GenCon Results
- Thread starter Grimhelm
- Start date
thormagni
Explorer
I am assuming you are asking about the board gamers, but I had a very good con. I had two games of Mutants & Masterminds I ran that went very well and seemed very popular with the players. I played in a game of Mutants & Masterminds that went pretty well (it was a wild martial arts style game) and then I played in a game of Big Eyes Small Mouth that was bad but not terrible. We all had some fun even though the session completely lacked in plot, setting and character.
On the board game side, my son and Jason were able to complete all the Mayfair demos they needed to win all the ribbons. And Chris used that to win two card games from Mayfair's DaVinci game line, "Abracadabra" and "Word Jam. Taking my son to the show is a LOT of fun for him and for me. He just has such a good time and his enthusiasm is really, really high.
On the press side, it went very poorly. There just didn't seem like there were a LOT of new products and no one was really making any outreach efforts to the media types. This is the first year I ended up with NO press swag. Nothing to review, nothing really to write about. Maybe next year, I won't even apply for the press badge, 'cause with it, I feel obligated to give some effort to finding a story that work will be interested in.
And I really enjoyed GMing at the show. This is the second time for me and I really enjoyed it both years I have done it. There is something to be said for a four hour, self-contained session playing with complete strangers.
This was also the first year I did absolutely no volunteering at the show.
On the board game side, my son and Jason were able to complete all the Mayfair demos they needed to win all the ribbons. And Chris used that to win two card games from Mayfair's DaVinci game line, "Abracadabra" and "Word Jam. Taking my son to the show is a LOT of fun for him and for me. He just has such a good time and his enthusiasm is really, really high.
On the press side, it went very poorly. There just didn't seem like there were a LOT of new products and no one was really making any outreach efforts to the media types. This is the first year I ended up with NO press swag. Nothing to review, nothing really to write about. Maybe next year, I won't even apply for the press badge, 'cause with it, I feel obligated to give some effort to finding a story that work will be interested in.
And I really enjoyed GMing at the show. This is the second time for me and I really enjoyed it both years I have done it. There is something to be said for a four hour, self-contained session playing with complete strangers.
This was also the first year I did absolutely no volunteering at the show.
BobProbst
First Post
I had a very good time. Thursday I got all my trades out of the way.
I bought Agricola because the publisher was sold out and Troll & Toad only had 3 copies left. I later found dozens of copies at other booths but am not disappointed by the purchase (more later). I also bought Conflict of Heroes and met the designer -- a very friendly guy from Germany living in Ohio.
I learned the 18xx train system by playing 1856 -- It's essentially a rail road simulation. You play an investor who buys and sells shares in railroad companies. Majority stockholder makes all of the decisions about expanding th rails and buying new trains -- you make various runs to earn cash and increase your stock value. Other investors can decide to sell when the price gets high to get cash to invest in other ventures or carry out other transactions. I really liked it but it's a loooooong game with some rather complex rules. The guy teaching it was pretty much an all-around @$$ who napped much of the time but I had fun anyway.
Game: B+ Session: C-
After that, I played the latest Zombies!!! expansion. I didn't expect Puerto Rico but: after I literally spent the first 30 minutes rolling a die and failing to be able to exit a room while the other players enjoyed playing the game, I finally got down to killing zombie clowns. We killed Zombie clowns for the next hour with no one being able to win because we kept playing screw your neighbor cards. The people running the game kept coming by and acted sort of annoyed that we still weren't done and mentioning that they had to get set up for the next session. I mentioned that it was their game and if they didn't want it to take so long they should have playtested it. Despite all this, I won because I rolled a 6 on a d6 at the right time.
Game: D Session: D
Friday was my first full day at GenCon and I arrived early to play in the St Petersburg tourney. Chris was finishing up his match and only 5 players arrive for the next which means a 3 player and a 2 player game. I convince Chris to sit in and make it two 3 player games -- he proceeeds to kick our @sses (thanks Chris!). It was all for nought anyway, playoffs were at noon when we had True Dungeon scheduled.
Game: A Session: B
True Dungeon really needs a whole thread to describe -- maybe Chris can take that on. Suffice it to say that it was very fun, maybe not $38 fun but fun none-the-less.
Game: C Session: A
High point of the con for me was the Imperial game at 3pm. Six players competed for greatest war profiteer - I started off with Austria and did a notable job of expanding my empire the fastest -- I was first to tax and second to invest: Russia was in a mess and Italy was conflicting with France so I was free to control the Balkans and Turkey. Naturally everyone started investing in Austria while I looked to diversify -- Germany was performing well as was France and I spent some time controlling each. I got Austria back for a short time only to have it taken back with a final bond purchase; Austrian bonds were sold out and the controller pressed for endgame. I ended the game controlling no country which allowed me to make some profitable investments out of turn and I tied for 1st place. The tie was broken by most shares in the winning country (Austria) and I came in a very satisfied second place. I loved this game the first time I played it and love it even more now. Overall, we taught the game and played it with 6 players in 3 hours. I'd love to see this make the table again sometime.
