Day 2 (Thursday) was a day of longish games - a series of 3-4 hour plays that were very rewarding. Jim and I hung out around registration and played The Battle for Hill 218. This is a light 2-player abstract with a nice wargame theme. Nice to have around when you've got 10-15 minutes to burn and may be a game I pick up.

The line for registration (and prize table) was quite long but flowed very well once the process started. Jim and I had the benefit of getting our registration badges the night before (shhh, don't tell. actually I told Aldie and he scolded us but didn't object to us going to the prize table once the crowd started gathering in force there) so Jim and I got decent grabs at the prize table - On the Underground for Jim and Colosseum for me. There were some good games for the taking there - thanks for all of the sponsors that supplied the table. Amazing how far the prize table has come since 2005.

Jim and I roped Rodney Lloyd into breaking open his shrink-wrap copy of Le Havre to give it a try. Le Havre is notionally the successor to Agricola but is very different. No hidden information and a building-ability activation mechanism very much like Caylus. It lasted a little over 3 hours and I wonder if it could have been streamlined a bit - does it need so many turns? It might also be a game that is just as interesting with only two players so I haven't ruled out purchasing the game.

The first game I checked out from the library was an un-punched copy of We the People(!). The game flowed quickly (thanks to Doug teaching me the weekend before) and Jim grasped the basics straightaway. We played in just over 2 hours with the Brits edging out a victory over the belligerent Colonials thanks to an extremely strong final-turn hand draw by yours truly.

Next Jim and I joined Morgan and some other Brooklyn friends for a game of Comuni. This is a tough game to learn from the rules - it isn't that they are incomplete, they are just obtuse and circuitous in how they walk you through the game. We just couldn't get the feel or flow until we stumbled through a turn or two. I made some early strategic blunders that kept me out of contention but it was reasonably enjoyable. Won't make my acquire list though.

It was nice to see Rick Thornquist back in action. I know he's still finishing up his book on Infocom but hopefully this convention was a sign of future things to come - welcome back Rick.

Next up was the new Queen games treatment of Wabash Cannonball - Chicago Express. Jim and I played with Jason Matthews and a couple (names escape me, though I'm sure Jim recorded their BGG handles). Queen continues to impress with their production quality and this game is no exception. Beautiful components and a nice game to boot. The comparisons with Steel Driver will continue (and I can see why - there are similarities) but I think each stands well on its own. This is on my wishlist right now and will likely convert to a purchase in 2009 if it doesn't turn up in one of the two Secret Santa swaps I'm in on.

Jim and I were compelled to stay up until past midnight so that we could witness first-hand the disappointment of not winning any games in the midnight madness giveaways from Thought Hammer. We roped Aaron Fuegi into a game of Dominion and he schooled us, though my engine was in full steam when he forced the end of the game and given another turn or two I think it would have been a close(r) battle.

Thanksgiving weekend gives me a chance to catch up on my BGG.CON posts. As much as I'd like to crank these out while at the convention, gaming takes precedence. There are many more photos that aren't shown here over on my Flickr photostream. N.B. - Don't expect much detailed commentary on games here - I'll provide a wrap-up at the end and talk more about hits and misses.

Jim Ginn and I synchronized our arrivals at DFW and made it to the Westin by 3pm. Eager to help, we joined the crew stapling instructions to the plastic sleeves holding the new BGG Coins. I've yet to hand mine off, but I did track its journey to the beach this weekend.

Next up was the assembly line to build out the goody bags for attendees. The swag - not so hot this year but the prize table more than made up for it.

Derk and Aldie were especially calm before the event. You get the sense they have a great team behind them and that all of the important details had been worked out. I also saw them both gaming and teaching quite a bit.

Jim and Mark Hamzy were up for trying out the new Martin Wallace title After the Flood. This is a three-player war and economics game that is by far the deepest so far of the Treefrog Line.

I think Hamzy won this one - a bit tough to learn from the rules (complexity is similar to Brass) but we worked our way through it and had a lot of fun to boot. Highlight: Hamzy and I slugging it out trying to get a majority of workers in a province to start an empire. Neither of us would back down and I think we ended up with a combined 13 workers.

Jeff arrived later that evening and had his copy of Race for the Galaxy handy. Morgan joined us and he and Jeff schooled us but the game was fun as always.

Our other new game of the night was Cities, a light game of tile laying and meeple placement. This is a competitive solitaire game that has a puzzle aspect to it like Take it Easy. Very fun game that I'll happily play but I'm not sure it has a place in my collection.

Enjoy:

Norwegian Wood - KC, Jacob, Chris and Julie from Chris Brooks on Vimeo.

We need a drum section - Matthew hopes to take care of that by mid 2009.

As the gaming world turns its attention to the "vast gaming experience" that is BGG.CON, here is a summary of my posts on the convention from 2005 and 2007 (I did not attend in 2006).

BGG.CON 2005 (inaugural year)

• Travel to Dallas for BGG.CON
• BGG.CON 2005 Day 1
• BGG.CON 2005 Day 2
• Photo of Me playing Caylus
• BGG.CON 2005 Day 3
• BGG.CON 2005 Day 4

BGG.CON 2007

• Returning to BGG.CON
• BGG.CON 2007 Day 2
• BGG.CON 2007 Day 3
• BGG.CON 2007 Day 4
• BGG.CON 2007 Wrap-up

I took what I think was a deserved break from volunteer activities this weekend, allowing Julie to accompany the boys on a scout camp-out. I proceeded to fill my gaming dance card with Doug from 11am-2pm and Ken from 2pm-whenever. Doug and I scheduled a game of We the People in preparation for a planned play next week with Jim Ginn at BGG.CON (follow on Twitter). We the People is the original card-driven game and the ancestor of great games like Hannibal: Rome vs Carthaage, Twilight Struggle, Paths of Glory, and derivatives like Memoir '44 and Combat Commander.

