Gathering Report - Day 3

Today I got up late, posted the report from yesterday, did some work for the office and had breakfast with Becky before she took off to see her family for a couple days. So it was about noon before I headed down to the game room.

Notre Dame - There are several copies of this sitting out on the tables, and lots of folks wanting to learn, so I volunteered to teach yet another three player game. Larry was new, and Buzz had played before, but the official rules have been tweaked in the intervening months. The play of the game demonstrated to me that it holds up well with three, and that experience counts as I pulled away and left them scrapping for second. With three plays under my belt I'd rate this game a solid 8 out of 10.

Prototype - Can't say much, but it was a quick game and a good chance to catch up with some other friends.

Capes + Cowls - When at the Gathering I always try to track down Frank Branham because he always has interesting and unusual games. In this case we sat down to play a two player game of tactical superhero combat. The game has a chess-like feel as it is played on an eight by eight grid of numbers and colors, as you can see above. The strength of each character varies by the number (and in some cases color) he stands on. If you are strong enough you can get a guaranteed hit, but even a weaker attacker can take a one in six chance at the attack. On top of that, the heroes get a variety of powers to break the rules and do special things.

Game play itself is fairly quick with a nice back and forth mechanism so you never feel out of the action. The first game we played was an asymmetric heroes versus fodder type battle. It wasn't terribly exciting, but didn't take long so we decided to go for a symmetric battle of four vs. four random heroes. This turned out to be quite exciting and tense. The game does very well for its genre and I would be willing to try it again. It is obscure enough I may even order my own copy.


Attika - I ran into Marty Hoff next and sat down to play a game of Attika with him and Jeff. It has been a long, long time since I have played this game and my rust showed. I was still a good three to four turns away from finishing by my reckoning when the game ended. Still it has proven it's staying power, and I remain convinced that three is an ideal number for this game.

Prototype - I was then able to get a game going of a prototype I had an interest in playing. The outcome was inconclusive in my mind, and I may be trying it again this week.


Thurn und Taxis Expansion - Glanz und Gloria - After a bit of wandering I ran into Jennifer and Lorna who offered to teach this recent German expansion for last year's Spiel des Jahres winner. This can be played two ways, either as an alternate map for the basic game, or with new, slightly different rules. We opted for the latter. The basic differences are that there are no carriages and carriage bonus points. Instead you may opt to play a card face down next to your carriage for the horseshoes shown on its back. This takes the place of a regular card play. You then may not cash in a route until these horseshoes equal the total length of the route you are playing.

The net result is that it is even easier to get bad cards out of your hand. A simplification in an already simple game, and one I didn't care much for. I like the original, even if not as much as the SdJ jury, but I personally don't have a need for this game. If you play T&T to the point of being bored of the map, this might be a great pick-up. Note that it comes with map and cards, but you need the houses and rules from the base game to make sense of it.


On the Underground - I ran into Gail who was trying to round up someone to play a game with Ken and her. Since they didn't have a game in mind, I suggested this title which I've been wanting to try. During the game players lay track to create several lines of the London Tube system. After each turn a passenger (we called him the "lazy American") moves to certain stops based on a formula that is first minimizing the distance walked and second minimizing the train transfers taken. He'd rather ride across London on three trains if it means he can get right to the stop he needs and the alternative is walking a block.

During players turns they can place a few links of track, and this change in the board topography can drastically impact where the lazy American heads. I opted early to try to identify some likely frequent routes and lay my tracks along those. This proved to be a good strategy as they frequently became legs of the trips made back and forth across the city. I've heard that the game is better with three than four or five, despite the box indicating it can play that many. I could really believe it, more players would definitely up the chaos factor.

That was it, after a lot more conversation it was off to write a report and head to bed. Tomorrow I know more folks come into town, and I may be introducing a guest blogger to add some other thoughts on the Gathering.