Only members who have provided the club with their email address and those who have attended a meeting since January 1998 normally receive the bi-monthly club newsletter. Due to the important club announcements in this issue, everyone on our club mailing list, including those who have not attended a meeting in years (but whom I still feel has a viable mailing address), has been mailed this issue. If you have not been to a club meeting since January 1998, but want to receive the newsletter on a regular basis, then you need to attend a meeting or give Bob Hranek your email address.

In the June/July issue I stated that Bob Stribula's comprehensive article, Rail Baron Historical Update, although condensed in the hard-copy edition of the newsletter, could be read in its entirety in the email edition of the newsletter. Regrettably, I discovered that the electronic medium has its limits as well. My apologies to the author and the readers.

Included in this issue, in addition to important club news, are recent game reviews by Frank Cunliffe, an article from Chris Moffa concerning the club website (www.epgs.org), and Bob Hranek's continuing hints and strategies for playing Axis & Allies (my hint for you is to be on Bob's side if you wish to win often).

If you should become sick of reading about Axis & Allies, then you should write your own article about your favorite game and submit it for the newsletter. This is a finite space after all, and if there are more articles than there is room for, well ...then something just might have to be shelved.

Newsletter contributions are always welcome. The deadline for inclusion in the next issue will be Oct. 2. Send them to: briancmiller@prodigy.net ; or to: 2500 Knights Rd Apt 159-05, Bensalem, PA 19020; or hand them to me. Verbal contributions are not accepted, because I do not listen well.

Anticipate a miniatures event every month. A Micro-armor game (Mein Panzer rules) and a French-Indian War scenario are planned for August.

By Chris Moffa - EPGS Webmaster

The EPGS website is the online presence for our club. To help establish our identity in the minds of as many people as possible, we have acquired our own domain name: www.epgs.org

Within the website one can browse general information regarding EPGS. This includes an overview, history of the club, dues/raffle information, meeting schedule/location, club member listings (including their gaming interests), and updated related links to related websites.

Since EPGS has been growing to meet our members' needs, the website will be updated on a regular basis to reflect these changes, so it's a good idea to visit at least once a month to learn what's going on.

In the future we plan on adding more detailed information about our members' gaming preferences. This way one can browse the directory and find out the diversified tastes of the club, both by genre and by specific titles. A search engine will be implemented to make it easier for club members to locate other members with similar interests. An online trading post will be established for gamers to buy/trade/sell games with each other or to request a member to bring that "hard-to-find" game to the next meeting for all to enjoy.

Monthly recaps of the events of each meeting will also be updated on the website. This will detail which games were played, and members' comments.

To take this a step further, I will attempt to review any new game I come across and post a detailed summary in the website's "Reviews" section, which will be established in the near future. I encourage other members to do the same. Whether it's only a couple of sentences or a multi-page thesis on tactics, your contributions are always welcome. Since most gamers want to get the most bang for their buck and don't have a lot of free time to try new games, this could help gamers make informed decisions on how to spend their money and time.

I encourage and look forward to member feedback. If you have any ideas or suggestions for our website, or would like to contribute a game review, please email me at: chrism@snip.net

Effective immediately, membership dues are $5 per meeting. Also, the discounted pre-payment plan, known as Charter Memberships, are no longer available for purchase. The attending members at the June meeting unanimously approved this course of action.

EPGS moves to the Best Western Fort Washington Inn starting 18 September 1999. From PA Turnpike Exit 26 (Fort Washington), ignore Route 309 exits and go straight to the first traffic light. Turn right here onto Commerce Drive and follow for 1/2 mile to the Best Western. Use the Palace of Asia restaurant entrance (hours 7 AM to 11 PM) and go up the stairs to the New Hope Room immediately on your right. We have the room from 9 AM until 12 Midnight. The late night exit will be the main Best Western entrance in the middle of the building and then down the stairs/elevator.

In the room there is a sink and a telephone (215-542-7930 ext. 340). In addition to the customary chairs and tables, there is a 4'x8' table that may be ideal for miniatures.

Food Options include: Palace of Asia's Exotic Indian Cuisine right down the stairs (and where our bathrooms are); an adjacent Subway Station; and delivery to the room from China Delight and Ambler Pizza Italian Cuisine. Menus and relevant phone numbers will be made available.