Having read the rules I felt prepared to dive in and learn some strategies as the game progressed - I also knew that Doug would kindly guide me around foolish newbie mistakes (Doug's write-up of this session is already posted).

The game is very comfortable and friendly - it feels like a slimmer version of Hannibal and Twilight Struggle combined. It lacks the refinement of those games, particularly in the ways that bum hands can really set a player back, but is short enough to make it easy to overlook any weakness.

I hung in there but struggled with forecasting the impact of political counter isolation and got burned a few times. These point-to-point games often have many subtleties in the geometry of point connections that take some getting used to. 6 or 7 turns into the game I held a card that was almost certain to end the game and struggled to push things to a draw but just couldn't manage. Still it was fun and we finished in just under 3 hours and just in time for Ken's arrival (and Doug's departure).

Ken has never had the pleasure of playing Agricola so that was first up. We had a very typical first game where Ken slowly figured out the engine but struggled to keep up with me and grow his family early enough to have an impact. We played with the Intermediate cards right from the get-go.

Our second game was a turnaround and Ken got some great production going early and I floundered with some poor occupation choices early in the game. He won this game 46-36 - a great score for a second game!

Ken and I wrapped up the evening with three games of Dominion. I knew this would resonate with Ken - we started our gaming together with Magic: the Gathering about 5 or 6 years ago. Like Agricola, Ken closed the victory gap quickly and we tied our third game with 36 points each. What made this evening especially enjoyable was the mix of cards we played with and I've now played with the entire mix of cards. I should get to play this some more tomorrow with KC & Rita.

For the first time in many moons I hosted a game night on Tuesday night and had a strong turnout of six people. Steel Driver was the top priority for the night and it supports six we gave it a run. This is one of the latest Martin Wallace releases in the Treefrog Games line and was a surprise Essen release. You can get a more detailed write-up of this session from Mike.

None of us really had a clue on the tradeoffs of various decisions, especially what impact the final cube delivery would have on scores. This was amplified by having six players which at times led to feelings of lack of control. There's a great game in here and I really look forward to playing it with 3-4 players. I suspect I'll play it a few times at BGG.CON.

Dominion has been on my mind lately and I've played it four times in 5 days (all face-to-face - none of that BSW for me, thank you). We broke it out after Steel Driver finished on Tuesday and played two concurrent games. 4 of my 5 games have been with the suggested initial Kingdom card sets and lately I've been toying with a strategy focusing on mining copper-->silver-->gold and buying high victory point cards whenever possible. It didn't really work, possibly because I got a little sidetracked with Remodeling. JD wiped the floor with us using a Market strategy to chain actions and cards, running through much of his deck on each turn.

After Matthew's basketball practice tonight Jacob, Matthew and I played two more games. In the first Jacob and I did the mine strategy and it worked very well for him, miserably for me. Maybe it was just bad luck, but I think it needs refinement.

We then played our first game with the "Big Money" suggested card set and I did much better. I focused on the Moneylender to cycle coppers out of my deck and purchase silver/gold early on. I also picked up a couple of Chapels to allow me to dump the Moneylenders when their work was done. The result was hand draws about every other turn allowing me to buy many victory points. Yeah!

This is a great game and the boys seem more turned on by it than they were with Race for the Galaxy, which is saying a lot. We'll see if the thrill wears off after many more plays at BGG.CON and my upcoming gaming weekend at Salishan.

The season wrapped up for both boys on Saturday with dramatic victory for one young man and a heartbreaking loss for the other.

Jacob's team faced their nemesis - a Westview team that handed them their only loss of the year earlier in the season. This team was so confident that some of the players on the other team were spotted wearing "10-0" t-shirts that some brilliant parent must have had printed before the championship game.

Jacob caught a TD pass late in the second half that put Sherwood up 16-7 and they never looked back, winning 48-20 in a dominant display of offense and defense that had their opponents completely demoralized by midway through the 3rd quarter. This is a great way for Jacob to finish up his youth football career - now it is on to high school ball!

Matthew's team (that I help coach) wasn't so fortunate. We also faced our nemesis - a Lincoln team that beat us 34-12 in our first game of the season. In game with driving rain and high winds, it boiled down to a defensive showdown and was scoreless at the end of regulation. In the second overtime, the start Lincoln tailback broke free for a 13 yard touchdown run and the game (and season) were over. The team outplayed themselves and stood up to a team that thought they had an easy walk to the championship. Our defense held them to 61 total yards in the game (including the 2 overtimes) and held their heads high in defeat.

Jacob is getting more and more plays at tight end, and had a great 25 yard touchdown catch and run last week. Both boys' teams are 5-1 going into today's games.

I'll share some more video soon, but Jacob's team had a tough loss to a very strong Westview team on Saturday night and dropped to a 3-1 record. On a brighter note, Matthew's team (that I help coach) is 3-1 having won three straight after an opening loss.