Despite the fact that the con was one day longer this year, and we got there a day early, the week seemed to blaze by and there were lots more games I wanted to play that I didn’t get to. Upon retrospect I played quite a lot of games.

The following list is not chronological, but grouped mostly into styles and my thoughts of them before and after the con.  There is a large industry convention in Essen, Germany a month before the BGG.Con.  It creates a lot of buzz about new games, and I usually arrive with a list, whether mental or physical, of things I’d like to try.  Even so, for the most part, I go with the flow and let games find me.

I did manage to find some of those on my list and get them on the table.  Others I didn’t for one reason or another.

Game of the Convention: Tichu

Tichu is actually a card game, and one I play quite often.  I have the opportunity to play most Sundays at our friendly gathering at the local watering hole.  We’ve infected about a dozen people with the game, and often will have 4 there to play.  I also recently infected one of my weekly game attendees (who already liked Tichu) to come to our week end gathering.

I originally was tipped off to Tichu at the con, but haven’t started playing it whole heartedly until the past year.  This year was the first year for them to have a Tichu tournament, and interest was so high the 32 2-person team brackets filled up instantly.  They doubled the size of the tournament.

I teamed with TG and we won our two first games and lost our third, which allowed us to make it into the 14 team, single elimination bracket.  We lost out first game there (to the team that ended up winning the tournament).  Every game we played was fun.  And I played before and after the tournament as well, with and without TG.

A 4-player partnership game that’s really a lot of fun!  I learned that I have been getting better at playing it, and that there’s a lot further to go on that road.

On My Radar, On The Table

I got a reasonable number of the games I was interested in on the table and played.

Rattus (2010, Henrik & Åse Berg) was one particular game on my list that I really wanted to try.  A new Essen release, it was on a lot of people’s list, and was in and out of the library quite frequently.  I got it once, read the rules, and was tugged into another game.  To be polite I checked it back in while I was playing.  I didn’t even get it back to the shelf before someone took it out of my hand to check it out again.  I managed to get it again later in the week and teach it to some others.

The Plague is overtaking Europe.  This is a 30-45 min. game and you are trying to get the most people to survive the plague.  It’s quite fun, a great filler (what we gamers call the mid-length ones), simple to play, with some reasonably challenging strategic options.

Antics! (2010, Gordon & Fraser Lamont) is one of the games I wouldn’t have been aware of from casual coverage of Essen, but I did run across when I was scouring the lists of new games.  I liked the theme and design, relative length (60-90 minutes), and after playing it I really liked the action selection mechanism.

In the game each of up to four players is an ant hill, hatching new ants, running out to grab bugs and leaves, and return them to their hills.  All the time building up their ant hills, which defines the other actions you can take in the game.  And beware of the anteaters.

i9n (2010, Dirk Strothmann) Pronounced eye-nine, the name is a shortening of information and it is a deduction game.  I have a love/hate with deduction games (Clue (1948) being the best known) and Code 777 (1985) being my most recently played.  I’m pretty good at them, but they often come down to being a stiff numbers game.  Is there actual strategy, or does your opponent just have better information? Is there theme, or just a unique way to “crunch the numbers”.

Code 777 is definitely in the “crunch the numbers” side, and i9n does a really good job of putting you in the theme of the game.  It also has a quite unique punchcard system, calling itself a “paperback computer board game”.  I’m very happy I played it (twice), but I can’t imagine wanting to play it a lot except to introduce such a unique game to others.

There are 6 traits of the ultimately valid oil well, and you start out the game knowing 2 of them.  But not exactly the same 2 others may know.  This is the biggest “what he knows v. what I know” of the game and can certainly make a difference as each of the other traits is or isn’t possibly revealed to everyone.

7 Wonders – (2010, Antoine Bauza) This game was screaming loud and clear from Essen.  There was a lot of buzz about it.  The version I played at the con was actually a pre-production version (though still pretty good).  There were two tables of this one in the “hot room”, and they were always full.  One good thing: it plays rather quickly; one downfall: it makes you want to play “one more time”.  Thus, it was hard to get a play of this one.  Late in the week I finally did.  Get 1 play.  Only to have 7 people take the table from us afterward.

I quite enjoyed it, I appreciate that it will play equally well up to 7, without too much difference.  And it fills the “Civ. building itch” in a relatively short game.  For its extendability to 7 in a realm where 4-5 player games dominate, I think it is useful in a game collection.