Game: A+ Session: A+
That evening I played in a Western miniatures game based on the Desperado rules. I had a good time but there were a lot of people playing and things moved slowly (the GM could have picked up the pace but he did a good job overall). Both my guys survived but I only got one kill -- much of the action took place in the open where there was little or no cover and much bloodshed -- I headed for the center of town where I could buy a rifle and shoot from cover. The slowness of the game was such that I only carried out my plan for a couple rounds.
Game: B Session: C
Saturday started with a 9AM massive Wings of War match (28 players). We DID play with minis (provided) and were told to go pick one out -- I got a SPAD nd figured the speed and HP would let me zoom through dog fights and take shots of opportunity. Then I found out that the rules would be modified: All planes shoot A Damage, No special damage, Fokkers and Camels had 15hp, no tailing, no extra damage for consecutive hits -- basically anything to simplify the game. I understand the reasoning: 28 people tracking that would get very unwieldy. The worst part of it all was that I lost my HP advantage and the rear gun planes (shooting A damage) were basically flying battleships. The match was good fun anyway -- I got no kills but plenty of assists, the Allies slaughtered the Axis with 10 planes remaining in the air after all German planes had been killed!
Game: B Session: B
Josh and I met up with a friend of mine at noon and we headed to the Rio Grande room to play some demo games:
Race for the Galaxy: rules interpretation were tough to determine for some of the cards but we got into a good groove after a while. There are lots of decisions in this game and if you don't pay close attention to what other players are doing you can end up giving them lots of points! I worked out a very lucrative strategy but ended up 2nd after another woman who was playing.
Game: B+ Session: B
Then we played Khronos. This game takes place in 3 time periods with 3 boards representing each time. You have 2 time travellers who can go back and forth through time to build buildings. Larger buildings built in the past persist forward to the newer time periods and can destroy newer buildings that were placed out of time order. You earn money by controlling the right buildings in the right time -- Most money wins. This game will make your brain melt: You have to work out what building built when will score what where. This game was harder to play than that sentence is to read. It's like playing T&E on 3 boards at once (and a lot of the game mechanic is similar to T&E). I liked it! but would not want to play all that often. I won by royally screwing over Bob (my friend) and merging one of his domains with one of Josh's and wiping out his control of huge point engine.
Game: B Session: B
I had a game of Coliseum lined up in an hour and went to the free play room to see what was doing and find out if there were any games I wanted to play on Sunday. I saw two guys playing Conflict of Heroes and I went over to see how it went -- they were just learning the game so I helped them out on some rules points. The Soviet player was so certain that he was going to get his @ss kicked (the germans had broken through his lines and were clearing out his infantry in huge swaths) but I assured him that his tanks would save him -- they did. I talked to them while they were packing up and the Soviets had won -- 8 inches of steel armor is tough to crack and he had free reign of the battle field. The scenario isn't called "The Monsters" for nothing -- I want to play this game so bad.
While they were deciding the fate of the eastern front, four players were just starting a game of Agricola and I asked to join them (foregoing my Coliseum game). They agreed to explain the rules to me and despite all the bits involved, the game is remarkably simple to play. Two players had played 3 or 4 times and two players had played once -- I was the only newbie. I started my farm with an industrious man and woman with 2 humble rooms and 12 humble acres. I was very unsure of what I needed to do so I just took some actions that seemed more or less right: get food, you have to feed your family after each harvest. I learned the occupation of Hedge Keeper which let me fence in pastures for cheap and I got a little flock of sheep that quickly grew to fill the space I had. I tentatively planted a little wheat field -- food was getting tough to come by and I didn't want to be forced to eat my sheep. I noticed that I could get a lot of food by building a Pumpkin Juice Mill but I didn't have pumpkins. So I plow a new field and put in vegetables -- I was also able to improve my wood house to a clay one. I bring out my Pumpkin Juice and can sell it for food now. I also get another grain field started with what I harvested last season. I notice that everyone else has expanded their home and had children, allowing them to put more people to work for them (but also another mouth to feed). I play the Pastor occupation (being the last player with a 2 room house) which brings in a lot of free resources from the community. I immediately add on to my house and have a child. The boy was hungry though so I built a spindle to make wool yarn from my sheep which I can also sell for food. I finally felt like I was doing pretty well and was proud of my little farm. I renovated to all stone houses -- much nicer! My food worries were gone and I fenced off some more land and brought in cattle and pigs -- I also expanded my sheep pastures and put in some stables so I can grow my flock.
Then the game ended.
