Sorry for the late report on our last day at GenCon (Saturday).  This was an abbreviated day - had to make it back to Shelbyville in time for a birthday celebration with the family.  It was a blast nonetheless and I have a few more photos to share.

Jacob examines his order cards in Battle Cry.

We started the day by checking out Battle Cry from Game Base 7.  This is a game I've been wanting to try for quite a long time, and I was not disappointed.  This is a very light, very tactical war game set during the American Civil War.  There's a lot to like about this game: the use of command cards to simulate (in my opinion) the complexity and latency of issuing commands on the field; the use of multiple miniatures in a square to represent force strength; the easy to learn and execute combat system.  We taught ourselves the game and played the Bull Run scenario in about 45 minutes.  I won fairly easily, but I was playing the confederates and for some reason I think the deck is stacked against the union in this scenario.  This is definitely a game we'll add to our collection.

Jacob and I enjoy a game of Elfenland.

 Our next game was a scheduled event to play Elfenland.  I've played King of the Elves many times with my kids, but this was our first chance playing the board game.  We both enjoyed the board game more than the card game.  Players attempt to visit as many towns as possible in the space of 4 turns.  Player interaction comes in a few interesting ways.  Players alternate choosing what mode of transportation will be used to travel from town to town.  By leveraging routes laid out by other players, a player can likely visit more towns in a turn.  But with that approach comes risk, since a player might subsequently choose an unusable mode of transportation to a town you plan to visit.  I didn't catch on soon enough, and my initial path sent me too far away from the other players, limiting my travel each turn.  I'll still managed to finish in second place with 17 towns visited to the winner's 18.

Jacob and I had a fab time playing some D&D in this RPGA sessions.

The last event of GenCon for Jacob and me was a 4 hour RPGA-sponsored Dungeons and Dragons adventure - part of the Legacy of the Green Regent campaign.  We fell in with a great group and had a fun time, even though we did not manage to complete the adventure.  Jacob played a shield dwarf fighter and I played a human rouge - the rest of the party were either elves or half-elves.  This was the highlight of the convention for Jacob - he loves role playing and looked forward to this event all week.

That's all for GenCon Indy 2003!  We plan to make it back each year given the proximity to family in the Indianapolis area.

It is getting late but I still want to get my report out.  This report will be shorter on words but I'll keep the pictures.  Matthew (my 6 soon-to-be-7 year old) joined Jacob and I for the morning.  We met my parents at a great deli near downtown called Shapiro's, and they took him back to Shelbyville from there.  Jacob, Matthew, and I started our day with a partial learning game of the "A Game of Thrones" collectible card game.  I've read the first book of the series on which the game is based (Julie's read the entire series), and it came with a strong recommendation from Steve Ellis at Rainy Day Games.  One of his points of praise was that the emphasis is on game-play, not so much deck construction.  I'm just not prepared to spend a lot of money buying cards to be competitive or spend a lot of time building decks, so this game is appealing to me.  We only played a couple of turns and I like it so far.  Too complex for Matthew I think, but Jacob picked up on it quickly.

Jacob and I at the demo for Mystery of the Abbey.

Our first scheduled game was a demo of Mystery of the Abbey by the folks at Days of Wonder (including president Eric Hautemont himself). We had a blast with this one - especially when the event card turned up that forced us to talk in Gregorian chants until the next mass.  This is a Clue-like deduction game with much more depth.  I'm fairly certain I'll pick this one up tomorrow at the exhibit hall.  I managed to win the game with 6 points and a correct accusation of the culprit monk.  This was enjoyable for Matthew, though the different dimensions of deduction were a bit challenging (fat/thin, beard/no-beard, etc.).

What would GenCon be without the costumes?  Matthew enjoyed his journey around the exhibit hall as much as playing the games.  And yes, you do see Matthew sporting a mohawk haircut here.  Long story...

After lunch, Jacob and I journeyed back the the folks at GameBase 7 to play Ra, the Knizia classic.  I'm obviously a huge Knizia fan, but this game didn't do it for me.  I'm beginning to think I don't like games where auctions are the primary mechanic.  Jacob and I didn't do too well in this 5-player game - he finished last and I was second to last.

One game I've been wanting to play is Domaine, the new Klaus Teuber game by Mayfair.  Perhaps I'll get a shot at it tomorrow, but check out this jumbo board from the Mayfair booth!  Those are real miniatures you see there.  We also saw some very cool jumbo Settlers arrangements, both at the Mayfair booth and on the game floor.

Speaking of miniatures, Jacob and I took out an hour of our time to try out the free miniature painting booth near the boardgame hall. Very nice folks, very nice deal - we got some great starter tips from a professional.  Jacob painted an elvish archer and I did a brawny fighter.  My goal was to do better than the last miniature I painted at age 15, and Jacob confirmed that I surpassed that lofty target.

