we also had to deal with the occasional mutation. Our predicament came when we were on the brink of several fatal outbreaks and we had enough cards to cure the final disease and mutations, but didn’t seem to have enough turns or actions to get the cards and the pawns to the right place at the right time. Scott was able to switch to medic partway through to help and with a LOT of discussion, planning, and replanning (and a lot of luck), we managed to cure the mutation with no margin to spare.

We did realize, though, that for part of the game we hadn’t been properly adding mutation tokens, but figured it all evened out in the end and still counted it as a solid win.

Scott and John Left.

Games 6+: Chad Willard and his daughter showed up and played some games they brought with them. I don’t know how those games went since I left by then.

BEWC Meeting Recap 8/6/11

Posted on by

Attendees: Eric Bowen, Jason Bowen, Jeff Bowen, Josh Bowen, Scott Harris, Brandon James, Michael Kelly, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Dave Olson, Jay Olson

Games Played:

1) Scott, Brandon, Dave L. and Karen played Thurn and Taxis, with Scott giving Scott a chance to show his prowess at delivering mail in Germany.

2) Michael, Dave O. and Jay played Piretenbucht (Pirate’s Cove). Jay pulled ahead to a commanding lead in the end to claim the title of most feared pirate on the high seas.

3,4,5) Michael, Dave O. and Jay played 3 games of Code 777. Dave O. picked up 2 wins, and Jay won one.

6) Scott, Brandon, Dave L and Karen played Tigris and Euphrates with Dave dominating the game.

7) Dave L and Brandon played Pandemic, and they were successful in curing all four diseases and saving the world. Thanks guys.

8) Michael, Dave O. and Jay played Vegas Showdown. The scores were pretty close throughout, but Dave O. was able to pull away in the end for the win.

9) Brandon, Dave L. and Karen played Wings of War: Dawn of War, with Karen taking the win.

10) Eric, Jason, and Josh played Survive: Escape from Atlantis. Not sure who won that one.

11) Michael, Dave O. and Jay played Saboteur, with Dave O. and Jay in a tie for the win.

12) Michael, Brandon, Dave O. and Jay played Ticket to Ride: Europe. Michael and Brandon were fighting it out for the lead, with Brandon coming out on top in the end.

13) Eric, Jason, Jeff, Josh, Dave L. and Karen played Citadels. Karen ran away with this one.

14) Michael, Dave O. and Jay took a crack at Pandemic. With 2 outbreaks on the first (maybe second) turn, it was an uphill battle. Unfortunately, that battle was lost.

15) Dave L., Karen, Dave O. and Jay played Galaxy Trucker, with Dave L. taking a commanding win.

BEWC Meeting Recap 4/16/11

Posted on by

Attendees: Chad Willard, Lane Taylor, KC Deitrick, John Boyle, Alex Jordan, Kelly and Zachary Burnaby, Jeff, Jason, and Josh Bowen and their friend Raymond.

Club Business: None

Games Played:

1) Chad, Lane, KC, and John kicked off the day with a (mostly learning) game of the card game, Innovation. It was the first game for Chad, Lane, and John. Chad took a solid mid-game lead utilizing the strategic combo of Education and Perspective. However, once John took the lead in factories late-game he was able to amass a score of over 40, allowing a double achieve action to win with 5 victory points (only 4 were needed).

Lane had a solid Tech lead throughout the game, but wasn’t able to convert the advantage into victory points. KC (as the resident innovation expert) said this was a common frustration.

Overall, the game progressed slowly, but that’s to be considered when 3/4 of the players were new. I hope to play more of it in the future.

2) KC, Lane, and Chad fired up High Frontier.

Notes from KC:

Lane, Chad, and I played a session of High Frontier. Lane was NASA, Chad was Shimzu, and I was UN. We played full game with no head start.

After several rounds of auctioning and collecting rocket parts, all 3 of us launched rockets around the same time. I headed for Deimos, Chad to Ceres, and Lane to the Moon.