During the game I was dizzy with all of the options and very lost as to what I should do next. I never felt like I had enough time to do all the things I could and always worried about getting the food I needed. My little narration is what really happened in the game but I didn't realize until after the game that I sort of lived out the story of a little farm house in the 17th century -- just as confusing and worrisome as the game is. With hundreds of occupations and hundreds of improvements (like the spindle and the pumpkin juice) in the game, no 2 games will play out the same. Every other player was having to respond to their unique situation and use unique strategies and creative combinations to succeed. To top it off, I actually came in second place, only a point behind the leader!
Game: A Session: A
I had a game of Combined Catan that evening. It was only 4 player but combined Sea Farers and Cities & Knights. I forgot how much I enjoy the expansions -- they offer an interesting difference and set of options to the basic game. I got off to an early lead but saw that a nieghbor was poised to win if he wasn't slowed -- none-the-less, I got leader raped. The game was to 15 points and I was resting at 11 with other players at 10, 9 & 7. With the city and knight cards you can do all kinds of mischief -- I had a settlement in my hand along with other cards and the number 9 player came at me with both barrels. She was able to take every card from my hand and leave the robber and the pirate ship on me. I never got another point until the last round. She and the #10 guy both developed respectably, even the #7 guy built up to 11 points -- tied with me. That evil woman who stole my settlement and dashed all my hopes was going through another massive build and got to 14 points -- that's when I found out that the merchant token (from C&K) was worth a VP. I look at my hand and roll the die hoping for something good. No resources but I get a dev card that lets me get 2 wheat. It was all I needed to build a settlement (on a new island for +1vp), a city, get the merchant and win the game. It was a good game and even mister #10 (who, it seems, plays only catan games at the con) said it was the best combined he's ever played.
Afterwards, I retired to the hotel where a bunch of us played Last Night on Earth. I was the Zombie player and the heroes won! We were breaking a few rules and let them play with 5 heros instead of 4. I was also just flinging zombies at them while they were holed up in the gunshop -- even when they dropped a gun or ran out of ammo, they just picked it up again. Were I playing to win I would have held back and forced them to come to me -- but everyone had a lot of fun.
That was GenCon 08 for me! I had a great time with a few rough patches. I'd love for more of our regulars to make it up there next year!
I bought Agricola because the publisher was sold out and Troll & Toad only had 3 copies left. I later found dozens of copies at other booths but am not disappointed by the purchase (more later). I also bought Conflict of Heroes and met the designer -- a very friendly guy from Germany living in Ohio.
I learned the 18xx train system by playing 1856 -- It's essentially a rail road simulation. You play an investor who buys and sells shares in railroad companies. Majority stockholder makes all of the decisions about expanding th rails and buying new trains -- you make various runs to earn cash and increase your stock value. Other investors can decide to sell when the price gets high to get cash to invest in other ventures or carry out other transactions. I really liked it but it's a loooooong game with some rather complex rules. The guy teaching it was pretty much an all-around @$$ who napped much of the time but I had fun anyway.
Game: B+ Session: C-
After that, I played the latest Zombies!!! expansion. I didn't expect Puerto Rico but: after I literally spent the first 30 minutes rolling a die and failing to be able to exit a room while the other players enjoyed playing the game, I finally got down to killing zombie clowns. We killed Zombie clowns for the next hour with no one being able to win because we kept playing screw your neighbor cards. The people running the game kept coming by and acted sort of annoyed that we still weren't done and mentioning that they had to get set up for the next session. I mentioned that it was their game and if they didn't want it to take so long they should have playtested it. Despite all this, I won because I rolled a 6 on a d6 at the right time.
Game: D Session: D
Friday was my first full day at GenCon and I arrived early to play in the St Petersburg tourney. Chris was finishing up his match and only 5 players arrive for the next which means a 3 player and a 2 player game. I convince Chris to sit in and make it two 3 player games -- he proceeeds to kick our @sses (thanks Chris!). It was all for nought anyway, playoffs were at noon when we had True Dungeon scheduled.
Game: A Session: B
True Dungeon really needs a whole thread to describe -- maybe Chris can take that on. Suffice it to say that it was very fun, maybe not $38 fun but fun none-the-less.
Game: C Session: A
High point of the con for me was the Imperial game at 3pm. Six players competed for greatest war profiteer - I started off with Austria and did a notable job of expanding my empire the fastest -- I was first to tax and second to invest: Russia was in a mess and Italy was conflicting with France so I was free to control the Balkans and Turkey. Naturally everyone started investing in Austria while I looked to diversify -- Germany was performing well as was France and I spent some time controlling each. I got Austria back for a short time only to have it taken back with a final bond purchase; Austrian bonds were sold out and the controller pressed for endgame. I ended the game controlling no country which allowed me to make some profitable investments out of turn and I tied for 1st place. The tie was broken by most shares in the winning country (Austria) and I came in a very satisfied second place. I loved this game the first time I played it and love it even more now. Overall, we taught the game and played it with 6 players in 3 hours. I'd love to see this make the table again sometime.
