Last weekend I went to Game Day, and a curious thing happened — all the games that I played were new to me! This hardly happens as whenever we learn a new game, somebody usually suggests an old familiar game soon after, so that our brains don’t hurt too much. Or I usually suggest BSG because I do love playing BSG.
It’s been a busy week or so being out of town for my cousin’s wedding in LA, but now I’m back! Well, at least until Christmas vacation. I finally got a chance to get Mombasa on my table during last night’s game night. My two friends came over (we unfortunately couldn’t find a 4th player), but the night went well and my friends enjoyed it! Success! I always get a little nervous being the only person teaching a game as I’m afraid if I don’t teach the game properly, it could affect their judgment against a game that’s otherwise awesome. But I’m lucky I got to do a demo at BGG Con as well as play an entire game (albeit we got a lot of the game rules wrong) so I already had experience playing it. Plus, I read, read and reread the rulesbook so I could quickly answer questions.
I meant to write this post sooner but things got busy during Thanksgiving weekend. Hope everybody had a wonderful holiday weekend! And one of the things I’m thankful for is being a part of a wonderful board-gaming community.
Anyway, if anybody has any reservations about joining Team Geek at BGG Con, I would say to you: Do it! You’ll be glad you did! (Plus, you get a super sweet jersey!)
Wow, BGG Con came and went to so quickly! I arrived Dallas a day before the convention to attend Team Geek orientation, and immediately got into gaming that evening. I’m planning to write a follow-up post next on what it was like to be part of Team Geek, so this entry will be strictly about gaming and other activities.
BGG Con 2015 had sold out over 2,800 tickets and to make room for even more gaming, it had booked Room 25 on each floor so that folks had the option to game there instead of going down to the main ballroom in the convention floor. These rooms were pretty cool, each having about 6 tables each, complete with water stations and a bathroom inside. I met up with some friends on Tuesday night to play card games. The first one was a German set-collecting game from Essen that translated to 3 Is Too Much. The next one was Red 7, which is a hand-management player-elimination game. Both were fun, but now I realize I forgot to take photos of either one of them. I blame it on being tired from a travel day.
I flew out this morning from Phoenix to Dallas to help get ready for BGG Con, which begins tomorrow and runs through Sunday. This year will be my second time at the convention, and my first time on Team Geek, which will require some volunteer time throughout the convention.
I’m super duper excited! I’m already seeing familiar faces today. I can’t believe a year has gone by since we all played games together. And I can’t wait to meet even more people in the board-gaming community and play some games!
About six months ago, I was telling my board-game friends that I was going to BGG Con again, after having an awesome time last year. My one friend had this crazy idea to have our own convention, without the need for traveling and in the comforts of our homes, since they all couldn’t get away for an entire week to Dallas for BGG Con. I’m like, sure, let’s do this!
We decided to keep it as a convention of 5 friends, naming it Friendship Con! We took this event very seriously. During the planning stages, we voted on a list of games we all wanted to play, a schedule for said games, divided up who was in charge of learning the rules for a particular game, locations for gaming each day (we spread it out among 3 people, so that no one home would become overrun by us), and, of course, menu options. The host home would provide an easy breakfast, and then sandwiches for lunch, and then a quick healthy dinner. One of the cons that my friend had mentioned about going to BGG Con or similar events was that having limited access to cheap, healthy food because you either paid a premium at hotel restaurants or had to leave the gaming area to find other eateries, which resulted in less gaming time.
I finally had some time to assemble the Broken Token organizer for Caverna, both of which I received on my birthday. Caverna is a game with a million little pieces, both in plastic and cardboard form, and having an organizer for it seriously saves like 20 minutes for setup and cleanup of the game. And having the organizer ensures that the piles of resources are contained and don’t get out of hand, thereby saving space at your gaming table.
I first encountered a Broken Token organizer for this game back at Strategicon, and I said to myself that I would never play Caverna without it again. With the organizer, you open the box, pop out the two trays, pass out the tableaus and place the little rooms on the board. Easy peasy!
My board-gaming friends this past weekend decided to hold a Halloween scavenger hunt. They initially wanted to throw a Halloween party but since they said their place is too small, they decided to organize this event instead. The event took place in downtown Phoenix in about a square mile radius, and six teams (about half of them I knew from board-gaming events) participated from 7:30 to 11:45 p.m.
“Damnit, I’m a dollar short!!”
This sentence basically sums up the awesome game of Power Grid. I hadn’t played this game in a long while (and it actually is one of the first games I owned), but recent back-to-back games of it reminded me of how much fun and strategic this game is, especially when you play with 6 players. It’s not super hard to learn the rules of the game, but it all comes down to balancing your resources, utilizing turn order, and making sure you don’t run out of money.
Essen Spiel is happening right now. And I am here in Phoenix. Sad face.
What is Essen? It’s actually a city in Germany but it’s home to the world’s largest board-game convention. About 100,000 people are expected to attend the 4-day event. A bunch of new games are also expected to debut there. Board-gaming is huge in Germany; it’s a part of their family life. And many of the big classic eurogames all originated from Germany. Sigh, one day I will totally make it out there!