WBC 2014 Recap - Part 2

Well, I'll just pick right up from where Part 1 left off.  After another night of not enough sleep, Saturday morning was upon us.  Saturday is typically "Conquest of Paradise Day" for me, and this was no exception - sort of.  The 4th and final heat was at 9:00 am that morning.  Since Brian had arrived late, this was his 1st chance at CoP.  Due to my victory in Heat 2, I was in the semis, but I always like to play, so I joined in Heat 4 as well.  Randomly drawing Samoa again, I had fortunate tile draws.  The random effects took their toll a little bit, and the Hiva and Raitea players used them against the Tonga player and myself.  The only unfortunate part of the game was that the Tonga player misinterpreted some rules, and got a little perturbed about that, as well as thinking that the rest of the table was picking on him even when he was down.  I don't think that was true, but he had a little bit of a sore spot with the game, and that made things a bit tense.  In the end I pulled out the victory after conquering some of the native inhabited islands to the west.  This got me the #1 seed in the semi-finals.  I had my choice of homelands, so I picked Samoa, which had treated me so well in the tournament.  The semis consisted of 3 4-player games.  The 3 winners and the "best" 2nd place would advance to the finals.  I was a bit chagrined when the gentleman from the previous game was assigned to my table again, but he seemed to have gotten over the earlier game, and had a find attitude this time around.  Brian was assigned to my table, and our 4th was a young lady who's name I don't remember (I wish I hadn't lost my notes).  I thought I had another good game going, with several good island pulls.  The Tonga player and I were clearly in the lead, and Brian tried his best to convince the young woman that they should focus on us, but she was intent on attacking Brian.  That effectively took the two of them out of the game.  I was preparing to attack Tonga, but I waited too long.  By virtue of good island pulls and Arts&Culture cards, he declared victory.  I was 4 or so points behind.  One of the other games had to go to a tie-breaker, so that meant I wouldn't get in the final.  My reign as defending WBC CoP champion had come to an end.

Saturday tends to be full of semi-finals and finals, so getting into new games becomes somewhat of a challenge.  I decided to go to the demo for Concordia, a game which Paul had picked up in the vendor area based on reputation.  While waiting for the demo, we watched a bit of the Memoir '44 mega-Overlord game, which was simulating the entirety of the D-Day landing.  There must have been 16 or so players, presided over by designer Richard Borg.  I had the pleasure of chatting with him for a few minutes - he was very nice, and opined that the mega-Overlord scenario was probably a "bit much", but fun for a convention.

I had some trouble keeping my attention during the Concordia demo...lack of sleep was catching up to me, but I decided to jump in the heat after the demo anyway.  My opponents were all more experienced, but I think the most experienced had played maybe 5 or 6 games.  My big problem is that I really didn't understand how scoring would work - and scoring doesn't happen until the game is over.  Like many euros, you can score for a variety of things.  I just didn't have a coherent plan on what to focus on, but even though I finished 4th, my broad approach didn't land me too far behind the leaders.  I don't know what to think of this game...I didn't love it, but I would be interested in trying it again.

Brian had gotten himself into the Tigris & Euphrates semi-finals, so Paul and I met in open gaming for a few rounds of Confusion:Espionage and Deception in the Cold War.  This is a great 2-player game that doesn't get to the table often enough, where you don't know how your own pieces can move...thus your opponent has to say "yes" or "no" when you attempt to make a move.  The objective is to get the briefcase, and carry it off your opponents edge of the board.  Our first game was quick, with Paul essentially bum rushing the briefcase off my side for the victory.  Our 2nd game was much more "tactical", though Paul still won in the end.

Brian re-emerged, his dreams of glory in Tigris & Euphrates smashed, and then we were joined by Bryan Fischer and John Sizemore of Nevermore Games.  We broke out Thunder Alley, a NASCAR inspired racing game.  In Thunder Alley, you play a team of cars, and you use cards to move either your single card, or the entire row of cars that your car may be linked with.  As you play cards, damage will build up on your cars, eventually forcing a pit stop.  The winner isn't necessarily who finishes first, but who accumulate the most points among his cars for things like leading laps.  I liked the game, but I didn't love it.  It was a bit more fiddly than I hoped for, and there was a certain luck of the cards element.  Someone made the comparison to Formula Motor Racing, and I think that was apt.  I would play it again, but I think Formula D remains my car racing game of choice.

Bryan and John took their leave, and Paul taught us Pergamon, a game about digging for archaeological treasures, and then displaying them in a museum.  By this time, lack of sleep was really catching up to me.  I liked the game well enough, better than Brian did...but would certainly like to try it again when I'm more awake.

Sunday morning we got in a couple more games in open gaming.  Brian Goodman and Dave (gah!, what's Dave's last name) joined us for a game of Mag Blast.  This is a sort of tongue-in-cheek game about battling each other's space fleets.  The unfortunate part is that like Bang!, there is player elimination, and I was eliminated early.  After that, we got in one more 3-player game of Villainous Vikings, and then called it a trip.

So, another WBC in the books.  But what does the future hold?  The big announcement was that starting in 2016, the WBC is moving a little bit west, to Seven Springs Ski resort.  As you might expect with gamers, there is no shortage of opinions on this...many negative, and many positive.  There are some legitimate complaints, and some not so legitimate ("It's no longer an east coast convention!"  Really...it's moving an hour or so west...it's still east of Pittsburgh for crying out loud). 

