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Through the Weekend: A Story of Gaming Gluttony
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Last weekend waa Mittencon a great little invitaional con held on President's Day weekend. This was the second annual and I am looking forward to a third. Starting at 7:30 or so Friday night and ending (for me) at 1:30 Monday morning, I took a total of nine and half hours of sleep, breakfast and daily ablutions and an hour or so for a leisurely dinner with my lovely young wife and another couple. Otherwise, I was in the gaming area. Nineteen plays, fourteen different games with thirty-four wonderful mitspieler! Five new (to me games) and I got to watch a few others enough to know I want to try them! Please feel free to make any comments and/or corrections! Thanks to all for a great time. See also Dale's http://www.boardgamegeek.com/geeklist/29144
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Posted Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:39 am
Edited Wed Feb 20, 2008 3:37 pm
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(Placeholder)
On Wednesday the plan was Z, H and I would hit the road Friday after school (after having packed ahead of time).
Lisa got a call from Stephanie who convinced her to come along as well, so the plan was still to leave Friday after school, but with all five of us. Thursday night we got a call and learned my uncle was in town and would be free Monday. So, we invited my dad to come up from Indy also. Well, that means the house must be cleaned. So we went back to plan A with an adition that Lisa and Q woudl drive Saturday and have the option to leave early Sunday if needed.
Well, despite leaving work early Friday, there was still game packing to take care of when the kids got home, but we were rolling by ~5. A stop for naga-food about halfway and we arrived at the hotel ~6:30.
After unloading the games and checking in to the hotel, we were in the great room ready to go by 7:30.
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Hitting the table first was my most frequently played face to face game since my tracking started a couple years ago. This is incredible considering that my first play was early December, 2007.
First game was Bill, Dale, Darrell and me. While Dale was explaining rules to the other two, I floated around setting up, greeting, visiting, etc.
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Dale and I had played around with this, but not the full game.
Darrell and Alan hadn't played at all. Naturally, we chose the Full version to start. We got through the rules explanation and were off.
At 3:30, we were done!
It was pretty peaceful until near the end when I played an ineffective war against Alan. Dale wound up winning by thirty-ish points. I could have racked up another twenty if I'd realized/remembered that unfinished wonders went away at end of Age III just like the other ages.
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We got to the game room and had just started the "What should we play? game," when Mike, Kelley and their sons, A and E, arrived. This is a family of gamers, but not yet fanatics. Mike and sons came last year and convinced Kelley to come as well this year.
So we set up Carabande and Bill and son, J, jumped in, too.
The set got a lot of use throughout the con.
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5.
Board Game: Manila
[Average Rating:7.07 Overall Rank:224]
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E had really enjoyed Manila last year and Mike wanted to let Kelley give it a whirl, so Mike, Kelly, E and I set it up and were joined by Mike Petty. Mike D. wound up winning with a pirated boat and then another that squeaked across with only his crew.
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Not sure who suggested it, but this one popped out next. Evan wandered off and John K. and John S. showed up. Kelley and I discussed adopting the other's name to have three pair, but we decided to play instead.
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Next up, Tom had arrived (or finished a game) and started setting up Notre Dame, so the Johns and I had a seat and got schooled. John ignored Notre Dame entirely and only got bit once or twice for rats, while I went four times, thrice for 6 VP and fed the rats six times. The other two were in between for both those areas. Tom wound up in the mid-50's with John K at 50.
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Lisa and Q made it to the con! Her favorite is Kleine Fische, so we convinced Kelley, Z and I to join her. I only got to play one hand before halping with the raffle.
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Keith Blume couldn't attend, but graciously sent a stack of games to raffle including Through the Ages and Railroad Tycoon along with Rails of Europe. Thanks to Keith and I hope that you can make it next year!
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Mayfair was in attendance demoing existing and future releases and also donated several games to the raffle table. I didn't manage to get in on Toledo or any of the other new games, but did manage to drool a bit as others played them. Hopefully, the fun people at Mayfair can continue attending and playing their games with us!
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Ken was setting this up and looking for a fourth to join Kym and Jay. Not much arm-twisting was needed.
I think I offended Ken a bit when I played a hand almost randomly and wound up in much better position than when I tried to plan the turn. I need to try it again before deciding, but it seemed like the board changed an awful lot between turns with four players which made it hard to plan. Ken got a king, then the next turn Kym and I both got one. Ken got his second in the fourth territory with the first card of the last turn and was able to defend both with a single card in each for the win.
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C was looking for a game of this. I have a copy, but hadn't tried it. We convinced Tom and Greg to play and after getting through the rules, we guided our client races to glory.
At the end of the game, you get a point for each space your races control, two in cities. Each turn each player makes an attack with any of the races. The twist is that you only know one of your races at the beginning.