The overwhelming majority of the membership at the July meeting voted in favor of the Fort Washington site. Two other choices had each garnered a few votes in their favor, but the outcome was decisive. We have reserved the New Hope Room at the Best Western Fort Washington Inn until December 2000.

Carl Copeland will be the Acting Treasurer at the August Meeting. He has volunteered to fill-in for the Totalitarian Treasurer, who will be absent. Bob will be back for the September meeting.

Steve Cameron had purchased on the club's behalf a ticket that turned out to be the winning ticket in the June raffle. Therefore, the club treasury won $49. Barb Moffa won $33 in the July raffle.

The winning ticket receives half of all ticket money; the other half goes to the club treasury. You can but one ticket for $2, three tickets for $4, or five tickets for $6. Please pay the Treasurer.

The following games were played at the June and July meetings. At the peak of activity, there were eleven different games being played simultaneously!

By Frank Cunliffe

Bob Hranek, Bob Sohn, Laura Donovan, Brian Miller, Lee Kendter Jr. and I played a game of this.

This abstract game uses the historic Union Pacific Railroad and ten invented railroad corporations. It uses the same system as Airlines and Get The Goods Card Game. (Later that day I would play Get The Goods - see below for information on that game.)

These three games have the interesting feature that a player must choose between taking a normal turn or melding cards already in his hand to score victory points. (Traditional rummy games allow one to do both).

A negative aspect of the game, though, is that the graphics are hard to get used to. One problem is that some of the corporations' stock certificates have very similar colors. Three are gray, and two are blue. Another problem is that the four track types look similar. I did start to get somewhat comfortable with the components after an hour or two, but one player said he never got used to them.

One of the player's options each turn is to trade an unwanted share from his hand for a Union Pacific share (as long as a UP share is available). I believe that one should always trade for them. Although I didn't catch on to this essential tactic right away, eventually I became the only player to do so. Hence I acquired the majority of UP shares, and consequently won the game. Bob Sohn had the the second largest stake in UP and finished second. I think there are few situations where one could benefit from not taking a Union Pacific share, so it is a useless feature of the game.

Another thing I didn't like is that drawing cards at the start of one's turn slows down the game. Better would have been to fill one's hand at the end of a turn, as then a player could contemplate his next move while his opponents are taking their turns.

In conclusion, I don't think this is that good of a game.

This game uses the same system as the designer's (Alan Moon) Union Pacific and Airlines games, where in a turn a player can either draw new cards into his hand or else score cards already in his hand. Here the game is exclusively a card game, with the other components removed.

We started the game shortly before the Club closed and had to call it halfway through with Barb Moffa and Bob Hranek tied for first with 12 points, and Alex Strang and me tied for last with 8 points.

This is a better use of both time and money than the larger games in this system, costing only a one-fourth as much money and taking only one-fourth as long to play.

Alex Strang, the designer, moderated this three-player contest between Brian (a ChineseDragon-Bull-Wasp), Bob (a BalloonFish-Worm-Tiger-Mole), and me (a Spider-Shark).

I got two Chemical Mutations as part of my initial allocation of cards, enabling me to draw two additional cards. Nonetheless my Spider-Shark was defeated by Bob's BalloonFish-Worm-Tiger-Mole, which then gutlessly used its Worm/Mole burrowing capability to dig underground to hide from the ChineseDragon. Eventually it succumbed, though.

In Super Giant Monster Showdown more than one player may claim to have achieved victory because there are three ways to win: destroy the most buildings; inflict the greatest civilian casualties; and, defeat the most opposing monsters. BallonFish Bob won on Destruction and Casualties, and tied with Bull Brian on Monster Defeats.

Editor's Notes - My recollection of the final outcome is different. The ChineseDragon-Bull-Wasp's powerful Wasp sting (boosted by poison) nearly killed the BalloonFish-Worm-Tiger-Mole in a single blow! The Worm/Mole separated into segments, reformed, and then promptly burrowed under the remains of a Chemical Plant that had been recently destroyed. The Bull/Wasp was still able to inflict damage by causing earth tremors, but the Worm/Mole was able recuperate even more quickly by leaching energy from the chemical wasteland. After a few turns with no signs of life in the chemical dump, believing the Worm/Mole to have expired, the Bull/Wasp flew-off to find a different city to raze.