I was lucky enough to spend 7 days in Columbus for this year's Gathering of Friends. I think that may be my gaming limit - I was pretty burned out by the end of the week.

I don't have a lot of details - but here were some of the highlights:

- Descent game with Matt Gray, Octavian, Sterling, and Ava. Octavian torched us with some of the new expansion stuff. Ouch!

- An epic Arkham Horror game - some very fun situations popped up. We hit the jackpot by sealing off the Unvisited Isle. - the forces of evil repeatedly tried coming in through that location much to their chagrin. We won.

- Played about 5 games of werewolf with Ted Alspach's ULTIMATE WEREWOLF set. I was never a villager. Man that's stressful.

- Notre Dame was the best new game I played. I predict it will hit the Top 20. There were a few other prototype games that are excellent too... but I can't talk about them.

- Portobello Market was the most disappointing - it's got a LOT of wood - but the game is very mediocre.

- Played Pillars of the Earth for the 2nd time - the English cards help out a lot. Good game.

- Spoke with William Attia for about 30-45 minutes - wish I had my recording gear.... sigh.

- Met Eric Martin from BoardGameNews - didn't even know he was there (till the last day).

- Ted Cheatham and I went out first round in the Password tournament (note: we were drinking).

- Dan and I went out first round in the Tichu tournament.

- I busted out in the Poker tournament in about 60 minutes.

- Played the treasure hunt with my cohorts from Dallas, Tami, and Lincoln. It was tough! I don't think we even came close to getting the final answer.

- Played Objets Trouvets with a couple of groups. Some people like it, some don't. I hope it gets an English version.

- a big game of Electronic Catchphrase till 7am Sunday morning

- Derk and I did a very ad-hoc BGG award presentation to William Attia, Jason Matthews, and Alan Moon

- Fun dinner with the BGG Admins at Bucca di Beppo.

Thanks for the report!


Now, get back to work!!!

Yeah, we all hope that you enjoyed your "hiatus" and you certainly deserve some time away for FUN and what-not, or else where's the point in getting away? Good Gamings with that "Fortress America" game that you recently 'Won' as well.

Sadly, but at least Octavian and Ted Alspach beat our first round opponents in the finals.

Would it cause too much controversy if I mention how Aldie picked up Fortress America from the prize table to the cheers of the room?

(...only to have to give it away because it wouldn't fit in his luggage)

Yea, he didn't want his local gaming group to know he was there either

WHHHHAAAAAAAAAT ... you Americans get all the best conventions - please don't also tell me it was in shrink.

Highlights for my three day stay at the Gathering:

First, remember to book tickets on right day, not a day late.

Second, played more new games this year, instead of wall-to-wall Tichu:

Caylus Card Game: I liked this, despite never playing it's predecessor.

Notre Dame: Also liked this, but we played it wrong. Need to play again. Seemed to be the hit of the con..

Viking Game the First: This is the Hans im Glueck game, by Herr Kiesling. Cute game that shouldn't be taken too-too serious, but it's good.

viking Game the Second: This is the reprint of Ragnar Brothers' Viking Fury. If played fast and furious, it's a great game which will appeal to people who like a little randomness in their gaming. I was super-duper dead last until the last fifteen minutes of a sixty-minute game, and won with a bit of a lead.

Qwirkle (courtesy of Aldie): Ingenious's central mechanism a bit simpler and with beautiful, chunky block bits.

Unnamed Prototype Party Game from R&R Games: It was good.

Duplicate Tichu: Jeff Goldsmith ran a duplicate Tichu tourney, which was interesting. Made play a bit odd, since you're playing a hand instead of a game, but I liked it.

There were a number of repeats, but those are new to me. It was fun to see everyone, but I was very disappointed with how little time I was there. Everyone was all gamed out when I got there on Thursday night... Ah well.

So what did you do after the first day?

Thanks for teaching me Tichu and Qwirkle on Sunday afternoon - I think I'm now fully addicted to Tichu.

WHO was "it"? NAME 'names'!

I can't wait to read your 2008 GoF 2007 Summary! Or will the 2007 GoF 2008 Summary come first? I can never keep track of these things....