Oh yes, and we made a few purchases today: Bang!, the Settlers of Catan travel edition, some dice and glass bead counters, the Star Wars D20 rules (Jacob, Matthew and I have been playing the old D6 West End Games rules but grew tired of switching back and forth with D20 systems), and a couple of R.A. Salvatore books for the family.

Tomorrow will be a shortened day, but Jacob and I are excited to play in our first RPGA event using the new 3.5 edition D&D rules.  We will also play Elfenland in the morning and plan to try Battle Cry on arrival.

Jacob and I just wrapped up day 1 of our GenCon adventure in Indianapolis.  We arrived downtown (after driving from Shelbyville where my parents live) around 9am and headed to will call to pick up our badges.  Man I'm glad we pre-registered - I heard the line for day passes was over 1 hour long, and the line for generic tickets was 1-2 hours long.  GenCon uses an interesting model - you can pre-register for specific games (this is really required for some of the more popular events like tournaments and the various RPGA events), and you can also purchase generic tickets for about $1.50 per 2 hour gaming event.  Open (free) gaming is pretty scarce - it is pretty much all pay to play.  Jacob and I registered for games in about 75% of the timeslots we'll be there, so our gaming day started about 10am this morning.  We used the time before our first event to play Senjutsu, the new game from Salvador Games.  This is a very unique abstract strategy game with a Samurai theme.  Imagine a combination of Chess, Stratego, and Star Wars Epic Duals - there's a degree of hidden deployment (foot soldiers get equipped with 3 items each that can be weapons, armor, ninja, or scroll).  The goal is to capture the opponent's scroll or destroy all of the opponent's soldiers.  I barely beat Jacob - we were each down to just two soldiers and he ran out of armor on his soldier that was guarding the scroll.  We both enjoyed the game and we might just have to pick it up tomorrow.

On the show floor.

We were scheduled to play Seafarers of Catan at 10:00, but there was only one other person and we noticed a woman sitting by herself with one of the historical scenarios for Settlers.  Since she was the only for her event, we joined forces and decided to play the Trojan War historical scenario.  I've played Settlers quite a bit, but never one of the scenarios and we thoroughly enjoyed it.  In this scenario, players are secretly vying for the success of either Troy or Mycenae, and they pay tribute by contributing resources secretly to the war effort.  Once enough tribute has been paid, a battle happens with the victor determined by the quantity of resource cards played for each.  The players on the victor's side get extra victory points for each successful battle.  In this game, Jacob opted for a strategy of staying land-locked (so that the sea people could not raid his port) and building cities while actively support the war effort.  It worked - he beat the three adults by a wide margin, scoring 14 points and forcing the last battle for Troy to be fought.  I finished second with 11 points.

Settlers scenario.

Next Jacob and I joined three other games for a game of Puerto Rico - the first time I've played with 5 people.  Jacob has played twice and the others were new, so I spent the first 15 minutes explaining the rules (that's me on the left in the picture).  The three newbies caught on quickly and started to pick up on some of the nuances of the game (such as it is best to not be producing what the player on your right produces, and it often makes sense to mimic what the player on your left is producing).  I opted for a strategy of building valuable buildings and producing a diversity of goods.  I started very slow, but my gold production hockey-sticked (ramped up dramatically) and I was able to build two of the large buildings.  I think I finished with about 49 points and won the game with the closest finisher about 10 points behind.  My first PR victory, though hardly against a seasoned crowd.

Puerto Rico.

Next it was time for Jacob and I to tour the exhibit hall.  I was wearing my Plenary Games t-shirt, and a surprising number of people approached me wondering if I was associated with the company (notably a game distributor and the folks at GameTable Online, who are interested in doing a licensed version of Fresh Fish).  I met some interesting folks, including Eric Hautemont of Days of Wonder games, Steve Ellis of Rainy Day Games, my local game store on Portland' west side, and Andrew Looney from Looney Labs.  We picked up a couple of new games: the Battlecards expansions for the Pacific Theater and Russion Front, and the Game of Thrones collectable card game.  We stopped by the Mayfair booth and got a chance to play in a Bang! demo.  We loved this game!  Players secretly take on the role of sheriff, deputy, outlaw, or renegade and have different respective victory conditions. I was an outlaw, Jacob the deputy, and I somehow managed to con the sheriff into shooting his deputy!  It was a close finish with both the sheriff and the renegade trying to do me in, but I managed to draw a Bang! card at the right time and do in the sheriff.  We are definitely going to pick this game up (using our Mayfair demo bucks discount of course!) tomorrow.

Bang!

Finally, Jacob and I returned to the boardgame hall to play Tigris and Euphrates.  Unfortunately nobody else showed up for our game, so we played a two-player game.  I avenged my loss in the game where I taught Jacob and had a resounding victory of 24 to 5.  Jacob made the mistake of building monuments much too early, allowing me the opportunity to attack and steal his hard work.