The key for me is that the Lancaster Host is simply a dump at this point.  The management doesn't seem to care about the place...my favorite this year was the sign on a table in the foyer advertising "Sign up now for low 2013 membership rates!"  The food...never great quality...seemed a notch below this year.  And the surrounding area isn't much better.  I've stayed in 3 different hotels now - the "Rodehouse Inn", the Continental across the street, and this year, the Ramada just down the street.  All 3 of them are marginal quality at best.  I'm happy to try out Seven Springs...I think the drive will be a little longer, but an hour more at most.  But to be honest, I have limited time and money for gaming conventions.  Prezcon is a must for me every year, but I'm starting to hear the siren calls of Origins and GenCon.  I would like to experience both of those.  I may have to make a decision in the next year or two on whether to skip WBC or not.    A lot of that may depend on where I am in further development with Santa's Workshop, and a couple other game ideas I have.  We'll see...

One more year...

WBC 2014 Recap - Part 1

Unfortunately, real life has gotten a little bit in the way the last month or two, so I've not picked my blogging back up at the pace I would like.  However, things are getting back to normal, so I hope to do this a little more regularly.  I did manage to squeeze in time to make the annual pilgrimage to Lancaster, PA for the World Boardgaming Championships from Thurs-Sunday, though.  I took some notes - but have since lost those, and I didn't do a good job with picture-taking this year (I will be glad to see Summer 2014 come to a close...it's been challenging, and I've been off my game).  So, I'm going to do my best to give a brief recap, with some thoughts on WBC in general. 

My friend Paul Owen and I headed up early Thursday morning.  We got there around 10ish, and headed in to the Lancaster Host.  I thought about playing Stone Age, however I decided to play Thurn & Taxis, which I don't get to pay often...in fact my last play was last year at WBC.  I was seated with 3 veterans, and had to ask for a quick rehash of the rules, which they provided.  The game went fairly quickly...it ended about a turn or two before I was ready and I finished in last place...however it was very close with a 5 or 6 point spread from first to last.  I was pleased with how I fared against 3 players who obviously were much more familiar with the game than I was.  Next up for me was a round of 7 Wonders.  GM Nick Ferris has a great randomizing method to seat people with unique cards he hands out to everyone, calls a row and column and everyone had their table and seat assignment.  My three opponents consisted of 1 fellow who was pretty experienced and 2 other folks who were fairly new to the game.  We played 2 games in an hour, and I finished 3rd in both, for an overall 3rd place.  In both games, I was hampered with lack of certain resources. 
 


Paul didn't advance either and I tagged along with him to the Lampeter room where he was going to engage in some Wooden Ships & Iron Men.  I took the opportunity to relearn this game, and played against one of the experienced hands in a frigate duel.  As expected my experienced foe got the upper hand, I didn't adjust to the wind very well...but his hot  dice luck didn't help any.  Next up I took part in a heat of Navegador...another game I don't get to play often enough.  I concentrated on building churches, but my lack of investing in any kind of ships in the 2nd half of the game caught up to me in the end.  Still, I finished in 2nd, about 8 or so points behind the winner.  At 9:00 that night I participated in my first heat of Conquest of Paradise, which had been expanded to 4 heats this year.  As at Prezcon, we were playing with the advanced rules and random events.  My game went very quickly...we were done in under an hour.  As Samoa I started last, and my 3 opponents each found 2 or more islands on their first turn.  I only found found one, but I consistently found islands over the next several rounds, and was able to expand my Polynesian empire for a quick and bloodless win (there was no combat in the entire game). 

After that, Paul and I wen to the open gaming area where we found Peter Gousis and his friend Jerry and played a game of Tobago, a clever little game about finding treasure, where the location of the treasures is narrowed down in a sort of logical card progression by the players.  Peter had come to our Unpub Mini and I was glad to catch up with him.  After that we all joined several other players, including T.C. Petty III for some Coup, followed by Panic on Wall Street.  With Coup, we played with the Reformation expansion, where players are assigned to the Catholic or Protestant faction, and can't act against someone in their faction...although you can change someone else's faction.  It adds another twist to an already fun hidden role/deduction game.  We had played Panic on Wall Street last year, and I was kind of "meh" on the game, though as I recall I was very tired at the time.  This time we also started late, but I got into the game more...and manged to eek out a win as a manager by riding the high-risk shares. 

Friday morning came too early (all the mornings seem to come too early at these conventions...)  I briefly toyed with the idea of playing in the Circus Maximus heat, but decided to wait for the vendors to open at 10:00.  I made a beeline to the Stronghold Games booth in order to pick up the Die Fighter expansion for Space Cadets:Dice Duel.  (About a week later I had a package arrive at home...the copy of Die Fighter that I had forgotten I had pre-ordered...DOH).  I picked up a few other things as well - a copy of Caylus Magna Carta (the card game version of Caylus), Freedom:The Underground Railroad, of which I had heard many good things, and game called Quilt Show to use as a gift for a friend that is really into quilting.  I didn't actually sit down for a game until 1:00, when I decided to try my hand at a heat of Ticket to Ride.  I enjoy TTR but I haven't played in a tournament in years because it's so popular, and it tends to conflict with other things.  One player ran away with it at our table - I finished 4th...I might have finished higher but I knew I wasn't winning so went for the Hail Mary on the last turn and drew more tickets...none of them I had complete.  But I did get a set of translucent trains just for playing. 