Game: A+ Session: A+
That evening I played in a Western miniatures game based on the Desperado rules. I had a good time but there were a lot of people playing and things moved slowly (the GM could have picked up the pace but he did a good job overall). Both my guys survived but I only got one kill -- much of the action took place in the open where there was little or no cover and much bloodshed -- I headed for the center of town where I could buy a rifle and shoot from cover. The slowness of the game was such that I only carried out my plan for a couple rounds.
Game: B Session: C
Saturday started with a 9AM massive Wings of War match (28 players). We DID play with minis (provided) and were told to go pick one out -- I got a SPAD nd figured the speed and HP would let me zoom through dog fights and take shots of opportunity. Then I found out that the rules would be modified: All planes shoot A Damage, No special damage, Fokkers and Camels had 15hp, no tailing, no extra damage for consecutive hits -- basically anything to simplify the game. I understand the reasoning: 28 people tracking that would get very unwieldy. The worst part of it all was that I lost my HP advantage and the rear gun planes (shooting A damage) were basically flying battleships. The match was good fun anyway -- I got no kills but plenty of assists, the Allies slaughtered the Axis with 10 planes remaining in the air after all German planes had been killed!
Game: B Session: B
Josh and I met up with a friend of mine at noon and we headed to the Rio Grande room to play some demo games:
Race for the Galaxy: rules interpretation were tough to determine for some of the cards but we got into a good groove after a while. There are lots of decisions in this game and if you don't pay close attention to what other players are doing you can end up giving them lots of points! I worked out a very lucrative strategy but ended up 2nd after another woman who was playing.
Game: B+ Session: B
Then we played Khronos. This game takes place in 3 time periods with 3 boards representing each time. You have 2 time travellers who can go back and forth through time to build buildings. Larger buildings built in the past persist forward to the newer time periods and can destroy newer buildings that were placed out of time order. You earn money by controlling the right buildings in the right time -- Most money wins. This game will make your brain melt: You have to work out what building built when will score what where. This game was harder to play than that sentence is to read. It's like playing T&E on 3 boards at once (and a lot of the game mechanic is similar to T&E). I liked it! but would not want to play all that often. I won by royally screwing over Bob (my friend) and merging one of his domains with one of Josh's and wiping out his control of huge point engine.
Game: B Session: B
I had a game of Coliseum lined up in an hour and went to the free play room to see what was doing and find out if there were any games I wanted to play on Sunday. I saw two guys playing Conflict of Heroes and I went over to see how it went -- they were just learning the game so I helped them out on some rules points. The Soviet player was so certain that he was going to get his @ss kicked (the germans had broken through his lines and were clearing out his infantry in huge swaths) but I assured him that his tanks would save him -- they did. I talked to them while they were packing up and the Soviets had won -- 8 inches of steel armor is tough to crack and he had free reign of the battle field. The scenario isn't called "The Monsters" for nothing -- I want to play this game so bad.
While they were deciding the fate of the eastern front, four players were just starting a game of Agricola and I asked to join them (foregoing my Coliseum game). They agreed to explain the rules to me and despite all the bits involved, the game is remarkably simple to play. Two players had played 3 or 4 times and two players had played once -- I was the only newbie. I started my farm with an industrious man and woman with 2 humble rooms and 12 humble acres. I was very unsure of what I needed to do so I just took some actions that seemed more or less right: get food, you have to feed your family after each harvest. I learned the occupation of Hedge Keeper which let me fence in pastures for cheap and I got a little flock of sheep that quickly grew to fill the space I had. I tentatively planted a little wheat field -- food was getting tough to come by and I didn't want to be forced to eat my sheep. I noticed that I could get a lot of food by building a Pumpkin Juice Mill but I didn't have pumpkins. So I plow a new field and put in vegetables -- I was also able to improve my wood house to a clay one. I bring out my Pumpkin Juice and can sell it for food now. I also get another grain field started with what I harvested last season. I notice that everyone else has expanded their home and had children, allowing them to put more people to work for them (but also another mouth to feed). I play the Pastor occupation (being the last player with a 2 room house) which brings in a lot of free resources from the community. I immediately add on to my house and have a child. The boy was hungry though so I built a spindle to make wool yarn from my sheep which I can also sell for food. I finally felt like I was doing pretty well and was proud of my little farm. I renovated to all stone houses -- much nicer! My food worries were gone and I fenced off some more land and brought in cattle and pigs -- I also expanded my sheep pastures and put in some stables so I can grow my flock.
Then the game ended.
