&games

I've always maintained that HeroScape is an upper tier game to play with children. If it does have a downside it's that players generally need to control more than one set of characters in order for the game to be balanced among all the players. This does not mean that children will wisely choose a combination of characters which will keep the game balanced.

Marvel HeroScape is much better in this regard. With a large group each child controls exactly one character. No fuss. No hard feelings when the awesome ninja guys are all killed by the second round.

Marvel HeroScape is much in need of expansions. The same old characters do get boring for kids. Unfortunately, I suspect Hasbro made a wise marketing decision to not include as many characters in the base game as they did with the original HeroScape. I know I will be buying expansions. Hasbro knows this too. Hope they are available by Christmas.

-Mark Twain.

Posted for no reason other than I really like that quote.

Found the camera yesterday. Blogger finally let me upload some pictures late today.

Didn't take many pictures this year. My el-cheapo camera causes me more aggravation than it is worth. Thought I would just put that frustration behind me and play games, but I do need blog material so I compromised and took a few pictures.


His "security detail" allowed me to kiss his ring and pose briefly with the Godfather himself, game publisher Jay Tummelson.


Game designer Friedemann Friese wishing he was somewhere, anywhere else, rather than next to this freak with the beard and cargo strap for a belt.



The running of the geeks, or the Saturday morning flea market. Oh. Did I mention I scored We the People?



Main game room. Generally we had plenty of table space this year. Space did get tight a couple times. The vendor areas were along the sides of the room in the area with the vertical partitions.


By Sunday afternoon the con was breaking up. There were a few die hard hanger-on-ers

Had a blast. Didn't take many pictures this year, but when I find my camera I shall post a couple.

Highlight of the event: There were so many, but scoring We the People in the flea market was right up there. Learning Tichu in the airport after the con is probably the event I will still remember 50 years from now. (Thanks Adam.) I've really wanted to learn Tichu for years, but no one in these parts seems too interested in card games.

Other items of note:

ZiggyZambo is much younger than expected. Sinister Dexter still has the coolest user name but he looks nothing like his avatar. The puppet avatar guy, Hibikir, does not have the standard mid-west accent.

Many females at the con this year. Surprisingly so, even. Many more than I remember from last year.

One female, who you would know if you log on to BGG, and myself exchanged Aaron Potter stories. Aaron Potter stories are a great icebreaker for BGGers who were around before 2005. If you don't have an Aaron Potter story, make one up, everybody who was around at that time will believe it.

Learned Mr. Jack from Jason Henke. Mr. Jack was my favorite game of the con, and the best game I have played since the last con when I learned Taj Mahal. Truth be told, I initially liked Mr. Jack better than Taj Mahal which has since become my second most favorite game.

Star Wars:Queen's Gambit with Dwayne Hendrickson. I was mercifully spared a humiliating defeat by the buzzer. The game library was closing for good on Sunday afternoon and we needed to get the game back before Derk came for his pound of flesh.

You would think that I would have at least briefly met Mr. Cranky, considering the effort I put in to this endeavor. But consider, I also put a lot of effort into finding the one guy at the event wearing a yarmulka. I didn't find him until the place had cleared out on Sunday afternoon, but it was a pleasure to finally meet and play a game with Yehuda, even if it was Oh Hell.

I met far fewer foreigners this year than last. Believe I only played one game with two Canadians (not counting Oh Hell with Yehuda). Last year I played numerous times with various people from England, Australia, Brazil, or other countries. Seems like there should have been more foreigners considering the weakness of the dollar.

It seemed as though the majority of attendees were avatarless. I believe the avatarless were a distinct minority last year.

Had a blast. See you next year. Thanks to Aldie, Derk, Vicki and the crew for putting on an excellent event. Here is a local video news report from the event, I doubt this link will work for more than a couple more days. Wasn't too impressed with the coverage, but here it is anyway: http://www.star-telegram.com/videos/ click on the board game story.

And yes. After viewing the video clip you may want to know if I had the opportunity to play Agricola, and I did. Wasn't too impressed. Was intrigued by the game. I can see the game has potential, but it reminded me a lot of Caylus which I initally liked, but which quickly went on a significant downward trajectory.

I did like Agricola enough that I pre-ordered the game from Z-Man games which is producing the game in English and had a booth at the con.

The staff and management of &games has pooled their money and doctored the books in order to present me, your humble reporter and commentator, with a ticket to the big game convention in Dallas.

I'll be flying out Wednesday night on the red-eye and arriving in Dallas early Thursday afternoon for four days of gaming at BGG.con.

I've been looking forward to this event since last year. This year I go not with a list of games I want to play, but a list of people whom I want to meet, and see again. The con will be in bigger, better digs this year, and to tell the truth I am ready to burst with anticipation.

See you there.

This is the best damn country that has ever existed on the planet. It is every American's duty to serve this great country.

To those who were gravely injured in defense of this great country the country owes everything. To those such as myself who merely served, it was an honor to do so and the country owes us nothing. Not a federal holiday, not a veteran's hospital system, not a GI bill, not a free burial, not a damn thing.

A yearly salute to those who served.

It's more than enough.

Serving was the reward.

Richard Pitka

1965-2007

Susie Simmonds

1961-2007

Just to enter the evidence into the record I may have encountered a fellow Fairbanks blogger this evening.

Did any of my fellow bloggers get kicked out of a cab tonight?

On one hand I probably overreacted. On the other hand I was pretty much fed up with passive aggressive drunk chicks and you were the final straw.... Beyond the final straw. Stupid drunk chicks who thought they were cute as hell were a dime a dozen last night and they were all taking cabs. There is no way I was going to drive you all the way across town. Not at that particular moment. At that particular moment I would have rather shot myself.

The guy I picked up after you wanted to fight. It was a refreshing change.

The next group of people met at the bar and decided to party together after the bars closed. Only two of the four knew each other. When they got out of the cab one lady had a paranoid schizophrenic melt down. I was left to deal with it. It was a piece of cake after dealing with young stupid drunk chick party girls all night.

I might have even eventually forgotten my first meeting with you until your much drunker friend tried to spit on me when she was getting out.

Still, could be that this was a random chick and not a fellow blogger. The resemblance was striking.

A couple gets into a cab (not mine). The conversation is along these lines:

Dude: That was some good weed. Where did you get it?

Chick: Oh, I don't know.

Dude: Seriously, that was some seriously good weed. Can you get some more?

Chick: Probably not.

Dude: Where did you get it?

Chick: You don't want to know.

Dude: C'mon. Just tell me.

Chick: Just drop it.

Dude: Becomes insistent

Chick: Tries to change the subject

Dude: Becomes more insistent

Chick: Exasperated Honey, I had to touch a black guy's wiener to get that weed, so just drop it. Okay?

Picked up a tourist/businessman at the airport. On the way to the hotel the following conversation ensued.

"Why does that sign say 'if'?"

"What?"

That sign just said '1:16 if'. If what?"

"I don't know."

We watched the bank sign scroll through its message.

"Watch, here it is..... 1:16.... if. Wait! I guess it says 'of'. I thought it said 'if'."
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"Uh, that's not "OF". That's the temperature."

Had two different people at two different times recommend the game Taboo while at work tonight.

Seems to be a popular game with the horny, drunk crowd.

I don't believe I have ever been drunk enough to play Taboo. I may have been horny enough at some point in time, but fortunately Taboo was never brought into the equation.

Now when I get drunk and horny I won't settle for anything less than Puerto Rico, baby.
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Actually this whole episode makes me glad I don't drink.

I will now go hug my Advanced Civilization playing wife who just asked me the other day if she could throw out Pictionary because, "we are never going to play that again."