51st State (2010, Ignacy Trzewiczek) This post-apocalyptic themed card game had a lot of buzz from Essen as well, though I was not particularly pressed to try it out. It presented itself to me though, and so I did end up playing it.  Friend Greg taught this one (his a wizard at reading rules, and this one is slightly lacking). It was as I expected from my of the (generally raving) reviews.  Reminded me of Race for the Galaxy (2007), but with the addition of a lot of counters that get temporarily used each turn (and some that are kept). I’m not a huge fan of Race and, though I really liked the art and the theme, did not enjoy this game either.

A lot of people compare this game to Glory to Rome (2005) because it uses one similar mechanic of providing cards with different information on difference sides.  When you “tuck” the cards above, below, or on the sides they can indicate different things.  I feel that Glory‘s use is much more elegant and obvious that that in 51st State. And the game play otherwise doesn’t remind me at all.

Beer & Pretzels (2009) I came across this one whilst checking out this year’s releases, and got it to the table late in the week when there was an evening lull and we had people standing around.  It has one of the best descriptions on The Geek (likely from the box) and demanded being played. We procured one of the bar-height tables in the open area and made play.  It had the “purple expansion” in it, so we had 6-players.  (The Purple Expansion rules included “you should constantly make fun of the purple player. they’re purple!”)

I quite enjoyed it, and everyone had fun with it.  Even the ones who said they didn’t like it.  We “gamered” it up, making everyone throw their coasters onto the table from the same location.

After Pablo (2010, Nate Hayden) I ran across this one in my pre-con snooping, and the uncommon theme made me have to try it. Trying to become the strongest drug runner in the power void after Pablo Escobar’s death.  Three sections of the board: Colombia, Mexico, The Border. A variety of things to do.  Upon reading the rules, I thought I would enjoy it.   But somehow the game play just seemed to bog down.  Resource scarcity is common in the games we play, but it seemed overwhelming in this one.  I really would like to play this one again, but I’m not sure I’d put it on my “to buy” list.

Before we got to playing, a friend of the designer’s came over.  I’m sorry I didn’t run into him again, because there are several questions I had for him (most have faded since the play).  We were thinking that particularly we didn’t use enough DEA Favors to balance the game out – the brutal randomness took the balance out of the game when/how we played.  We also played with three players, and I think four would be preferable.

There’s a lot more in my list.  I’ll get to them later.

Total Number of Games played: 51
Number of Different Games: 40
Number of New Games: 25

Ra – A classic Knizia bidding game that is out of print.  TG has a large distaste for it, because of the bidding mechanism, but many people like this one a lot.  I’m not a huge fan, but I’m always up for a game.

Vineta – The first time I’ve played this one.  It came out last year.  You secretly are responsible for one of the colors on the board.  In the mean time, everyone is trying to flood parts of the city, and take the colored tokens that are theirs.  Or preferable have them survive till the last part of the city is above water.

Tichu (x 4) – Tichu is a 4-player, partner, trick-taking card game.  It’s played with a standard deck plus four extra cards.  I’ve become quite fond of it, and try to play whenever I can.  I taught it to a few friends the first weekend, and played several games the second, once with two players that were much more experienced than I.

Vegas Showdown – This is a great game to lure in the non-games, yet the gamers usually enjoy it as well.  You are bidding on parts of a casino and each building your own better than the others.

Brass – This was a hot new game last year at BGG, and Austin friends Sharon and Adam brought it with them to Rob’s.  Martin Wallace is known for meaty board game design.  This was my first play and I liked it quite a bit.  Managing goods and routes through a canal age and a railroad age.

Carcassonne –  A classic tile-laying game that is good as a gateway game.  I recently introduced it to my nieces (13, 11, and they all liked it.  I like it for its flexibility.  If you pick it up, grab the European scoring off The Geek.

Dominion (x 4) – One of the biggest games of last year, it already has two expansions.  Each game you work with only 10 of 25 sets of cards that make it extremely flexible.  You build up a deck from almost nothing.  This game has proven very accessible to mild gamers, it saw a lot of play the first weekend.

The Downfall of Pompeii – This game has a great theme.  First you are placing your people into the walled city of Pompeii, then Mount Vesuvius erupts and you try to get out, at the same time causing lava flows that kill your opponents.

Age of Gods – I’ve had this game for a while and not played it.  It’s quite fiddly to set up, but plays quite easily.  Likely targets teenage boys ideally.  It was reasonably fun and short to play.