During the game I was dizzy with all of the options and very lost as to what I should do next. I never felt like I had enough time to do all the things I could and always worried about getting the food I needed. My little narration is what really happened in the game but I didn't realize until after the game that I sort of lived out the story of a little farm house in the 17th century -- just as confusing and worrisome as the game is. With hundreds of occupations and hundreds of improvements (like the spindle and the pumpkin juice) in the game, no 2 games will play out the same. Every other player was having to respond to their unique situation and use unique strategies and creative combinations to succeed. To top it off, I actually came in second place, only a point behind the leader!
Game: A Session: A
I had a game of Combined Catan that evening. It was only 4 player but combined Sea Farers and Cities & Knights. I forgot how much I enjoy the expansions -- they offer an interesting difference and set of options to the basic game. I got off to an early lead but saw that a nieghbor was poised to win if he wasn't slowed -- none-the-less, I got leader raped. The game was to 15 points and I was resting at 11 with other players at 10, 9 & 7. With the city and knight cards you can do all kinds of mischief -- I had a settlement in my hand along with other cards and the number 9 player came at me with both barrels. She was able to take every card from my hand and leave the robber and the pirate ship on me. I never got another point until the last round. She and the #10 guy both developed respectably, even the #7 guy built up to 11 points -- tied with me. That evil woman who stole my settlement and dashed all my hopes was going through another massive build and got to 14 points -- that's when I found out that the merchant token (from C&K) was worth a VP. I look at my hand and roll the die hoping for something good. No resources but I get a dev card that lets me get 2 wheat. It was all I needed to build a settlement (on a new island for +1vp), a city, get the merchant and win the game. It was a good game and even mister #10 (who, it seems, plays only catan games at the con) said it was the best combined he's ever played.
Afterwards, I retired to the hotel where a bunch of us played Last Night on Earth. I was the Zombie player and the heroes won! We were breaking a few rules and let them play with 5 heros instead of 4. I was also just flinging zombies at them while they were holed up in the gunshop -- even when they dropped a gun or ran out of ammo, they just picked it up again. Were I playing to win I would have held back and forced them to come to me -- but everyone had a lot of fun.
That was GenCon 08 for me! I had a great time with a few rough patches. I'd love for more of our regulars to make it up there next year!
Last edited:
Fyrestryke
Explorer
THURSDAY
Thursday was the "Masters" tournament for Settlers of Catan. To enter, you had to have qualified for the semi-finals at GenCon or Origins sometime in the last 3 years. I qualified in 2006, so I was pretty jacked for this opportunity. They didn't have normal qualifiers because the World Championships were at GenCon this year and there wasn't enough time to do both. Only 10 people showed up for the competition, so it started out with 1 4-player game and two 3-player games. That threw most of us for a loop. I had a great time playing, but lost my first three games with 2nd place (7 points), last place (5 points), and another 2nd place (8 points). You definitely needed three wins and another good game to be the winner (only one person could advance). I however did win the last game. I beat one of the guys who had a couple of wins and a 6 point game, but even had he won, he wouldn't have beat the guy with 3 wins and 8 points. That felt good. It was top notch competition and I got to see some old friends and make new ones.
The last running game of the 4 game session was a hoot. The guy that won the game actually game in 2nd in the masters and knew he unable to win the masters, so everyone at the game was having a blast playing. This guy won the game with LA, 5 vps, and 3 settlements. The kicker is, he had all of that until his last build of the game...he played the entire game with 2 settlements. It was indeed fun to watch.
I played in a Power Grid tourney on Thursday night and had fun, but didn't win.
FRIDAY
Friday was a fun day. I had a St. Petersburg game scheduled for 8am and I played that game and lost. Then, we played another game and I lost that, but it was just for fun (well, they're all for fun, but winning tournaments is always cool
). After that, this happened:
hehe. Sorry Bob!
I sure had a blast playing that game. It was my best performing game of St. Pete evar! It was really cool playing the game with Bob and a guy named Mark. Felt just like at home. 
After that, Bob, Josh, myself and 5 other intrepid adventurers set off for True Dungeon. As I said here, "It's awesome!". I really, really enjoy TD. I've done it twice now and it's just a great time of fun. You really need to experience it once and make your own decisions about it, but as for me, I'm going to attend it every year assuming I can always get tickets.
After that, I missed out on some stuff I wanted to go see due to my brother being sick, but he was OK. Thank goodness.
I ended up going to the exhibit hall a bunch and blew off a Robo Rally tournament so I could goto the ENnies. I love the ENnies. It's a really awesome time. I support the ENnies, but I missed out on the Dream Date auctions. So, I offered a donation to the ENnies for a Dream Date and Denise got me a spot to sit with Chris Pramas, Hal, Nicole and all the gang from Green Ronin Publishing. What an awesome time that was! It was really nice to see Paizo get publisher of the year. If you ever have a chance to attend the ENnies at GenCon, you shouldn't pass it up. It's free, and some of the most fun you can have aside from playing games. Whenever a publisher went to the front to accept an award, they played some "theme music" that they picked out. The theme music for Wizards of the Coast was The Imperial March. Draw your own conclusions on that one.
