Gathering Day 3

Today it was just me at the convention as Becky is off visiting family. Tomorrow I'll have a short day of gaming as we are to meet for the early afternoon to go to the zoo. Sounds like fun!

Despite the late night, I awoke fairly early and finished up my blog post. Then off to the game room where i ran into Brian, Mary and Frank and we settled in to learn Stone Age from Brian. This game has been compared to Pillars of the Earth, and I would do so favorably. It is at heart a worker placement and dice game, so that keeps it firmly in the family camp where skill takes you a distance but the dice may determine the final standing. I enjoyed it an definitely will play again.


I wandered off and found Dale who was interested in trying out Oregon. Ted joined us to teach the rules. An interesting placement game followed where you pair up cards to place cowboy meeples and buildings into spaces on the board according to matching regions, to gain points. The whole thing had a fairly abstract feel at some level, but was engaging and attractive. My only down point was the challenge of visualizing your various options, but the mechanisms of the game did allow for some interesting 'combo' moves. I probably won't seek it out, but will play again if someone asks. I liked it better than the current BGG rating.

After that Dale and Valerie headed off for lunch with some planning of the game show later this week, so I grabbed a burger in the game room and spent some time watching Stephen demo one of his prototypes. It was a nice simple game, so I picked up all the rules and was able to comment on what I'd observed afterwards, even not having played. It sounded like there was interest if a couple wrinkles are ironed out, so I'm hopeful that works out for him.

Then I ran into Matthew and we decided to play Agricola (second playing for both of us). Dan and Ed joined in and we went to work. It was my first game with occupations and minor improvements, but my cards really didn't inspire me that much. Through the course of the game I played one occupation and one major improvement and the only minor improvements I used were the ones that pass to the next player. I ended up winning (final tallies were 34,33,32 with one low score) so you can definitely play a strong game without relying on the cards. Still, it reinforced my prior experience.


As we were wrapping up Nataline wandered by and cajoled Dan, Ed and me to stick around and play Euchre next. We did so, and ended up playing two games. Dan and I started slow in the first game but then the cards went hot. I ended up going alone twice in four hands in the first game (making the bid once and all five tricks the second time). Apparently this made me not a nice person in Nataline's eyes, but I think we've agreed to get along anyway.


Next up for the day was the 'welcome party' that Alan hosts annually. A chance to get a free drink or two and have a light fare dinner buffet. I had a great time, discussing everything from how Stephen's prototypes were going, to discussing the finer points of definition for deduction, induction, heuristics and which relevant to different game and life situations with Kori. It seems that Kori and I have one of these deep metaphysical discussions every year, and while on some level they don't lead to anything specific, I really enjoy them. This year a bonus was that food was good and plentiful, so I made it dinner.

After dinner it was back down to the game room. I hadn't stuck around as long as some at the welcome party so free game players were harder to find. Then Cedric and Thomas showed up and wanted to demo a prototype of a game currently in development. Curt joined us and Cedric explained the rules. It is a cooperative game with some great elements of teamwork. The art was under development but looked great, and they said it was aiming for release by end of year. I enjoy cooperative games so I'll be on the lookout for it in six months.

Looking for my next game I ran into Matt, Dominic and Eric sitting down to play Kingsburg. Eric was teaching and so I joined in for what looked like a fun and quick dice game. Play consists of rolling your dice, and then splitting or grouping them to petition various advisers (as well as King and Queen) for the resources you need to build your empire. It is a neat idea in concept, but the play was way to slow for me. I also had horrible luck. Bad enough that I suspect the wooden dice in the game may not be 'fair' as can happen when the wood isn't evenly dense. I rolled my three dice 15 times and never got higher than 12, and was 10 or under on all but 4 rolls. I'll need to give the game another chance with more emphasis on playing fast, but my first play was underwhelming.


Again, I was off looking for games to play, and ended up selecting Pandemic with Dan. Eric and Marty joined us and we were off trying to save the world from disease. At first things seemed to be going well, and we eradicated the red disease. Blue was getting a little built up, but we thought things were under control. Then we got two epidemics in short order. Quickly we saw our progress crumble as outbreaks spread into Europe. We had all the research we needed for cures but it was too late. An outbreak in Milan cascaded throughout Europe and the game was over for us. As cooperative games go, this one is quick, simple and fun. You still need everyone to participate and it runs the risk of one player dominating as can always happen, but I was impressed with how such a simple system could yield so many decisions.

It was about midnight and Marty began talking about heading to bed. Then Scott showed up asking if he wanted to play Euphrat & Tigris. Once Marty decided he could stay up for that, Zack and I also joined in. My caveat was that I'd play if Marty would have me, as I've made some pretty boneheaded plays in prior years playing this game that really hurt him without helping me. This time I did make a play that hurt him, and may not have handled it perfectly, but ended up with a good score and second place, so I feel a bit better about my overall skill with this game. That is a good thing as I really like it and don't play nearly as often as I ought to. The whole game not quite an hour start to finish, and then I headed off to bed.


Tomorrow, the zoo, pizza party and more gaming.