There was another heat of Conquest of Paradise at 3:00, but instead I decided to help Paul with a demo of East India Company he was giving to a publisher.  Now, I hadn't played EIC in a quite some time, and was eager to see the changes Paul had made.  He had streamlined it by removing the dividend track, taking out the Caribbean, removing the tariffs, and eliminating the option of using wood to build new ships.  The demo went well, I thought, although afterwards, on the drive home in particular, we brainstormed some about the game.  I thought Paul had actually removed too much, and we talked specifically about a way to add the tariffs back in, and possible some changes to how the pirates work.  Now, I will also admit that I had an ulterior motive.  This same publisher had contacted me after our Mini Unpub, specifically about Santa's Workshop.  I had sent him rulebook, but he had contacted me right after we got to WBC to tell me that it wasn't what they were looking for.  Which is fine, I'm happy he looked at it...and did take the opportunity to get his advice for 5 minutes or so after the EIC demo was done.  I specifically wanted to get his feedback on the theme...which had really gotten a negative reaction from a publisher at Unpub back in January.  This particular publisher thought the theme may be a bit of a tough sell, but he didn't think it was necessarily a deal breaker.  So, I was happy to get some feedback.

About this time, Brian made his WBC appearance, and we just decided to hit open gaming.  Paul sat down to re-teach us St. Petersberg, and we were joined by a 4th player...who also wanted to teach the game.  Once we got started, it came back quick enough.  Our 4th player won, but I made a strong showing with a building heavy strategy.  Brian and I hit the vendors for a while, and I picked up a copy of Villainous Vikings.  We had seen a demo of this game last year at WBC when designer Jeremy Stoltzfus had brought his prototype to demo.  Victory Point games had picked it up, and I decided to get a copy, including a promo captain.  Brian and I sat down in open gaming to give a 2-player game a try.  Fortunately, Jeremy was a few tables over teaching some other folk, so we were able to get quick answers to some rules questions.  We had a fun game, but were thinking it would bet better with more than 2 players.  After our game, Paul joined us along with Bill and Laurie from Nomad games.  Brian had purchased a copy of Spurs from them earlier, and we broke it out. Set in the Old West, with just about every trope you can imagine packed into the game, this was probably the purchase of the con.  The best part was watching Paul and Brian "gunfight" by drawing bullets out of their bags.  Brian pulled out the victory, I was a few points behind in 2nd place.  The last game of the night was another round of Villainous Vikings, with Paul joining in for a 3-player game.  Paul ended up running away with the game, but I did think it was better with more players.

Well, I had intended to do one short recap of WBC, but I think it's probably better to break it up into two sections....so next up, Saturday & Sunday, plus general thoughts on WBC.

Unpub Mini After-Action report

 

Well, we had our Unpub Mini at the Game Parlor in Chantilly, VA this past Saturday - and I'm confident in saying it was a smashing success!  In fact, it really exceeded my expectations.  Now that it's over, I can say that I had some trepidation leading up to it.  First, I was nervous about getting enough designers to show up.  Well, we had 5 sign up within the first few days, and I think we had 10 slots filled after a week or two.  In fact, we pulled a Spinal Tap and went to 11 when there was some sort of glitch on the Unpub website that allowed an 11th designer to sign up.  Furthermore, I had a 12th designer, Andre Chautard, contact me a few days prior to see if he could bring his game.  I told him that he should come...I didn't know if he'd get his game out, but it was at least a good networking experience.  Andre did come, and got in a few plays of his game, so it worked out great.

A couple of early designers await the opening...

My next trepidation was our location.  The Game Parlor is the normal haunt for our group, because it's close to many of our offices.  I like the Game Parlor, and I've been going there for 20ish years, but they don't exactly have their finger on the pulse of the gaming industry as much as, for example, Labyrinth Games in D.C.  And Chantilly, while in the D.C. metro area, is a bit out of the way.  But, they do have lots of tables, and room for playing.

Finally, and this was my biggest worry - was getting playtesters.  I feared that the 12 of us would just have to split up and play each others games all day.  I printed flyers, sent emails to several local gaming groups, and tried to spread the word in the Game Parlor itself.  More often than not I was met with a blank stare that read "why are you interrupting my game?!"  However, my fears were unfounded, as we had over 30 folks playing games at our event!  I had 30 on the sign up sheet, but I know there was a few I missed.  Every designer got multiple plays of their game(s) in, as far as I know.  So, huzzah!

Not a bad turnout...this is just about all Unpubbers!

Now, let me talk a little about the designers and their games.  I'll start with the ones I played.

Escape Velocity - Shadowsong Industries

The endless track of Escape Velocity

Escape Velocity is a spaceship racing game by the duo of Alf Shadowsong and Kiva Fecteau.  The game is asymmetric in the sense that the different ships have different abilities and stats.  At the beginning of the game, players have a chance to choose their "sponsor", which will give them additional abilities, depending on how many laps the race lasts.  Movement on the racetrack is achieved by playing cards, and spending points to use different actions on the cards.  The "track" is continuous...by means of a clever mechanic where the front board is transferred to the rear as racers approach the end.

I like the theme here, and this game has some things definitely going for it.  I like the asymmetric ships, and I like the board swapping mechanic.  I think some of the cards and some of the powers need further refinement and balancing - one card in particular killed me as Alf switched places with me when I was nearly a lap ahead of him - a killer in a 3 lap race.  The person who went first each turn was the person in last place, and it was not always clear to me who that was - you sort of had to look at the board...and at each player's ship tableau to figure that out.  The cards are also very text heavy - which means a lot of reading, particularly when you're dealt your initial hand.  I think if Alf and Kiva can get a little more balance in some of the card effects, and streamline things a bit for quicker play, they'll really be on to something here. 