Portobello Market (x 2)– This is another game I’ve owned for quite some time but not played.  It’s very short to play, and ultimately a multiplayer abstract with a glossy theme of setting up stalls at a market.

Goldbraü (x 2) – Yet another game I’ve owned for a while and hadn’t played.  And this one with a theme of controlling breweries and beer gardens.  A stock ownership and area control combination.  This one was released in 2004, maxes out at 4 players, and takes about an hour.

Traders of Carthage – I bought this game from Z-Man on the last day of the Con last year.  It is a 4-player card game with a small board.  Shipping goods without being pirated.  It does a great job of using the one deck of cards for multiple purposes throughout the game.

Lost Cities – A two-player card game, stereo-typed as “accessible to females”.  It’s a good short game.  Another Knizia.  The 50th game to make it into the BoardGameGeek.com database, and ranked at 132.

Glory to Rome – Another card game that plays like a board game.  Also another game that puts the cards to different uses depending on how they are played in the game.  I played a LOT of this game at Lone Star Con last NYE.  It’s fun and quite variable.  It does take a while to grok all the possible uses of the cards.  The general theme is to build buildings in Rome, each giving you more abilities.  We played this with west coast friends we met at the Con two years ago: Miguel and Paul.

Power Struggle – This was a new Essen 2009 release this year and was in the Hot Games room.  It was still opaque to me when I was finished – i’m not sure what kind of strategy to use in this one.  I enjoyed it; it has an interesting interaction; and game/resource engine; but i’m still a bit apathetic towards it.  I would certainly play it again to try to get a better feel.  This was my first Thursday game.

FITS – A 2009 Knizia release, this is a pattern filling abstract game, a wee tetris-like.  Everyone plays independently, scoring against others.  There was a lot of buzz on this one.  I enjoyed it, but don’t feel it has a lot of replay for me.  However it’s reasonably short, so I wouldn’t turn it down if someone wanted to play.

CirKis (x 2) – I was very excited to see this game.  It’s a (Hasbro) block-laying game with similar design components as Blokus.  The use of Penrose tiles is what so interested.  I’ve always wanted to have a game (or design a game) that used this two shapes that tile the plane only asymmetrically.  (Actually, one of my two unimplemented art car designs employs these shapes.  If I ever pull the trigger on that one, it will have to have this game in it!)  Our 3-player game was totally broken.  I’m not sure if it was a game problem or a player problem.  Likely some of both.  The 4-person play was okay.

Arimaa – This was the most mind challenging game of the weekend.  It’s a two-player abstract that can be played with a chess board.  It does however have its own game implementation if you want to buy a copy.  8 cats, 2 rabbits, 2 dogs, 2 horses, 1 camel, 1 elephant.  All move the same: adjacent orthogonal.  But you get 4 moves per turn and can push or pull weaker opponents.  It was designed as a tougher computing problem than Chess.  And it is.

Alhambra – There was a tournament, but I did poorly in the first round and was out.  In this tile-laying game, you purchase different building types for your personal city on 4 different markets.  This one’s been around since 2003.

DiXit (x 2) – When I saw this game I knew I’d play it.  The cards contain quite bizarre paintings.  Considered a party game, you could also call it an “activity”, but there is scoring.  Make up a sentence about your image, but not so close that you’ll have everyone guessing your vs. the ones everyone tossed in.  A bit of a Apples to Apples feel, but for imaginative adults.

Eketorp – A viking themed game where you build a fortification while others try to knock it down.  An interesting mechanism where a lost warrior goes to the “field hospital” and take a variable number of turns to return to your use depending on how poorly he lost.  This game was released in 2002 and was in the library unpunched.  I enjoyed it.

Nefertiti – An interesting auction game with several markets and different and changing bid mechanisms.  I enjoyed it, but didn’t win it.  I played this game (and many others) with some Jr High/High School friends Manuel and Kevin, as well as with TG.  She didn’t mind the bidding mechanism on this one as much as Ra.

BasketBoss – New from Essen this year, an amazingly light themed game with quite an interesting mechanism beneath.  Managing a basketball team, buying player, bidding on support personnel (Trainer, Referee, Agent).  Teams are ranked each season.  This one seems very accessible to the non-gamer or new-gamer.