Chris offered up some sweet swag for me! I got a Green Ronin gamer bag, a copy of Hobby Games: The 100 best (BTW - Anyone who likes games should get this book and read it!), a Mutants and Masterminds t-shirt, and a huge map of the City of Freeport. Thanks Chris!
On my own, I picked up the Thieves World collector's set (only $20!), the super nice special edition of Mutants and Masterminds, and The Pirates Guide to Freeport.
SATURDAY
For Saturday, I had some games scheduled. Puerto Rico Tournament at 8am (Came in 2nd place in a three player game). Then, I had a Ticket to Ride US qualifier at 10am. I decided to go and figure out how that worked exactly and when the finals would be. Boy, am I glad I did!
I found out that their national tournament has lots of qualifiers for their 6 different games (US, 1910, Mega, Europe, Switzerland, and Marklin) during the weekend, but Saturday was the last day! O noes! The qualifiers work this way... They have 6 different games. You can play them as much as you want up to Saturday at 4pm and you score three points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd, and 0 for 4th. Plus, some fractional points figured on some crazy formula for how close games are. The closer your opponents to your score, the more of a fraction you get. They take your 4 best scores from the 6 games and that's your final score. 4 wins would be 12.xxx points. So, I grabbed a schedule and looked to see how many games were left. I found out that I only had time to play 4 games. I needed at least three wins to make the final and a 2nd or 3rd place finish in another game probably. So, I went for it! I picked out the 4 games I figured I had the best shot at. US, 1910, Mega (more later), and Switzerland (hey, I'd played that once). I had originally set time aside on Saturday for roaming the exhibit hall, but I got most of that done between settlers game.
10am - US - Plain ol TTR. I smoked it! I won with 120+ points. Boy, that felt good and I was jazzed for 1910 at 2pm.
12pm - 1910 - What fun this game is. I like the bigger cards and the new tickets. In 1910 (an expansion for TTR) you play on the US map, but the bonus point objective for this game is the most tickets completed for 15 bonus points instead of longest train (10 points) for normal US TTR. I smoked that game too! Wow, I was on cloud 9! I ended up with well over 140 points and something like 13 tickets completed. Bring on the next game!
2pm - Mega - I had been asking people how to play "Mega". Mega combines US and 1910, so you have two objectives - longest train (10 points) and most routes (15 points). I was doing very well in this game. I had longest train easy and I had a bunch of cards. But, I pulled trains a couple of times (in Mega, you pull 4 tickets and keep 1) and I ended up with nothing I could complete and they were all fairly big. I ended up with a 17 and an 11 I couldn't complete. At the end of the game, I had longest train and was tied with the winner of the game at 9 tickets. He completed all of his, but my two above knocked me out of that and also cost me 28 points. So, I ended up in last place. Bummer. Well, I still had Switzerland coming up and I was hoping I could get into the semi-finals with three wins....
4pm - Switzerland - This one is fun. It's weird and different, but lots of fun. I had taken time before the game to have someone explain the rules to me. It's only a three player game. I was doing very well and had played a block to keep from losing longest train. I completed some nice routes and was a little ahead of the other guys in train usage, so I pulled the trigger hoping to have the other two guys (one of the guys ended up 2nd place after the qualifiers and was 1st place during our game) lose points on tickets. One guy lost really bad and ended up with something like 40 points. I won with 120+ points. YAY! So, I messed around the rest of the afternoon and came back at 9pm for the semi-finals to see if I actually made it or could maybe get into the semis if someone failed to show or had another train tournament that was more important.
I blew off a Wings of War tournament at 5pm because my Switzerland game ran long.
9pm - Ticket to Ride National Championship semi-finals. I showed up a bit early and checked the final standings. I was 32nd out of 100+ people! YAY! That was sweet! So, I waited around while they gathered up the leaders. They took the top 19 players plus the person who won at Origins. They all showed up except one, but there were other people between 19 and 32 there so someone else got that seat. Oh well, I can't wait to try again next year. I think I'm better at TTR than I am at Settlers.
Then, I went back to the hotel to hang with the guys. We played Last Night on Earth, and boy was I tired. I had fun playing it. We went to bed really late and had a good late night of boardgaming and cutting up and being silly. It was a lot of fun.
SUNDAY
On Sunday, I got up a little late and missed out on the Settlers of Catan World Championship Semi-Finals. I went to the booth to finish up my Mayfair ribbons and get my 50% off coupon and extra chance at the raffle for the big 3D set.