 

Knot Dice - Black Oak Games

This is a very interesting dice game by Matthew O'Malley.  The game consists of 36 identical dice, each face having a portion of a Celtic Knot inscribed on it.  One of the great things about this, is that Matthew actually has several games designed using the dice.  There's a speed game, a puzzle game, a co-op game, and a "team" game where you are teaming (sort of) with the players on either side of you.  I sat down with Matthew and had a chance to play each of the iterations except for the "team" game.

The "speed game" (rolling your dice until you have no loose ends - whether it's one knot or several) and the "puzzle game" (where you can pass dice to your neighbor as you try to build a know) are pretty fleshed out games, and need little to no tweaking at this point.  In the co-op game, where we work together to build the highest score possible (scoring a point per die intersection - meaning a 6x6 grid would be the highest) - it was interesting but lacked a bit of tension.  Matthew and I spent the most time talking about this particular variant, and we eventually hit on the idea of being able to limit the amount of dice you could "throw out" of the game.  This was a little bit inspired by the "fuse" mechanism of Hanabi.  We played again, and the game definitely seemed more tense, and enjoyable.  I don't know if that's the final answer, but I think it was a step in the right direction.

I very much look forward to Matthew getting this published, as I think Knot Dice would make the perfect game to carry around and play at dinner, or in between other games or activities.  And for me, I am particularly drawn to the Celtic Knot theme (maybe I should have worn my kilt to the event).

Salvation Road - Michael Kelley

Waiting for Master Blaster to show up....

In this co-op game due to be published by Van Ryder games, players take on the roles of heroes or survivors in a Mad Max-style setting.  They must escape their fast deteriorating compound, and drive their truck to the town of "Salvation".  Players send their characters out to search locations of food, fuel and ammo, all the while trying to avoid marauders and battling hunger and other disasters.  Finally, when they get on the road, they must have collected enough supplies to make it through the journey.

I enjoyed this game, as much as for the setting as for the game play.  Thank god it wasn't another zombie game!  The game was tense, as we searched for supplies in an increasingly dangerous environment.  I enjoyed the asymmetric play of each character having different attributes (the "survivors" tend to have hindrances).  I look forward to playing this game with final artwork, as I think that will add to the overall theme.

Horrible Hex - Stone Circle Games

Not so horrible, really...in fact it's quite good!

I have to admit, this abstract game by Jon Moffat was not originally high on my list of games to try during the Unpub Mini, but I got a chance to sit down with Paul Owen and play a game, and I am certainly glad I did.  In this game, reminiscent of Hive, players are playing hex tiles in an ever building configuration.  The tiles are marked with either a circle or a star in the middle, and on different edges, there are arrows indicating how that tile can move in that direction - sliding, pushing, jumping, etc.  Each player is dealt two cards that show a winning formation of hexes, based on the circles and stars.  So, you are trying to manipulate the formation to complete one of your patterns, while avoiding completing your opponents.  This is easier said than done.  On two occasions, both Paul and I completed our own pattern..while simultaneously completing the opponents.  This game is the definition of simple mechanics, but deep strategy.  I had somewhat of a concern that it was too similar to Hive, but Paul convinced me that it was significantly different to stand on it's own - in particular, the different winning patterns for each player make it a different game.

 

Aesop's Gambit - Michael Karg

A "Fabled" variant of Poker

A few of us played this poker variant by Michael Karg, in which the cards represent different animals out of Aesop's Fables.  Each round, a situation is revealed, which requires different aspects to solve.  Players bet on the card that they will lay down, and if it will have the highest attributes for that particular event.  My feeling is that this game is still in the beginning design stages.  I think that there is probably a place for a poker variant, especially one with an interesting theme...and Michael obviously did his research into Aesop.  But the card play fell just a bit flat for me - if you had a "6" in the attribute needed that round, you bet...if not, you didn't.  I think the cards need some balancing so that you can win without having a "6".  Or maybe, I'm just a bad bluffer.  But, I look forward to seeing where Michael takes this game.

Other games I did not have a chance to play -

East India Company - Paul Owen

East India Company in action

In his blog, Paul details how he wanted to trim down EIC.  I cautioned him against throwing out too much, but he still streamlined it somewhat, and got in a playtest at our Unpub Mini.  The reaction was generally favorable, and Paul feels like he's moving in the right direction.

Reactor Scram - Paul Owen

A game very much still in progress, Paul reported that in the two plays at the Unpub Mini, one went very short (which was his main concern) - the but the second went very long, which was a surprise.  But I believe he got some good feedback from all of this.

Trove - David Somerville

The very popular Trove in action...

This game was most definitely hit, as I saw David continuously demoing it during the day, and everyone I talked to had good things to say about it.  I consistently heard that some tweaking needed to be done, but this asymmetric (someone gets to play the cave!) dungeon game seems destined for good things.  This is may be at the top of my list to play at the next Unpub event.

 

Lords of Baseball - Max Jamelli

Baseball junkies...take note!

This is a game I really wanted to try, given the description, but I never had a chance to play.  This appeared to be the "thinkiest" game at our event, and likely the longest.  As the organizer, I was a bit loathe to commit to a multi-hour game, but this is another one I'm eager to try.  I heard very good things from those who did play.

And they're off!

Post Position - Dr. Witcz

Another one I meant to play but didn't get a chance.  Paul had been talking this one up since last Unpub.  If there's one thing that I feel bad about, it's that I think I let down Austin Smokowicz a bit.  He was wanting to get a large player count in (the game holds up to 12), but we were only able to get him a 6 player game.