You Robot – Seemed like it could be a good game, but as Peter put it “more frustrating than silly”, you attempt to get your partner to get into the position of the robot on the card using only three direction cards and pointing at them.  It would play best if all the clue givers left the room, discussed the position, and if there was a judge in on it to confirm when positions were achieved and that players weren’t otherwise coaching.  It might be fun with kids, supervised, with rules adjusted as needed.

a la Carte – Listed as a 1989 design, was part of the class of 2009 at Essen.  It was verging on Hit Game status at the Con.  It’s hard not to be with it’s fun components.  Some dexterity desirable, but dexterity isn’t necessary helpful.  Making recipes, shaking the right amount of components out of the bottles they’re contained in: too much is bad.  It’s definitely fun, and is a great family game.

Agricola – Two years ago this was the huge game, but with 100s of cards, and a limited supply of German-only games available (and the required paste-up needed), I didn’t play it until last year.  It’s a fun game, and once we got through the laborious setup I remembered why it was worth it.  This was the game people went overboard on before they went overboard on Dominion.

Twilight Struggle – I got this game as my free game after registration.  Mark found out and had to play me (with the copy he brought).  He’s a lover of the game, and I’d only played once before, so it didn’t last too long.  This is a two-player card event-drive game, Cold War US v USSR. (A precursor to 1960: The Making of the President and Campaign Manager 2008)

Cartegena – I picked this one, blind, off the library shelf.  It is a simple racing game of getting your 6 pirates out of prison via a tunnel before anyone else.  It’s simple and could be played with small children.  We played it open handed and open draw pile to make it more strategic.  There is one mechanic that could be considered broken, so the game was redesigned and re-released.  So, I had to chase that one down in the library too.  General consensus was that the first game with one tweak would have done the job.

Ubongo 3D – A 2-cube deep version of the 2-D original.  A 2009 Essen game, it was entirely in German, so I’m not sure how the scoring works, but I came across a couple trying out the timing portion of the game.  It was hard.  Very hard.  Not sure how the game might be modified to handle that, not being able to read the rules.

Tumblin-Dice (x 2) – A classic.  Play this every year.  This is a must have for a game room, and would be an awesome bar game.  Rolling dice down a cascade of increasing multiplyer levels without them falling off.  If you’re an amateur wood worker you could definitely make your own.

Colonia – An Essen 2009 Hot Game that is pure Euro.  A limited number of men to perform an action with, including: choosing first player, buying resources at market, generating goods from resources, shipping resources for money, buying relics (victory points) for money.  With voting at three phases each turn.

Njet! – To me, nyet has always been spelled with a y, when not in Cyrillic.  A trick-taking game that starts by determining how you’re not going to play.  Who picks their partner? What’s trump? What’s super-trump? How many cards are discarded? What is the score for this hand multiplied by?  It played okay with 3, but needs to have a fair number of hands to even out.

Cartegena II – I missed it in the library because the box doesn’t say “2″ on most of the sides.  The additional rules made quite a few modifications, mostly just making for more rules and not a better game.  But, a different game.

Snow Tails – A great theme and mechanism for a racing game, the strength of dogs on either side of your sled will cause it to slide one way or the other.

Game Show (Family Feud) – For the third time, we played the game show, which was very good this year and Family Feud Themed.  TEAM AWESOME!!!!! came in third to last, but had a great time.

Nanuk – This is a 5-8 player game, and plays better the more players there are.  I played it 8-player with one of the designers (Mark).  It’s a good game for larger numbers and can be expanded in length and scored to be more equitable.  The short version is almost random, and would certainly need experienced players to be fair.  This was a new release just available.

Ubongo – Speed laying shapes.  I don’t like the scoring track on this one at all.  I dislike most games with speed elements.

Ubongo Extreme –  This is done with multi-hex shapes rather than multi-square shapes.  Much harder.

duck! duck! SAFARI! – We were lucky enough to have the designer Kevin teach us this one late night on Saturday.  There are 5 games within this one, and he suggested Hi-Lo Hijinks.  I enjoyed it, though there was some initial confusion.  Beer and wine were involved.

Sorry! Sliders – Paul and I stayed up late and played all the variety of games this one provides.  It’s basically a shuffleboard variant.  This won best Family Game at the Con, and that’s easy to see.  Kids like knocking stuff into other stuff, and so did we.

Robber Knights – I haven’t played this, yet, but got a free copy from Queen Games at the Con.

My photos are on flickr, and are mostly of games.