After that, I went over to the Championship Game at 12:30pm so I could watch. Alex Yeager who runs the Catan tournaments was his usual busy self. He mentioned that he normally runs a mirror board, but didn't have time to do so. I offered to do it and he gladly accepted. That was lots of fun and I got to be on the inside of the railing keeping people back from the table. Several of my Catan buddies were there so it was a lot of fun. The two Masters winners from GenCon and Origins were in the final game and the guy (Todd) from Origins won and the guy (Matt) that won our Masters game in tied for 3rd with 7 points. Rohan from Australia took 2nd place with 9 points and Andres (I don't know where Andres was from, but I think France) was tied at 3rd.
Then, back to the convention hall to buy more games (John gave me Chris' 50% off Mayfair coupon) and then we headed home.
What a great weekend! Thanks guys!
Thursday was the "Masters" tournament for Settlers of Catan. To enter, you had to have qualified for the semi-finals at GenCon or Origins sometime in the last 3 years. I qualified in 2006, so I was pretty jacked for this opportunity. They didn't have normal qualifiers because the World Championships were at GenCon this year and there wasn't enough time to do both. Only 10 people showed up for the competition, so it started out with 1 4-player game and two 3-player games. That threw most of us for a loop. I had a great time playing, but lost my first three games with 2nd place (7 points), last place (5 points), and another 2nd place (8 points). You definitely needed three wins and another good game to be the winner (only one person could advance). I however did win the last game. I beat one of the guys who had a couple of wins and a 6 point game, but even had he won, he wouldn't have beat the guy with 3 wins and 8 points. That felt good. It was top notch competition and I got to see some old friends and make new ones.
The last running game of the 4 game session was a hoot. The guy that won the game actually game in 2nd in the masters and knew he unable to win the masters, so everyone at the game was having a blast playing. This guy won the game with LA, 5 vps, and 3 settlements. The kicker is, he had all of that until his last build of the game...he played the entire game with 2 settlements. It was indeed fun to watch.I played in a Power Grid tourney on Thursday night and had fun, but didn't win.
FRIDAY
Friday was a fun day. I had a St. Petersburg game scheduled for 8am and I played that game and lost. Then, we played another game and I lost that, but it was just for fun (well, they're all for fun, but winning tournaments is always cool
). After that, this happened:hehe. Sorry Bob!
I sure had a blast playing that game. It was my best performing game of St. Pete evar! It was really cool playing the game with Bob and a guy named Mark. Felt just like at home. After that, Bob, Josh, myself and 5 other intrepid adventurers set off for True Dungeon. As I said here, "It's awesome!". I really, really enjoy TD. I've done it twice now and it's just a great time of fun. You really need to experience it once and make your own decisions about it, but as for me, I'm going to attend it every year assuming I can always get tickets.
After that, I missed out on some stuff I wanted to go see due to my brother being sick, but he was OK. Thank goodness.
I ended up going to the exhibit hall a bunch and blew off a Robo Rally tournament so I could goto the ENnies. I love the ENnies. It's a really awesome time. I support the ENnies, but I missed out on the Dream Date auctions. So, I offered a donation to the ENnies for a Dream Date and Denise got me a spot to sit with Chris Pramas, Hal, Nicole and all the gang from Green Ronin Publishing. What an awesome time that was! It was really nice to see Paizo get publisher of the year. If you ever have a chance to attend the ENnies at GenCon, you shouldn't pass it up. It's free, and some of the most fun you can have aside from playing games. Whenever a publisher went to the front to accept an award, they played some "theme music" that they picked out. The theme music for Wizards of the Coast was The Imperial March. Draw your own conclusions on that one.
Chris offered up some sweet swag for me! I got a Green Ronin gamer bag, a copy of Hobby Games: The 100 best (BTW - Anyone who likes games should get this book and read it!), a Mutants and Masterminds t-shirt, and a huge map of the City of Freeport. Thanks Chris!
On my own, I picked up the Thieves World collector's set (only $20!), the super nice special edition of Mutants and Masterminds, and The Pirates Guide to Freeport.
SATURDAY
For Saturday, I had some games scheduled. Puerto Rico Tournament at 8am (Came in 2nd place in a three player game). Then, I had a Ticket to Ride US qualifier at 10am. I decided to go and figure out how that worked exactly and when the finals would be. Boy, am I glad I did!
I found out that their national tournament has lots of qualifiers for their 6 different games (US, 1910, Mega, Europe, Switzerland, and Marklin) during the weekend, but Saturday was the last day! O noes! The qualifiers work this way... They have 6 different games. You can play them as much as you want up to Saturday at 4pm and you score three points for 1st place, 2 points for 2nd place, 1 point for 3rd, and 0 for 4th. Plus, some fractional points figured on some crazy formula for how close games are. The closer your opponents to your score, the more of a fraction you get. They take your 4 best scores from the 6 games and that's your final score. 4 wins would be 12.xxx points. So, I grabbed a schedule and looked to see how many games were left. I found out that I only had time to play 4 games. I needed at least three wins to make the final and a 2nd or 3rd place finish in another game probably. So, I went for it! I picked out the 4 games I figured I had the best shot at. US, 1910, Mega (more later), and Switzerland (hey, I'd played that once). I had originally set time aside on Saturday for roaming the exhibit hall, but I got most of that done between settlers game.