Is this legal?!

Underground Street Racing - Dr. Witcz

Austin was able to get in a few playtests of their new game.  I watched Paul play a few rounds, but I had trouble following the action.  I look forward to see how this is developed prior to Unpub 5

 

  

 

Boondoggle - Michael Karg

There's the "Bridge to Nowhere"

This was Mike's main game to bring, and I believe he got in 1 playtest.  I'm not sure how the game went, but from the discussion I saw afterward, I think he got plenty of feedback.

 

 

 

 

Movie Links - Andre Chautard

Thanks to Matthew O'Malley for getting me the correct title of this game by Andre. I think he got in at least 2 playtests, and I heard positive reviews.  This is a party game where you have cards with movie titles, and then are disks with things like "racy" or "adventure" on them, and you have to connect the movie cards with these disks somehow...I didn't get the full explanation...but I will tell you that I think it was neat that we had a "party game" mixed in with our allotment of euro and strategy games.

Last Bastion - Peter Gousis

Several people expressed interest in this game based on the description, and I know they got in one play...I myself didn't hear the feedback, but I hope the designers got good feedback.

Hey...what about Santa's Workshop?!?!

Who's naughty and who's nice here?

Oh yeah, I had a game there!  Well, I plan on dedicating a whole blog post to not only what came out of the Unpub Mini, but what I've been doing on the game since Unpub 4.  I had snuck in a playtest the previous Tuesday, and made some tweaks before our event.  At the Unpub Mini, I got in 2 playtests, and got some valuable feedback.  I think I'm headed in the right direction after a few months flailing since Unpub 4 - but there are still some tweaks to be made.  In the 2nd playtest on Saturday in particular, one flaw became much more clear, and I think I have a better grasp on fixing that.  Stay tuned to the next blog post!



So, that wrap things up - I'm sorry if I missed a game or two in my recap.  I'm definitely looking forward to the next Unpub event - I even have a devious plan to maybe do another "Mini" prior to Unpub 5, in order to do some tweaks prior to the big event.  We'll see.  In any case, I would like to thank the designer that came out, and all of the playtesters, and I look forward to seeing you folks at future events!

Unpub Mini - Chantilly, VA June 21st 2014

I seem to have been a little lax in my blogging lately, and I will make up for that in the near future.  First thing to do, however is to announce the "Unpub Mini" that Paul Owen and I are hosting on June 21st.

Ever wanted to give feedback directly to game designers?
Interested in trying the latest board game concepts before they hit store shelves?

If so, participation in an "Unpub" event may be just what you're looking for!

Founded in 2010, The Unpublished Games Network, called Unpub, is a growing community of game designers, publishers, players, retailers and artists working towards the creation of new and unique table top games that will keep people entertained for generations to come!  

The latest main Unpub convention in January 2014 featured over 50 designers with their latest concepts.  

 An Unpub “Mini” is chance to bring the Unpub experience to local venues and reach out to gamers, giving them a chance to provide valuable feedback and participate in the game design process.  On June 21st, an Unpub Mini will be held at:

Game Parlor

13936 Metrotech Drive

Chantilly, VA 20151

The event will run the duration of the store hours, from 11AM - 10PM.

Note that Game Parlor typically charges a $2 "table fee" that's good for all day to play in the store.  However, if you participate in at least one playtest, the Unpub Mini designers will pay for your ticket!

Here are some of the games that will be featured at the Unpub Mini:

Boondoggle - Boondoggle used to be just nice folks and dirt roads. Then, the money pours in. Small-time schemers and crooked dreamers bring their dirty machines and dirtier deals. There’s room for you in this town.  Designer - Mike Karg

East India Company - In the days of sail, opportunities emerged to bring exotic goods from around the known world to domestic markets. Players preside over European investment companies in 18th century global colonization and trade.   Designer - Paul Owen

Escape Velocity - Forget the US and USSR - this is the real space race and you're in the cockpit, trying to maneuver your space ship to victory!  Designer - Kiva Fecteau

Horrible Hex - An abstract tile laying and shifting game that pits opponents against one another in an arena of foresight and spatial geometry.  Designer - Jonathan Moffat

Lords of Baseball - An economic simulation   of owning a franchise, not playing 9 innings.  Designer - Max Jamelli

Knot Dice - Games, puzzles, and art using 44 custom dice that connect edge-to-edge creating Celtic knot designs. Included is a cooperative game, a real-time game, and several competitive dice-laying and dice-building games.  Designer - Matthew O'Malley

Post Position - An exciting horse racing game where you are literally invested in the horses. At the end of the race horses will payout only to players who own shares of those horses. Designer - Austin Smokowicz

Reactor Scram - In this co-op game, players work in a neglected reactor plant.   Some days are worse than others.  But they all know that the really bad day will come - when too many things break down at once.  Players must try to survive that really bad day and get the reactor plant in a safe condition before everything goes out of control...  Designer - Paul Owen

Salvation Road – Cooperative game in which the players try to survive in a post-apocalyptic world to reach “Salvation”. Players must survive the Marauders hunting them down at every turn and the environment itself.  Due to be published by Van Ryder Games in late 2014.  Designer - Michael Kelley

Santa’s Workshop – With the big night fast approaching, which team of elves will best help Santa prepare?  Build toys, collect coal for those on the naughty list…and don’t forget to feed the reindeer!  Designer - Keith Ferguson