Lane claimed the moon, and eventually established an ET factory there and started producing some “S” product black cards, but had problems getting them into use (see below). Chad claimed Ceres, and a nearby asteroid, he eventually established an ET factory and colony on the asteroid. KC after unsuccessfully prospecting at Deimos, refueled and spent the rest of the game hopping around the asteroid belt prospecting about 4 M class objects, but all of them failed. We quit after about 3hrs play, with Chad at 12VP, Lane at 10VP, KC 0VP.

3,4) Next, John and Alex pulled out 7 Wonders since they both really enjoyed it at the last meeting and wanted to play again.

Kelly and Zachary arrived just prior to the 7 wonders game and after a hasty explanation of the rules, jumped in for some 4 player action.

Zachary maxed out (I think) the Gear Science cards (5 of them) leading him to a clear victory of 54 points. John, Kelly, and Alex, scored 39, 35, 34 respectively.

In the re-match, Alex won with 50 points, followed by John with 46, with Kelly and Zachary tied at 40.

5) The Quad then played Pirate’s Cove. Kelly took an early lead and didn’t look back, winning with 33 points. Zachary, Alex, and John scored 29, 26, and 24 respectively.

6) Meanwhile, Jeff and Jason arrived and played an incomplete game of Battlelore.

7) Josh and Raymond showed up afterwards and fired up a game of Arkham Horror and played several turns. After the Pirate’s Cove game above ended, they reset the game and started a new one with Josh, Jason, Raymond, and Zachary (with John staying a bit later than usual in an advisory role). The investigators were up against Yig and appeared to be holding their own (at least until 3:30 when John had to leave).

8) Chad, Alex, and Kelly pulled out Pandemic , which ended in tragic defeat. Only the yellow disease needed cured and Chad had the cure. It was, however, Alex’s turn. Fortunately, Alex played the Forecast card and rearranged the Infection deck to place Lima and Jakarta on the bottom. Those locations already had 3 cubes each and the team only had one outbreak left. Alex’s turn ended safely, but Kelly was faced with an impossible situation. He needed to clear a cube from both Lima and Jakarta, but just couldn’t make it work.

The trio played another game, but the results of that game are unknown.

Thanks to John and KC for the notes.

BEWC Meeting Recap 4/2/11

Posted on by

Attendees: Josh Batolein, Serai Batolein, Jeff Bowen and family, John Boyle, Michael Feinberg, Ryan Frans, Lionel Galperin, Dave Landon, Karen Landon, Dave Olson, Jay Olson

Club Business: None

Games Played:

1) John, Lionel, Michael, Dave L, and Karen played Ra. Lionel and Michael tied for victory points, but Michael had the tie-breaking highest value sun tiles.

2) Dave O and Jay played Carcassone: The Castle, where Dave crushed Jay, but apparently some creative application of the rules was involved.

3) Ryan, John, Jay, and Michael played High Frontiers. The game wasn’t finished due to time, but at the end Ryan was ahead on victory points and John was decently positioned to have a chance of overtaking him. Michael was way behind due to a number of catastrophic encounters with the radiation belts, which destroyed his entire rocket and crew on their way back from Deimos and crippled several attempts to get back there.

4) Dave L and Dave O played an epic game of Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage, with Dave L’s Carthaginians victorious.

5) Karen and Lionel played Blokus.

6, 7) Jeff and family played Fortress America and Pandemic: On the Brink

8, 9) Jay, Josh B, and Michael played two rounds of Thurn and Taxis, where Michael won both games while Jay instead focused on creating the longest possible route, achieving 18 carriages [there are only 22 spaces on the board].

10) Jay, Josh B, and Michael played Citadels which Michael won.

11, 12) Dave O, Jay, Karen, and Serai played two round of Dominion, first Alchemy and then Seaside, with Dave winning both.

13) Dave L, Josh B, and Michael played a close game of Rheinländer that Dave won.

14) Dave L, Josh B, and Michael played Kingdoms, where it looked like Josh was winning, but a brutal third epoch knocked him back to third and Dave took the lead.