My only regret is not playing a game of Dune, and out of print game. They had an unpunched version of it in the library. A $100-$200 value in the current market. The game is going to be re-released in a year or two but without the Dune theme.

The hottest game of the convention was Agricola, which isn’t even available yet. There was one English copy and a few German ones with the cards in sleeves and printed translations accompanying them.

There were raffle drawing giveaway items each day with fabulous lists of prizes. And every attendee received a free game of our choice (in the pile) in addition to the two small games in the swag bag.

Everyone was also given five cards with special 5 jewels and each with special information or special abilities. After three days you could turn five cards in. There were five winners in the five categories. Piratenhändler was the name. We didn’t attempt it, but shared and “sold” ours with others. It was very competitive – good to have passed it by.

There were also five or so tournaments of various games, including Texas Hold ‘em. I passed on all. We did participate in the game show like Match Game. We were in first place at the first break. TG, Paul, Miguel, and I were Team Awesome!!!!1 but we fell behind by the end.

So, for my own edification, here is the list of games played. Most were only played once, so that’s all my impressions are based on.

Army of Frogs – An abstract hexagon tile laying and moving game with a cute frog theme and nice bakelite pieces.

Colosseum – Having learned this game just the week before I jumped in to teaching this game to three guys from Kansas.

Web of Power – A very thinly veiled math graph abstract game, laying under a medieval theme.

Darjeeling – I was interested in this game before the convention. It has a very odd collection of some great mechanics and unfortunately awkward pacing.

Tumblin’ Dice – A fun, interlude bar-like game that would be ideal in any game room!

Piratenbillard – A very interesting and tricky whacking of balls across a grid game. I’d like to spend more time trying.

Amyitis – A fairly good, typically Euro game.

Container – Apparently they had some issues with their first run of game pieces, but the game is pretty cool looking and interestingly complex.

No Thanks! – A simple, and short card game – trying not to take high cards.

Notre Dame – Currently ranked #46 (out of 10s of 1000s) on BGG. It was on our list, it was a great game. And TG bought it.

Shark – I only got about half of the play of this game in with Oliver from Calgary. It’s a 20 year old game, but I’d like to play again. A bidding and building game. More than two would definitely be more cut-throat.

Puzzle Hunt – Twenty thought/word puzzles for 4-person teams to figure out. Dan and Amy from Washington got blind-paired with us. They were good sports, because they were quite good, and we weren’t so much. We finished 13 in two hours. One team got them all. This was fun, despite not being good at it.

Caribbean – This game was fairly light, and pirate themed. The pieces were poorly constructed, and the competition was quite randon. The bidding mechanism was interesting, and it was short.

Yspahan – TG hates dice and camels in games. That pretty much defines this game, and it may have been her favorite of the weekend. She bought it.

La Citta – A heavier and longer game city-building, resource inhibited, culture competing game. It wasn’t un-fun, but did seem to drag. Could have been my or the group’s energy.

Circus Flohcati – A very light card game.

Architekton – A square tile laying two-player. Looks deceptively similar to Carcassonne but plays very differently. I wouldn’t mind playing it again.

Kingsburg – The artwork makes it seem light. It could definitely be managed by younger players, but it’s a medium weight game. Not overly competitive and has a very interesting dice mechanism. Don’t use the yellow dice, Robert swears they’re weighted for low numbers.

Fangfrisch (Cash-A-Catch) – Peter was quick to correct us when we used “bucks” for this Euro-based German card game trying to bid on fish and get them to marked without them spoiling. I’m not a fan of speed-related bell-ringing, so likely wouldn’t want this one.

1000 Blank White Cards – A free form make-it-as-you-play-it game. Can be as good (or not) as the group you’re with. At a convention it’s mostly self regulating because people that aren’t interested have 100s of other things to do. It’s free, and anyone can play it.

That’s all the ones I managed to play. I also cam home with several games I haven’t played.

Die Macher – A classic German election game. I’ve been wanting to play it for a long time. Tricia picked the good ticked for door prize and got this one for me (I got her a bag of Meeple in return). Also game entry #1 on BGG (ranked #11).

Reef Encounter – I’ve heard good things about it, and heard more this weekend. Saw it a few times being played.

Carcassonne: Abbey & Mayor – The 5th major expansion to the tile-laying Carcassonne. I preordered it from Rio Grande Games. Iaven’t played it yet, but it looks to have some really neat mechanisms.

And there were the Golden Geek Awards voted for and announced at the convention.