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(placeholder)
Lisa and I decided to go out with Tom and Stephanie for a sit down meal. Our first choice had a forty minute wait, so we wound up at the Chinese/sushi place. Barb, Derek, Steve and Francie had the same sit down idea and were at the next table. The restaurant wasn't express and the Chinese entrees were only so-so. The dumplings and sushi were awesome.
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John, Tom and I decided to try this one (Full game, of course) starting around nine, while Dale, Kevin and another brave soul started at another table. They finished about 2:30 and we decided to call it for the night to pick up the next day. For a while in mid-game, John was making twenty some culture points a turn. Ten of these were from his five colonies combined with Cook. I had an economy that was in great shape, but no points. I used Churchill and a war card to take thirty points from John, which would have made me feel guilty if Tom hadn't eventually beaten him by more than thirty points. I can't recall what Tom's culture point engine was at the end, but it was very effective.
If it had gone another age, my stone production might have paid off, but those cards aren't available, yet. 
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H, Darrell and I played this between a couple turns of TtA.
This is a really cool semi-dexterity game that Steve and Francie brought along that got a lot of play. I look forward to an opportunity to play again.
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Michael and Jesse were playing this two player when we called TtA for the night and allowed me to join them for one more before calling it a night. Michael quickly got Diversified Economy to his tableau and using the deep explore got his third color pretty early. I managed to get twelve to end it, but not before he got three eight point consume cycles, combined with the cards he got from production, he won handily.
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17.
Board Game: Brass
[Average Rating:8.11 Overall Rank:12]
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Before the con, Bill and Elaine had offered to teach me this one, so I jumped at the chance Sunday morning after warning them that I still had to finish the marathon TtA. We set up on the next table and got through the rules before Tom and John were ready to restart, so it was pretty smooth timesharing the two games.
Bill has to be one of the better game explainers out there. He's had a lot of practice over the years and it shows. He and Elaine were the ones that corrupted me (introducing Lisa and I to German games with Res Publica, Manhattan and Modern Art) in the early '90's.
Bill won and left me in love with a game. I cannot wait for my copy to arrive from Valley Games.
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Michael wanted someone to teach him this, he, Jesse, Kevin's daughter, E, Neil and I sat down and I explained the rules. I learned halfway through that I can't read rules when Kevin pointed out that each warehouse can only hold one instead of the two that I thought. We finished with the "modified" rule. Jesse finished ahead of the rest with a very strong cash position. Jury's still out on this one.
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Kevin wanted Larry and Steve to try this one, so I went through the rules and we were off. Michael, Jesse and Tom set up another game of this nearby. Towards the end of the game Tom wandered by and pointed out that I'd screwed up again by teaching that the minimum bid was the total payout rather than the per share payout. It doesn't tend to make a difference until the end, but we continued with "my" rule. As a result, I overpaid for the final Wabash share to end it and Larry wound up as winner. This game has been fun every time I've played it.
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Lisa and Q took off for home, Dale had already left, too. We were down to six or eight tables.
Mike P.'s kids were getting restless, but we convinced him to play this, because, "It only takes a half hour," Paul and Sebastian joined us and after a rules refresher, we were off. We missed the half hour by three minutes, but Mike's kids made it. Sebastion won this one convincingly.
(I think there was another game of this immediately before this one, but I cannot remember the details.)
At this point, Bud (the setup and security guy) was hoping to start setting up for Monday, so we condensed to one third of the room and moved some tables into the entryway.
After this was accomplished, John, Alan, Paul and I played another game of Race with John winning handily.
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21.
Board Game: Oregon
[Average Rating:6.84 Overall Rank:421]
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Paul bowed out at this point, so Kevin, Alan, John and I decided to try Oregon. I'd heard mixed opinions of this one, so was anxious to try it. My addition to the mix is that, based on a single play, it's a solid game that I will now "have" to purchase eventually. John proved to be the ablest settler with a boost from Kevin who on his last turn played a rail station that reset John's double turn for his final play.
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Kevin, Alan and I bid the other two tables still going in the hall farewell and moved to the breakfast area to play one more Through the Ages (third Full game in three days). We got rolling a little before ten and finished a little after one before calling it a night.
Until halfway through the third age, I was only producing two bronze per turn, but with aid of Homer, Genghis and Napoleon and a few timely aggression cards, Kevin and Alan supplied all the iron I needed. I switched over to Einstein for the last three turns to pull out a narrow win by playing several Age III techs.
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H and Kevin's son, C, played a few games of this and got H fired up on the game, so he and I played a couple games of this Monday. I suspect more to come as he discovers all my old cards. 
I added this game to this list so I could list a game that I played with H. So while I didn't get a lot of play time with my kids this weekend, we did see a lot of each other as they were very active in their games.
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Posted Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:10 pm