The Last Bastion -  With your garrison slaughtered, you and your fellow citizens must defend your home of Bastion against the Barbarians. You aren't a trained soldier so you have to balance your time between training and fighting.  Designer - Peter Gousis

Trove - An asymmetrical fantasy adventure where players take on the roles of the Knight, the Goblin Horde, the Cave, and the Dragon — each with unique pieces, powers, and paths to victory!  Designer - David Somerville

2014 Prezcon - Part 3

Time to wrap up this year's Prezcon coverage.  Saturday at Prezcon is always interesting tournament-wise...there's a few heats left, but mostly you're getting down to semi-finals and finals...so your day may be packed...or you may have lots of time for open gaming.  My day started by bringing my extra games down to register for the auction - or rather, the auction store.  I wasn't sure whether to register for the regular auction or the "store", but I didn't think I had anything that would start a big bidding war, so I just went with the store.  One of the games I put in was Kids of Catan, which is a beautiful game, but the mechanics are little more than roll and move, and my kids outgrew it a few years ago.  I was gratified to later in the ballroom to see that a young mother has purchased it, and was playing it with her young children. 

Picture courtesy of boardgamegeek.com

Game-wise, first up for me was a 9:00 heat of Chicago Express - I was eager to see if I could put to use any of the lessons I had learned the previous day.  For a little while, it looked like it would just be a two player game between myself and another fellow - but Mike Senzig Jr. walked up at the last minute and joined us.  Mike is an excellent player, particularly at these types of economic games.  In the end, Mike beat me by about $10 or so...although I did the same thing to the 3rd player that had
been done to me the day before - diverting the red train just before it reached Chicago.  We finished in about 45 minutes or so, and we started a 2nd game "just for fun", and to try out some different theories, but we didn't get to finish as we had to run to other things.  If I'd only been in a 2-player game, I likely would have won and reached the finals cheaply...but I'm not too upset, as I'm sure I would have been far outclassed there.

Next up was the semi-finals for Carcassone.  My luck didn't quite hold up this year, and finished 3rd out of 4 players, failing to make the finals.  Which wasn't too bad, as that saved me from the dilemma of playing while running Lords of Waterdeep. 

2 games during the 2nd heat

At 1:00 I had my 2nd heat of Lords of Waterdeep.  I didn't play in this round, but just kind of hung out and waited for questions (there weren't very many), and did some browsing at the vendors.  I had 6 games of 4 players in the 2nd heat, and all the games went fairly quick.  After the heat, I did a quick tally
to get 16 finalists - I had 11 individual winners, and took the closest 5 2nd place finishers for the semis.  This in theory would set me up with 4 4-player semis, from which the winners would advance to the finals. 

I had some time before the semis, so I wandered to open gaming, and Paul joined me for a game of 7 Wonders with a group.  Again, names are escaping me, but there was one young guy there with his father and his future father-in-law, and Mark Crescenzi joined us as well.  I hadn't played 7 Wonders in a while, and I'd forgotten how much I like it.  The expansions are nice, but a simple game of the basic game is still a lot of fun.  We also had time to get in a game of The Resistance, although we aborted halfway through when the traitors became obvious.

At the Waterdeep semis, I ended up short on players, as some folks elected to play in Ra.  That turned into a little bit of an issue on Saturday night, as I was conflicting with both Ra and later Stone Age, which appeal to the same type of players.  For the semis, I ended up with 11 players, so we played 2 4-player games and 1 3-player game.  I was in the 3-player game against John Gaebler (who I had narrowly beat in Heat 1) and Jonathan Bartholomew.  I drew the building lords, Larissa, and I did a decent job building buildings without raising suspicion, and scoring 2 25 point quests in the final turns, but John Gaebler got the lieutenant early on, and then just got his euro-engine running, finishing with 198 points.  In the other games, Mahmooda Sultana and Tim Gleeson won, with John Emery being the highest 2-place finisher.  Again, however, we were conflicting with the final for Stone Age, which Mahmooda was in.  She begged me to move the final later, but I was looking to avoid what happened last year, when the Waterdeep final went until midnight.  So I told her she had to choose - she went with Stone Age, which put Mike Crescenzi in the final.

After a quick bio-break, we got the final started.  I drifted in and out, just making sure there were no questions.  John Gaebler was in the lead heading into the final round, but in a stunning play, Mike Crescenzi managed to used intrigue cards and build a building which allowed him to collect 4
wizards over the course of the turn to complete the 25 point wizard quest, and emerge with the victory.  It was a very dramatic ending to the game.  Overall the Waterdeep tournament went well again this year - although we were down to 41 players from 60-something last year.  At this point though, I'm 99% sure I'm going to turn over the GMing duties to someone else.  I enjoy helping out the con, but GMing Waterdeep caused me to miss some other opportunities I would have liked to take advantage of. 

The final - from L to R, Tim Gleeson, John Gaebler, John Emery, Mike Crescenzi

 

Next up was Saturday night gaming.  I found the rest of the gang downstairs playing Cash N Guns, and joined in for the 2nd round.  I'd seen this one played, but had yet to play it myself.  It's a quick fun social game, and I think distills the essence of Bang! down into something more steamlined.  After that, we played The Resistance, and then pulled out our old favorite Citadels.  I love Citadels, but 2:00 AM after 5 days of Prezcon may not have had me at my best....

