Sunday Laundry/Boardgames

Our eldest daughter, Shari, and her fiance, Ernest stopped by to do laundry and as is becoming our habit play some games with Lissa and I.  We were able to get in five games today while they did laundry.

We started with one of my favorite games, Carcassonne.  This is one that they have played before and enjoy.  I won this game and it's end signaled the end of my winning for the evening.  This is a fantastic game and it runs a close second to Settlers of Catan for my favorite Euro game.

Carcassonne Box

Next up was a game that we picked up at this year's Charcon convention.  In fact, we picked up two copies of it and had given one to them previously and they wanted to try it out with us.  Terra Nova is an interesting little area control game published by Immortal Eyes Games.  The game involves the claiming of sections of the hexagonal map by laying out "border stones" to delineate areas of control.  These areas are scored according to how many different types of terrain are included in the plot.  If the area contains only one type of terrain you score the number of hexes times three, if two types, times two, if three types, times one.  Only the player with the most pioneer meeples in the area scores points.  The points are shared in case of a tie.  The game starts out pretty open but as the end approaches things get rather tight and the decision making becomes more difficult.  The types of terrain shown have no effect on the game other than to determine the score multiplier and it is somewhat counter-intuitive that the more types of terrain you include the less you score.  Lissa one this one handily though she seemed to like it the least.  Ernest and Shari both seemed to like this one a lot.  Myself, I think it will grow on my after a play or two.

Terra Nova

Next up was Roll Through the Ages.  This is a favorite of mine and was one of the games offered at the 2009 Charcon Premier Board Game Tournament.  I was able to add it to the collection at this year's Charcon as part of my winnings.  It took a few rounds for everyone to catch on to this one but I think everyone enjoyed it.  Ernest caught on very quickly and won the game handily.

Roll Through the Ages Box

Last up was everyone's old favorite, Guillotine!  We played two hands of this fantastic, French Revolution themed game and both times Shari won.  We have been playing Guillotine for years now and Shari and Ernest liked the game so much that they picked up a copy shortly after we introduced it to them.

Guillotine Box

I certainly do not remember trips to my parents to do laundry being quite so much fun.  I guess Shari is just lucky that her parents are gamers :)

Wednesday Night Gaming - Egizia

 
We had four players tonight for gaming and pulled out my brand new copy of Egizia by Rio Grande Games.  Jeff and I had played before but Nick and Rosie had not so we began by taking a few minutes to go over the rules.  The game involves the players running work crews who work on various monuments along the Nile River valley.  Mechanics-wise Egizia is a worker placement game and resource management game that includes a neat mechanic wherein you place worker boats as you move down the Nile but cannot (unless you have a special card) place a boat upriver of your previously placed boats.

The game runs for five turns and the mechanics are learned by the time the second turn begins.  Everyone really enjoyed the game.  I won followed by Nick, Jeff, and Rosie though the scores were close for everyone.  This is one of my top two games from Charcon.

Charcon 2010 - A Busy Night in Distraction, New Mexico Report

This has been a while coming but here is a short writeup with a bunch of pics from our Charcon 2010 Gutshot game.  The buildings are all from Eric Hotz's excellent Whitewash City range of paper buildings as is the play mat.  There were six teams, each with separate goals to accomplish.  The teams were the Pinkertons, the Sheriff and deputies, the US Marshals, two outlaw gangs, and a gang of banditos.  The goals ranged from the banditos needing to "rescue" the little sister of the leader who had ran off and become a "can can dancer" and the Marshals who were tasked with arresting the leaders of the three gangs and one of the Pinkerton agents who was wanted in Colorado for actions in a coal strike.  The only team to complete their mission was Jeff's outlaws who successfully freed a team member from the Sheriff's lockup and left the board.  They were also shot up unexpectedly by Ken's banditos who ignored their goal and simply shot up the town and anyone in it they could reach. 

In addition to the normal activation cards that each character would have I added several cards that activated a civilian in a nearby building or began a pre-staged event such as the rampage of El Nacho Loco, a midget Mexican (Flintloque Frontiers Hobbit?) who was angry that all of the ladies at Madame Orre's were so dag-blamed tall.  At one point an outlaw used Nacho as cover and shot over him at another player.  The other main event was the gunfight.  When this card was drawn two NPCs left a bar and set-up in the street to have a classic shootout.  Unfortunately, as they thought this was to be their day of fame, they were largely ignored as folks brawled around them paying them no attention.