10am - US - Plain ol TTR. I smoked it! I won with 120+ points. Boy, that felt good and I was jazzed for 1910 at 2pm.
12pm - 1910 - What fun this game is. I like the bigger cards and the new tickets. In 1910 (an expansion for TTR) you play on the US map, but the bonus point objective for this game is the most tickets completed for 15 bonus points instead of longest train (10 points) for normal US TTR. I smoked that game too! Wow, I was on cloud 9! I ended up with well over 140 points and something like 13 tickets completed. Bring on the next game!
2pm - Mega - I had been asking people how to play "Mega". Mega combines US and 1910, so you have two objectives - longest train (10 points) and most routes (15 points). I was doing very well in this game. I had longest train easy and I had a bunch of cards. But, I pulled trains a couple of times (in Mega, you pull 4 tickets and keep 1) and I ended up with nothing I could complete and they were all fairly big. I ended up with a 17 and an 11 I couldn't complete. At the end of the game, I had longest train and was tied with the winner of the game at 9 tickets. He completed all of his, but my two above knocked me out of that and also cost me 28 points. So, I ended up in last place. Bummer. Well, I still had Switzerland coming up and I was hoping I could get into the semi-finals with three wins....
4pm - Switzerland - This one is fun. It's weird and different, but lots of fun. I had taken time before the game to have someone explain the rules to me. It's only a three player game. I was doing very well and had played a block to keep from losing longest train. I completed some nice routes and was a little ahead of the other guys in train usage, so I pulled the trigger hoping to have the other two guys (one of the guys ended up 2nd place after the qualifiers and was 1st place during our game) lose points on tickets. One guy lost really bad and ended up with something like 40 points. I won with 120+ points. YAY! So, I messed around the rest of the afternoon and came back at 9pm for the semi-finals to see if I actually made it or could maybe get into the semis if someone failed to show or had another train tournament that was more important.
I blew off a Wings of War tournament at 5pm because my Switzerland game ran long.
9pm - Ticket to Ride National Championship semi-finals. I showed up a bit early and checked the final standings. I was 32nd out of 100+ people! YAY! That was sweet! So, I waited around while they gathered up the leaders. They took the top 19 players plus the person who won at Origins. They all showed up except one, but there were other people between 19 and 32 there so someone else got that seat. Oh well, I can't wait to try again next year. I think I'm better at TTR than I am at Settlers.
Then, I went back to the hotel to hang with the guys. We played Last Night on Earth, and boy was I tired. I had fun playing it. We went to bed really late and had a good late night of boardgaming and cutting up and being silly. It was a lot of fun.
SUNDAY
On Sunday, I got up a little late and missed out on the Settlers of Catan World Championship Semi-Finals. I went to the booth to finish up my Mayfair ribbons and get my 50% off coupon and extra chance at the raffle for the big 3D set.
After that, I went over to the Championship Game at 12:30pm so I could watch. Alex Yeager who runs the Catan tournaments was his usual busy self. He mentioned that he normally runs a mirror board, but didn't have time to do so. I offered to do it and he gladly accepted. That was lots of fun and I got to be on the inside of the railing keeping people back from the table. Several of my Catan buddies were there so it was a lot of fun. The two Masters winners from GenCon and Origins were in the final game and the guy (Todd) from Origins won and the guy (Matt) that won our Masters game in tied for 3rd with 7 points. Rohan from Australia took 2nd place with 9 points and Andres (I don't know where Andres was from, but I think France) was tied at 3rd.
Then, back to the convention hall to buy more games (John gave me Chris' 50% off Mayfair coupon) and then we headed home.
What a great weekend! Thanks guys!
thormagni
Explorer
I had no idea your brother was sick. How did we stay in the same room all weekend, but I never heard your brother was sick? Hope everything is going well.
Fyrestryke
Explorer
I'm sorry. I was in such a daze, I thought I told everyone. They took him to St. Francis on Friday morning from work with a possible heart attack. He was OK later in the day, so I wasn't worried about it after that. I've heard that it was an anxiety attack, my Grandma just said that he's diabetic and didn't know it and "crashed", but my Dad didn't mention that earlier today, so I'm not sure what. Bottom line is he's OK and doing better. Thank the maker.
thormagni
Explorer
Chris really IS an enigma.
Fyrestryke
Explorer
I'm the riddler?
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