Guardian of the Non Sequitur

It’s been over a month since I went to BGG.Con – the BoardGameGeek.com‘s annual game-o-rama, and I need to get down in print the games I played, so here they go.

This year my procrastinating paid off. I ended up splitting a suite with four people, minimizing costs. I managed to never actually meet one of the roommates – the geeks don’t spend many waking moments not playing the games.

Unfortunately, there was no general wi-fi available, and no signal reachable from the main game room. Apparently there was a twitter contingency, but I was unreachable and unaware.

So, here a listing of all the games I played.

Yspahan – I have played this before, and own it. One of the many “Ys” named games from Ystari. It has an interesting dice mechanic. You are creating goods in a small town and trying to ship them out on the caravan.

Agricola – I finally got to play last years trendy game a little bit before the Con, but played it some more here. Certainly a good game with quite a bit of replay-ability. Nice interaction with other players in access to resources. Building your small farm-house, family, fields and livestock.

Destruct 3 – The open-area lobby always has many dexterity games set up. This one was new to us. You set up a tower, jenga-like. You roll a dice to choose one of three tools. You try to knock the tower over but not too far (off the board is minus points). This was a fun one, would be great fun for young boys.

Airships – I met my current regular game group last year at this Con, and I’ve played this game several times with them. I ended up teaching this to several different people at the Con. It’s an easy to learn, and not too long game of building zeppelins.

Hamburgum – My high school friend and college roommate Manuel came from SoCal for the Con. He was only there Thursday and Friday and was brain-fried; he was amazed I could handle two more days. He saw that I had played this game before and had me teach it. I like this game more each time I play – an interesting rondel mechanic and interconnections of actions that force you into a balanced game. And beer is one of the resources – how could that not be good? Continue reading

A chronological list of my holiday weekend, with duplicates removed. It was over a week ago, but I’ve finally put it all down in writing.  I have included the ratings for the beers and the games (taken from RateBeer.com and BoardGameGeek.com).  The beers are ranked by percentile.  The games are rated out of 10, and ranked in order.

• Franziskaner Heffe-Weisen (90) – a fabulous summer beer, light and refreshing
• Yspahan (7.5, 83, Sébastien Pauchon) – a fun and light game with wooden camels, and an interesting dice mechanic; a very approachable game for “non-gamers”
• Unibroue Maudite (96) – a fabulous and dark complected beer, with riotous carbonation; i discovered this Quebecan gem when I was living in Alberta, and have loved it ever since
• Hacienda (7.3, 151, Wolfgang Kramer) – take your cattle to market on the South American pampas frontiers; lots of bits, moderate difficulty
• Lord of the Rings (7.1, 187, Reiner Knizia) – a co-operative game, where everyone is playing a hobbit, trying to help the ring be destroyed, quite a bit of variety, with multiple boards, we lost horribly
• Dvonn (7.6, 69, Kris Burm) – one of the Project GIPF series (all 2-player abstracts), Woody’s son Mac happens to be very good at it and he trounced me
• Anchor Porter (98) – my favorite beer is the next one I’m having, variety is the spice of life, and the variety in beer styles is what I like, but when pressed, this is the beer I call my favorite, it’s chocolatey goodness is unsurpassed
• In the Year of the Dragon (7.7, 53, Stefan Feld) – this was a new “big box” release last year, and got a lot of play, though mixed reviews at last year’s BGG.con; i was slow to warm up to this game, but by the time my first play was over, i liked it
• New Belgium 1554 Brussels Style Black Ale (85) – the lowest rated beer so far, likely because it’s not true to style; it is true to total deliciousness, and I have several friends who like this beer a lot, but aren’t really beer drinkers



• Twilight Imperium, Second Edition (7.2, 794, Christian T. Petersen) – this 2000 game was superseded in 2005 (3rd Edition, 7.9, 27), last year I bought the 2nd edition w/ expansion for rock-bottom prices; this was the first real play I’ve had, it was very enjoyable, it would be great with 4 (we had 3), and yes it would take 6 hours or so
• Tribes – hmm, a week gone by and I don’t recall this game
• St. Arnold Summer Pils (36) – a good light but moderately hopped beer
• Unibroue Trois Pistoles (99) – a dark belgian ale, another fabulous example from this brwery
• Lindeman’s Framboise (90) – it seems that lambic variety has dropped in past years, Lindeman’s can always be found in the Houston market; this is their raspberry infused version; not as sour as tradition would dictate



