WBC - It must be the free candy
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The WBC/Avaloncon recently held it's 20th edition. I've been to every one, and it just keeps getting better. I only entered a handful of tournaments, mostly due to conflicts, but also trying to pace myself so that I don't feel wiped out after it's all over.
It doesn't work, as one debauchery laden Saturday night wipes out all that good behavior.
I got to spend time with more friends and hang out a little more and not feel so stressed out. But what keeps me coming back, year after year? I can see my friends at JerkCon, or GMT East, or any other convention. What brings me back?
Oh, here is where I'm supposed to put in the links to my other WBC geeklists. Man, I'm one lazy...
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There have only been a few games that were ever "the game" of the WBC/Avaloncon. I can't say Founding Fathers falls into that category, but it did see a lot of table time. And I think for good reason. The VP are tight, there's too much to do and not enough opportunity to do it. And, I don't think that play progressed to the level that will have people opting to take a card for the possible event verses a needed state or symbol, but I don't know that it will to the general gamers, either.
Just don't let Jesse have the "no more events the rest of the turn" card.
In all, I got in 3 games, didn't finish anywhere near the front, and, yet, I'm wanting to play it again. I picked up a copy in the dealers room.
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I'm hooked on this one. Played it for the first time at WBC 2010, and wound up playing 10 games, including the last game played while waiting in the Philly airport. It's relatively easy to teach, and I think the strategy decisions are as good, if not better than regular Ra, a game I really like.
A few game highlights: teaching Jim Doughan how to play, and then watching him rack up a score of 72 in a 4 player game; and knocking out a game in 8 minutes versus Greg Schmittgens.
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I got in three games of this, and even though I had fun, I have lost any concept of how to play this game properly, getting smoked, smoked, and smoked in each game.
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4.
Board Game: Macao
[Average Rating:7.47 Overall Rank:132]
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This one hit the table over "Loyang". Mike Gentile smoked three of us very badly (I was in 2nd and lost by 28 points). The one thing I see as a drawback (or maybe we didn't see those cards), is that there isn't a way to exchange cubes for different colors. You're pretty much stuck with what you have. Still, I'd like to try this at least once more before I write it off.
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I wound up reading the rules (printed four to a page) on the flight up to Philly in preparation for my first game ever. Makes enough sense. I like the concept, and we definitely had the right crowd for this. It was going fairly well, if you consider always being on the short end of money and prestige fairly well, until the epidemic wiped out half my faction and 90% of my money.
I was kicked to the side of the curb, and when I finally got the arms card, one SOB whined, well, he always whines, that I would challenge his 60 ducats in reserve (in about, never). Never mind we were facing four wars. Let's be cheap. When I gacked the war roll and stalemated it, I felt that the game victory was my victory.
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I played Dave Stiffler in this gem of a game during Tuesday morning open gaming. We ended the game on turn 12. I had 14 points at that time and might have gotten to 16, but likely would have lost Pyatigorsk and had 13 or 15 as a final score.
My German army got chewed up early, and Dave was impressively aggressive with the Russian counterattacks. One highlight of the game was two of my units taking a lovely drive along the Caspian Sea.
The game attracted a lot of (jealous) on lookers, and both Dave and I were laughing as each time when asked, we both said we were getting our heads handed to us.
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OK, it's silly. But I wound up playing four games.
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I have even more reason to like this game than I already do. I played in both heats, the SF and Final. One would think the game would fall into predictable patterns of play, but I've yet to see two games that played remotely similar.
In my first game I played my nemesis, Schmoopie, who wound up beating me in a very close fought game. Afterwards, he pointed out something I had done wrong (with my factory), and I knew I never got into the small car market. Filed that away.
In the second heat I wound up running away with it. The interesting thing about this game was that I built the Overland 4-90 on turn 2, and we never progressed past that point for the rest of the game.
In the semi-final I got my revenge on Schmoopie. I don't have all the details in my notes of what happened here.
The final had my stomach churning, facing John Dextraze, Matt Calkins, and John Weber. While waiting for the game to start John D and I were talking, and he made the point, this is a tactical game. Point filed. The first turn I built on the Maxwell. On turn 2, I got shut out of the small car market, and I didn't want to be behind the curve on luxury cars. I had built the Buick H, and I believe I executive decisioned to close the Maxwell factory, but that only left me with the one factory in the mid-size range. Matt grabbed the Hupmobile when he took Durant, and I really thought it was all lost at that point. But I had enough to build a luxury car, and timed my build to be at the front of the pack with the Stutz AA. On turn 4 I wound up building the Chevrolet Six, but made a tactical mistake of not cheap selling my production (it cost me $120). When all was said and done, I had pulled out a victory by $250.