Figure 1: The setup

Figure 2: Another view of the setup

Figure 3: Larry moves one of the Sheriff's men

Figure 4: Overview of the game as the GM (me) digs for a civilian to add to the mix

Figure 5: The gunfight

Figure 6: Ken moves a bandito

Figure 7: The carnage at Madame Orre's and Nacho Loco being used as cover

Figure 8: The bank president walks out at the wrong time

Figure 9: The banditos just before they shot down poor Granny Clampett

Figure 10: A view of the carnage

Figure 11: An overhead view

Figure 12: One of the outlaws found some dynamite and decided to blow up the livery and is confronted by the elderly livery operator - he was eventually successful and miraculously survived

Charcon 2010 - General Pics

Charcon 2010 was a blast.  Here are some general pics from the show.

This year Charcon welcomes Hack3rCon to the fold.

Gettysburg Soldiers Civil War game.

One of the many boardgames played at Charcon.

Some of the many items in the Charcon raffle.

See big hammer, I did not win big hammer :(

Folks playing games, Tumbling Dice game in the foreground.

Matt K. running his amazing game where all of the figures are handmade.

Another view of Matt K.'s figures.

Another view of the hammer. . . that I did not win.

Charcon Crokinole board.

Charcon 40k Tourney - Terrain

While I did not participate in the 40k tournament, a lot of folks did.  There were some really nice terrain pieces used in the tournament as shown below.

Charcon 2010 - 5th Anniversary Cakes

Given that this was the fifth anniversary of Charcon, we had cake.  The organizers provided five cakes, each one showing one of the five program covers.  The cake was very good and went about as quickly as you might imagine with 500+ gamers hearing the words "free" and "cake".

2008 Cover

2009 Cover

2010 Cover

2006 Cover

2007 Cover

Charcon Photos Coming Soon!

CharCon Game Convention is over for us. Our western game was full and everyone had fun, the DBA tourney was just Nick Gillespie and I but it was a close game (and I won) and we both left with a new army courtesy of Scale Creep, and then I placed second in the overall Premier Boardgame Tournament and came home with a HUGE stack of free games!

Thanks to Nick Gillespie, Travis Reynolds, Charles Davis, Dave Gilligan, and all of the other folks who worked so hard to make this a great con!!!

Give us a couple of days and we will put up some great photos and some recaps of the con!

Charcon

The blog has been quiet for a bit as I attended a library conference last week and am getting ready to attend Charcon this weekend.  Charcon should be exciting.  I will be running a DBA tournament with fantastic prizes from Mark Severin at Scale Creep Miniatures and my first convention western gaming using the Gutshot rules.  I also hope to play a bunch of new boardgames and to compete in the Charcon Blood Bowl and Settlers of Catan tournaments.

In the meantime I have lost a couple of games in the Fun League and my Heimdall's Hornies lost their first game in our local tabletop league.  I hope to post more in the near future and after Charcon I will be starting up a new project involving the battles of Stamford Bridge and Hastings!  Vikings, Normans, and Saxons/Anglo-Danes here I come!

Charcon 2010 Coming to Charleston, WV October 22-24

Our local gaming convention, Charcon, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this month.  In five short years my friends in the Charcon staff have built an amazing convention. Last year I believe there were over 500 attendees and I would expect there to be many more this year with special guests including one of my favorite authors, Eric Flint, artists such as Kelly Brightbill and Tammy Pryce, additional authors, game designers and more.  Each year there is a Premier Board Game Event where various new games are featured and for at least the second year running there will be a Settlers of Catan NACC qualifier tournament where the winner goes to GenCon to compete for the North American title.  Moreover, the organizers have worked great deals with a number of game manufacturers and you even get a bag of great swag for preregistering.  Go here to preregister and lock in your swag and your snazzy Charcon fifth anniversary t-shirt in the color of your choice.

Lissa and I will again be running the Charcon DBA tournament and we will be premiering our western game using the Gutshot rules there as well.  If you are going to the con please leave a comment below and let me know what events you are planning on participating in.

Charcon Flyer
Preliminary Event Listing