• Tigris and Euphrates (8.2, 4, Reiner Knizia) – a classic, and tough to get your brain around, such simple mechanics, such complex interplay, best with 4, very Knizia
• Lindeman’s Cassis (76) – this may be one of my favorite lambic flavors, this one is black currant
• Goa (7.9, 21, Rüdiger Dorn) – this one has sat in the box at Wimberley many, many times, and this is the first I’ve played it; it was a great game, i’d love to play more
• Avery The Reverend (87) – a quadruple that was deliciously sweet and complex
• Alagash Dubbel Reserve (87) – a taste beer from Maine
• Hamburgum (7.4, 159, Mac Gerdts) – i wasn’t quite sure about this one on my first play a month ago (despite beer being one of the resources in the game), but playing it a second time I really came to enjoy, and grok, this one
• North Coast Brother Thelonious (90) – a strong ale from California, named after the Jazz icon
• Tripel Karmeliet (98) – a fabulous belgian tripel
• Ra (7.9, 19, Reiner Knizia) – this multi-round bidding game is nearly 10 years old and a classic
• Lindeman’s Pêche (79) – peach, a standard, but less common lambic flavor
• Lindeman’s Kriek (82) – the classic version of the flavored kriek; cherry
• Traders of Genoa (7.5, 76, Rüdiger Dorn) – we play this one fairly often at Wimberley, this time it was reinforced that the game play can vary drastically depending upon the opponents – there’s deal making afoot



• Recess! (5.4, 3643) – a kids game where you try to steal the lunch money from everyone else while not getting caught by the nuns, getting one of your boys to kiss one of your girls ends the game and earns a bonus
• Keythedral (7.1, 131, Richard Breese) – a game I had to have for the octagonal pieces, generally enjoyed by all
• Las Vegas Showdown (7.4, 116, Henry Stern) – a great build-your-own-casino theme, implemented with a bidding mechanism that’s not too threatening, mean new-comers always enjoy it; lots of fun
• Wits and Wagers (7.2, 175) – a great solution to the party trivia game – bet on everyone’s answers; this one was in constant play last year at BGG.con
• Pandemic (7.9, 29, Matt Leacock) – brand new and hard to find, this game is amazingly fun, even when you perpetually lose; well balanced, it’s a shame it maxes out at 4 people

I had the odd and uncommon experience of not being able to find my keys Wednesday morning. I checked the two spots I normally leave them. Then checked again. Then the five expanded places I might leave them.

I tried to recall what exactly I did with them when I came home – to no avail.

I walked out to the car, peered into the ignition. No luck. Went back in the house to check again. Got as far as the dining room, and froze. I had seen something. Something in the last twenty paces.

I rewound it in my head, saw the dangling orange Texas that had been an inch above my hand when I walked back in the door.

Tuesday when I arrived home from work, a day after boardgaming in the Hill Country with friends, there was a package obstructing my door. The game I had purchased the week before. My hands being full, after I got the door unlocked and grabbed everything I kicked it open and entered.

I returned and closed the door, forgetting the keys. They spent the night.

I played Crokinole this weekend for the first time. I saw it up at BGG.Con in November, and saw some talk about it before that (someone made two custom boards for the convention), but didn’t get around to playing it. Greg has his hanging on his wall like the art piece it is, but we’d never played it.

Apparently there are some particular rules about sitting down (one cheek to the seat) and not moving your chair, so the setup at a barstool-height table without chairs was an “invalid” one at the convention, anyway.

It was lots of fun, and a little bit infectious, and made us play until 2:30am, by which time we were not playing too well.

Basic rules: 4-player, each player has 6 disks, rotate in order, team mates across from each other. You must contact an opposing piece, or all of your pieces that moved are removed from the board. Rings are successively worth 5, 10, 15, with the hole in the middle worth 20, and instantly scored. After all are shot, the team in the lead gets the point difference.

The new boards run in the $150-$700 range, but are super nice and basically family heirlooms (barring fire or Katrina event). Of unknown origin but dating back to 1876 at least and popular with Canadian Mennonites. Check out the 35 new models and 3,500 antique used boards.

So, I started off the OwnCon with a game of Tichu. I’ve been meaning to learn this suspiciously popular trick-taking card game. And I am very glad to have learned it. Another Bill and I “won” the learning game, so I got some free games from it.

I guess it’s a typical – gather with various family groups over several days, then suffer their ailments for various days – kinda December. I suffered some of the lingering cold symptoms while at a “board game invitational gathering. Three days of playing games with new people – quite fun. And I got to play the monolithic Die Macher with 5 people – a six hour marathon.

I haven’t achieved any of the chores I was hoping to perform over the holidays. The cold knocked me down to a low activity level. I think I’m going to go take another nap as it is. Blah. And tomorrow back to work.

I did fit in a flaming dropping mirror ball at midnight last night, and today will kick off the new year with a few games with friends in the afternoon.