I'm back from BGG.Con too. I had to leave mid-afternoon Saturday after my wife got sick; got her coughing up a lung it sounds like it & two kids with drippy noses & coughs too. Fun!
As usual, the Con was fantastic. I bumped into Stooge at random between games, which was cool. He really does look like a young Elvis Costello as he said
As I went with my game group this year, who seem to know everyone, it was a slightly different Con for me than last year with more socialisation. On the flipside, that meant I had almost no problems getting a game as long as one of them was around. It also meant I didn't bother trying to play some of the "hot" games like Civ or London, as someone in the group has bought it...
So the games...
51st State - buddy taught me this, which seems to be the way to learn it. Although some similarity to Race, it takes it in a different direction. Strong theme (I loved the mutant faction). I didn't think it was that fiddly after a turn or two got me in the groove for it. Really keen to play this one again - the guy who taught me had bought it, luckily
K2 - mountain climbing "race" game... Play movement cards to move your pair of climbers up the mountain, play health cards to keep them healthy (the higher you are on the mountain, you lose health faster due to weather etc). It looks deceptively simple, and it is, but there were some fun moments & decisions to be made. Nice & quick too, and easy to learn.
Dominant species. Fantastic game mixing area control & role selection (like Carson City or Caylus) about building up your species during an ice age etc. I *really* liked this. It's heavy & long & every decision is important. Took 4 hours with 5 players (and some teaching) though.
Norenberc - this got some buzz at Essen & I don't see why... We had a lousy random setup which helped kill our enjoyment... But I still didn't see anything I'd buy.
Toscana - one of the wine games, this is really a cube pusher with nice cartoony artwork. Tight economy. I enjoyed this. Seemed a bit solitaire - not much interaction between players.
Key Harvest - another Essen game. Very stylish artwork. Worker placement with a little bit of area control. Typical Euro in a lot of ways (generate goods, sell the goods, buy special powers to tweak the rules etc). I'd play this again. Wouldn't buy it.
Twilight Imperium - my now normal all day game on Friday with the same group of guys. We started at 10, finished almost exactly at 4. A *great* experience of diplomacy, combat etc. Another really tight finish too which rocks. Right after the game, we made plans to do it again next year
Antics - ant control game by the Fragor guys. Horrible board that's okay once you figure it out, but it took a few turns. We got a rule wrong really badly that screwed the last player, so we restarted. Another brain burner - it's really a delivery game & you have to optimize your ant colony to make the most efficient pick ups/deliveries. I want to play this again.
Industry - a remake of an old game. It's basically a series of auctions for 5 rows of 12 factory spaces that generate income, goods etc. Later rows require goods from previous rows. The thing is, to buy one of those spaces is an auction. That's the game - *60* auctions. Money is *really* *really* tight. I think all three of us disliked it tremendously until the last row where we figured out the scoring & what we thought was going to be a runaway leader game ended up being exceptionally close - 2 points separating us all. All of us want to play it again.... There's an interesting little game in this one.
That's what I can remember right now. Definitely played more! Again, a great Con. My only negative was getting treated shittily by the Homesteaders guys with my free moldy copy of the game. They gave out free copies of either Homesteaders or Terra Prime to everyone as a door prize. Turned out it was because many of the games were damp & mouldy (big deal on the Geek, it ruins the game). If people complained, they cannabilized other copies they had to fix it. By the time I got to check my copy, they'd ran out of parts & the guy was pretty shitty to me about it. Oh well, no Eminent Domain kickstart for me then.