Meeple City being terrorized

Sunday morning there were still heats of 7 Wonders and Settlers of Catan happening, but I headed to open gaming, hoping to get Santa's Workshop in front of Chris Kirkman and Darrell Louder.  I found Ben Rosset and Josh Tempkin down there, and looking at the game library, we chose to play Rampage.  I'd played a few times with my kids, but I'd been wanting to play with adults.  We had a blast, but Ben and I could not overcome Josh's sticky tongue (I'll leave it at that).  Brian joined us after that, and gave one of Josh's prototypes a try.  Entitled Lesser Evil at Unpub, he had rethemed it with a police motif, where you had to clean up the streets of your district in order to become the new commissioner.  The new name is completely escaping me...it might be Commissioner.  When I figure it out, I'll update the blog.  I very much liked the game, with a sort of dice-as-worker placement mechanic, as you tried to get rid of the "felonies" in front of you - and the use of cards to help you manipulate your dice.  However some actions may require you to increase the number of misdemeanors in your district, which, while not as bad as felonies, are still not good.  The objective is to be the player with the least amount of points in front of you by the end of the game.  I'd heard good things at Unpub about Lesser Evil, but I did hear complaints about lack of theme...Josh now has a theme...but I'm not 100% sure it's carried out that well yet...but he just has basic game pieces, I think some artwork on the various cards could help alleviate that quite a bit.  Mechanically, I very much liked it.

With threats of another snowstorm hitting the mid-Atlantic, that was about it for Prezcon 2014.  Overall, I had yet another great experience, though I think I learned a few lessons this year.  I was trying to stretch myself a bit thin.  I wanted to play in a bunch of tournaments of course, but I also enjoy the open gaming with our group.  The GMing cost me some opportunities to do some other things, and I was also trying to get Santa's Workshop in front of folks.  Unfortunately that only happened once, and I wasn't able to get it in front of Chris, Darrell and TC, but I did great feedback from the one play.  I don't know the attendance numbers, but it felt a bit down this year - I don't think they met their goal of 700.  I was very disappointed in the vendors this year - they seem to be getting fewer and fewer.  The most shocking thing may be that I only went home with 1 new game - Flash Point, which I picked up in the auction store.  In fact I actually made money on games this year, with my lot going for a little over $97 in the auction store.  There was also a bit of a stomach bug going around Prezcon this year - Mike Sr. fell prey to it on Wednesday, and Paul had a rough Sunday morning.  I understand a few people went the ER.  In the course of writing these blog entries, I will remind myself to once again try to remember to write peoples names down and take more pictures.  Next up is likely Historicon in the summer, and then WBC in August, but I look forward to next year's Prezcon.

2014 Prezcon - Part 2

Let's see...where was I...oh, that's right...up way too late playing Game of Thrones.  Thursday morning I had to be up by 9:00 for my demo of Lords of Waterdeep.  I had a few people come by - 3 or 4 - not quite as many as showed up for the demo last year.  Waterdeep has been out for a year and a half now, and is quite popular...most euro enthusiasts have probably played it by now.

Picture courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com

After my demo, I headed straight for a heat of Pillars of the Earth, again being GM'd by my buddy Paul Owen.  I was in a 3 player game with Mark Beckman and another gentleman who's name escapes me.  I'm very much a novice at Pillars, and I know that Mark is an excellent euro game player, But I played a very good game...right until the last turn.  Truth be told, I thought the game was coming down to me or Mark, and I had discounted our 3rd player...and so did Mark.  In the penultimate turn, I used a pawn to take the first player for the last turn, setting myself up to hopefully take the glassblower...which would have given me a lot of points.  Unfortunately, the glass blower ended up on the board, vice in the area where he could be bought immediately.  As I drew pawns from the bag, I of course drew Mark's pawn first.  He hemmed and hawed, but ultimately decided to go for the defensive move of paying to get the glassblower (blocking me from getting it).  I drew about half the rest of the pawns before I realized, that as the player drawing the pawns, it had been my right to take one "mulligan" and redraw.  We discussed it at the table, if I could go back, and brought in Paul who ruled (correctly, IMO) that I had forgotten it...so tough luck.  In the end that likely cost me the game...but to my and Mark's surprise our 3rd opponent came out of nowhere to claim the victory.  Which is a lesson in never underestimating anyone.

At noon, I got in a heat of Carcassonne, and managed to win.  For whatever reason, I've been doing well at Carcassonne the last few years at Prezcon - 2nd overall 2 years ago, and 3rd last year.  With my win, I was on my way to the semi-finals again. Directly after that, I played in a heat of Stone Age, where I was promptly trounced by a Stone Age afficianado named Rodney.  I made the mistake of not collecting very many cards - I was in the lead, and then promptly got lapped when the card points were counted.

Picture courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com

Next up, at 3:00 was a heat of Chicago Express.  I'm not a huge fan of stock market type games...and despite it's train theme, that's really what Chicago Express is.  However, I find this game growing on me.  In fact, I like it more and more every time I play.  My heat didn't go so well - we had a 3 player game, one lady was brand new to the game...but the other fellow was clearly a veteran player.  I did learn a hard lesson, as I took 2 of the shares for the red railroad, he took the remaining 1 share, and just as I had the red railroad approaching Chicago, he veered it off in a different direction.  The veteran won by a significant amount.  I would also like to give kudos to Lee Sensabaugh, the GM -


who in my opinion is one of the friendliest GMs - or person, in general - at Prezcon. 

We had time late that afternoon to get our gang (Brian, Tom, myself, Paul and the Senzig clan) together in open gaming and get in a game of Viva Java. We had to cut short due to some pressing tournaments coming up, but I was likely on the way to victory, thanks to playing the "going rogue" card, and investing in other players brews.  Halfway through the game, we did have designer T.C. Petty III show up!