So, what did I do so right? I listened to John D. While I prefer to minimize losses (and I only paid for, I believe, 3 loss cubes during the final), I took each decision based on what is the best at the given time. I also took the approach that hurting the other players (e.g. by denying them the close factory option) worked to my benefit.
That being said, I can never figure out how the distributors will play out.
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For the mulligan round of the Battles of the American Revolution, I got matched up with Dave Stiffler. We played the campaign game of Guilford. Dave played a wily delaying defense, but my British attack went primarily on a southern route, which boogers up the American defense as it tries to shift to face the new approach.
Had Dave's rifles been even remotely accurate, it would have been a much different outcome. However, I managed to squeak out a marginal victory.
The fun thing was watching all the folks in the mulligan/1st round and all the variants of the approach to the American lines. For the minimal added play time, the change to the campaign scenario is very welcome.
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My son's favorite, and he basically dominated the field.
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I entered the first heat of Formula De, and used my Monza track. It's darn quick, and we had a good table of gamers. I started on the pole, my son started in last (7th). I basically had just about a perfect run going, but my son, who likes to overdrive the heck out of the cars (watch him play Gran Turismo) passed me in the 2-stopper in the back stretch on Lap 1. I easily managed to overtake him coming out of the curve, and managed to pit and come out in the lead. I was getting pressured by Phil (sorry, that's what my notes read) on lap 2, as he had driven a more sane race, but I was still a move ahead. I decided to go for it coming down the back strech, and rolled 5th gear trying to reach the 2-stopper in one. Unfortunately, my engine decided to blow up on entry and that ended one of better runs.
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12.
Board Game: Bang!
[Average Rating:6.76 Overall Rank:448]
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With lots of extra stuff.
Proof Jeff and I can work together every once in a while.
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Schmoopie turned his collection over to Alex and me to build what was termed "a demented nightmare" of a track. Jeff had the deathmobile, and after failing to negotiate the 3rd turn about 5 times in a row, created havoc. Despite being harassed twice by a car going the wrong way (where are the track stewards when you need them), I managed to flick my way to victory.
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I might leave an expedition alive one day. But I doubt it.
Greg was awesome.
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Munch, munch, munch, munch, munch....
Greg was awesome
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Catherine won two games. The doctor says the cast can come off her hand in 4-6 weeks.
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Ray Jr. was the worst Ninja versus Ninja player. Until I played. Twice.
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I played my friend Chuck in Manoeuvre. British versus Prussians. Sorry about this one Chuck.
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One of my favorite tourneys to enter, as it's quick, everyone seems to play quick, and it's either a fun or bone city. A gentleman by the name of Jean-Francois made sure everyone was playing for second place after the second scoring card. I finished with a score of 69, so there is that.
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I had this when it was only available in German, but just couldn't motivate myself to play. But I snagged a copy at the Z-Man booth, and talked Schmoopie into playing. He played the "p" ship and I played the "t" ship. A very worthy addition to the Kosmos two-player line. Some fun decisions to be made.
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OK, I need to get the final posted for this one. I ran this, and got in 4 games, going 2-2 (lost in the mulligan and in the regular rounds). Yes, the Obama player is likely favored, but the guy who won the tournament handled either side very well, and outside of the mulligan round the split was 7-6 and one of the wins by the 7 was a tie-breaker win.
Still like the tactical and deck drafting aspects of this one.
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Dan Dolan ran this for a group of us. Think of Robo Rally as a cooperative game, but with a bunch of people who are incapable of thinking properly or cooperating with each other. Perfect. Lots of laughs. I should have been wearing my read shirt for this one.
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Played my friend Chuck in a teaching scenario of this one (6.2) as that's fairly small and doesn't use the C&C rules. Now I'm obsessed with trying to figure out how to solve this little puzzle.
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I played Charlie Hickock in the first round. Both of us were rusty on the rules (as was about half the field, apparently), and Charlie thought his Union boys were panzers. When he lost the battle of Bull Run, I made him pay, quickly. He asked for a rematch, and proceeded to run down the Mississippi like I was defending it with Huck Finn. Even though I "won" the round, I knew my skilz weren't going to carry me far in this one.
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Worst. Game. Ever.
Nathan is smarter than his dad.
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