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Message: <blockquote data-quote="BobProbst" data-source="post: 4430964" data-attributes="member: 13382">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:  DFriday 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: BTrue 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: AHigh 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: CSaturday 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: BJosh 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: BThen we played <a href="http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/25674" target="_blank">Khronos</a>.  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: BI 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: AI 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!</blockquote>

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