The South Island!

Next up was one of the highlights for me - my old favorite Conquest of Paradise, once again GM'd by designer Kevin McPartland.  This year, Kevin decided to mix it up by adding in almost all the optional rules, plus the expansion random event cards.  I was excited about this, as I was ready for things to be changed up a bit.  In my first game, as Raiatea, I discovered New Zealand early on - which, with the optional rules gave me both the north and south island.  However, the player playing Samoa used the random event of Fijian Raid to completely decimate his Tongan neighbor, paving the way for him to move in for the kill.  He was able to ride that to victory. 

Picture courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com

After Conquest, our "gang" got together for some late night gaming, bringing out Space Cadets: Dice Duel, and following with a favorite from last year, Bang!  Dice Duel was a blast, although I was surprised we didn't go more attention from others in the room.  It was somewhat awkward with uneven players, but we made it work.  With Bang!, I threw in one of the expansions, and that only served to confuse things - some of the cards were odd, and the new characters didn't seem that balanced - Mike Sr. had a guy that could hold 10 cards, for example.  The one drawback to Bang! is that it can drag a little long, and with player elimination, that can be no fun...in the end, we called it quits with Tom's sherriff and Mike Sr.'s outlaw in a virtual standoff.

The mornings always seem to come early at Prezcon, and Friday was no exception - even though the first thing on my docket was the 10:00 heat of Lords of Waterdeep.   I had about 20ish folks show up for the first heat, and I managed to play this year as well.  I was determined to keep it to 4 player games this year, and in my first heat I think I only had to go to 5 with one game.  I only had one group go long, but they were able to find me over at the 2nd heat of Conquest of Paradise. 

Friday afternoon and evening ended up being a Conquest of Paradise marathon.  In the 2nd heat, I was once again Raiatea.  In an interesting twist, New Zealand was discovered directly between Raiatea and Hiva.  The Hiva player and I decided on a truce - he would take the North Island, I would take the South.  I also made a run for sweet potatoes, though I was unsuccessful.  My memory is failing me here a little...as everything from that day is a bit jumbled together, but I did not win, and then Kevin had to decide on how to run the semis/final game. 

The final was scheduled at 4:00, but Kevin wanted to run 2 semis starting at 3:00, as he had 5 individual heat winners, and would fill in with 3 2nd place finishers - of which I was one.  In one moment that made me ornery, one young player that was a heat winner complained because that would conflict with a heat of Leaping Lemmings.  Kevin was hemming and hawing, especially since
not all the winners showed up.  The young fellow went so far as to get the tournament director, Justin, to come over and arbitrate (at which point Justin said "Kevin is one of our best GM's...whatever he decides goes").  In the end, Kevin ran the two semis, and I made it in. 

Picture courtesy of Boardgamegeek.com

In our semi, I was with Brian, and Steve Bondra, and another fellow.  I had a decent game, but again finished 2nd to Steve.  As it turns out, in the other semi, Steve Cameron ran away with the victory in such a dominating fashion that both I and Brian (our 3rd place finisher) made it to the finals.

The final game started out terribly for me.  I found no islands for the first 3 turns.  That was drawing various remarks of pity from the other players...and they were completely discounting me.  I should mention that I was Hiva, and Brian was playing Raiatea.  At one point he essentially offered me a small island as a way to appease me and stop military aggression.  It sort of worked, as I then went on a tear and found a bunch of islands in a row.  I also successfully discovered sweet potatoes.  I was gearing up to land colonists on 4 islands at once, for an 8 point jump, when Steve Bondra declared victory.  As Samoa, he found a bunch of islands and was able to isolate himself.  One more turn, and I think I would have been able to make a run at it - but isn't that always the way of things?  I was still able to squeak out a 3rd place finish.  In general, I liked playing with the advanced rules, though Malaria never came into play, and Sweet Potatoes are had to get to.  New Zealand factored in several of my games, and the random events change the strategy significantly, in my mind.  The rule is that the player in last place gets to draw and implement the random events - this leads to a tactic of intentionally lagging behind.  In the finals, I was drawing the majority of the time, but I never got any of the "super" cards.  Twice Steve Cameron managed to lag behind me, and he got two cards that would have helped me significantly.  Oh well...lesson learned for WBC....

After almost 8 hours of Conquest of Paradise, it was off to open gaming.  Some other familiar faces were showing up, including Ben Rosset, Nick Ferris and Josh Tempkin.  I got in a game of Coup with Ben, Nick and several other fellows, and managed to pull off the win.  Although I still don't think I caught Ben lying.  After that, Ben, Nick, Josh and Brian were gracious enough to give Santa's Workshop a try.  They only ended up getting through about half a game, but I got quite a bit of good feedback.  I loved Unpub, but with 3 game designers playing, I think I got more valuable feedback during that playtest than during Unpub.  This led to significant changes, which I will detail in an upcoming blog post.  After closing that up, Brian, Tom and I sat down with Ben to playtest his Homebrewers - the "prequel" to Brewcrafters.  I think Ben has another solid idea here, although it's certainly in a more "rough" stage than when I playtested either Brewcrafters or Brewcrafters:The Travel Card Game.  Combining dice rolling, negotiation, and card management, I look forward to playing the next iteration the next time I see Ben. 

Well that was enough for that night, and that's enough for this blog entry.  Next up in Part 3, I'll wrap up with Saturday and Sunday, and some overall thoughts about Prezcon 2014.