One tip for those planning on attending the board gaming sessions at GenCon - don't bother buying tickets for the specific games unless you are playing in a tournament or it is a demo for a new game that might have limited instruction.  Stick to generic tickets and use the flexibility to play different games without feeling pressured to play the one you signed up for.  Jacob and I were supposed to play Samurai at 7pm, but we decided to head back to Shelbyville to have dinner with my parents and Matthew.  The folks at GenCon were nice enough to exchange our Samurai tickets for generic tickets that we'll be able to use tomorrow when I bring Matthew for the morning.

I finally have a working standalone version of Fresh Fish available for download.  In the download you will find the executable (just run FreshFishGUI.exe out of the /bin directory) and the source code.  You will need to have the .NET Framework Version 1.1 Redistributable Package to run this game (sorry non-Windows users...).  I'm calling this version 0.2 - it still needs a lot of work, but is playable.  I would love to hear your comments, so either post them here or join me at the boardgamecoders Yahoo group and ask questions there.

I promised to post a photo or two from my session in Brooklyn last month.  Here's a photo of Mikael, Lev, and Jonathan (left to right) during our game of Wallenstein.  As I mentioned before, I loved this game and I recently placed an order at Funagain.  It is on backorder and I should see it sometime in August.  I also picked up Serenissima (haven't played yet) and Capt'n Clever (played with the boys last weekend - very light but a good bit of fun).

Mikael, Lev, and Jonathan in my first ever play of Wallenstein.

Julie, Jacob, Matthew, and I fly to Indianapolis tomorrow for a combined family visit and trek to GenCon.  My parents and sister live there, and Julie's grandmother is up in West Lafayette (she turns 90 next month).  Jacob and I will spend Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at GenCon, and I'll probably bring Matthew for a half day on Friday.  I'll try and post some daily reports of our adventures there.

We had a great but too-short time at Keuka Lake this year.  I managed to stay there for 9 days while Julie, Jacob, and Matthew were there for about 2.5 weeks (they normally spend 4-6 weeks there). It was a fun-filled, busy week and a time for both sides of our family to enjoy the lake and surrounding areas.  My sister Jennifer and her family (husband James and 5 kids!) joined us for a week, and Julie's brother Mike is there for the entire summer learning the ropes of cottage, boat, and lake management.

Speaking of Mike, he recently earned his pilot's license and took Jacob, Matthew, and I flying around the finger lakes for about 90 minutes.  It was a fantastic trip - we over-flew the cottages and the length of Keuka Lake, headed over to Seneca lake, passed by Watkins Glen and the racetrack there, then returned via Corning and Canisteo.  I didn't get any solid pictures on my digital camera but I got a few great shots with Julie's Canon Eos body and telephoto lens.  That's Mike on the left flying the plane (a Cessna 172 4-seater).  The only downside was that Jacob got a bit motion sick.

As usual Jacob and Matthew spent the bulk of their time in the water.  Jacob is now a comfortable water-skier (2 skis for now) and even managed to get up on the wakeboard once.  Matthew prefers tubing and he was a madman this year, including several rounds of "battle tubing" where we towed two tubes and did some stunts and wrestling between the two.

I posted a note to spielfrieks several weeks ago about a liquidation sale at my local Wizards of the Coast store, particularly the discount on Tigris & Euphrates ($25).  Mikael Sheikh pinged back asking if I would pick up a couple of copies to ship to New York City for him and his friend Jonathan.  I gladly obliged and told him I'd give him a heads up if I was going to be in NYC so we could get together for some gaming.  On my way to Keuka Lake in western NY, I needed to spend some time visiting a potential partner in Manhattan.  Never one to miss out on a potential game night, I let Mikael know I would be in town. He and Jonathan were kind enough to reschedule their weekly game night in Brooklyn from Tuesday to Monday, and Mikael offered to meet me after work for dinner in lower Manhattan.  We thought we'd have some time to play a two-player game, but we got very wrapped up in conversation over some great Thai food and before we knew it we needed to head to the F train to cruise over to Brooklyn.  Mikael happens to work in technology planning for the transit authority so is an expert on how the subways are controlled and operated.  He also loves games with a public transportation theme.

Jonathan was waiting for us and we got started at 8:45pm.  He expected one more to arrive around 10pm, so we quickly settled into a 3 player game of Puerto Rico.

Puerto Rico

This was about my 6th play of Puerto Rico, and I need to move beyond the discovery stage and learn how to play this game well.  I'm certainly getting the hang of the flow and I do find it easier to make most decisions, but I'm certainly without a clear strategy when I play.  Time to read up on strategy again on spielfrieks and work on improving my game.  Strangely enough the last two games I've played have ended up in a dead heat - this time Jonathan and Mikael each tied with 51 points, 2 gold, zero barrels.  Still a 9 in my book.

Wallenstein

I requested ahead of time that we play this game.  I've been in the mood for richer games lately - probably a bit of nostalgia for my early days playing the big Avalon Hill war games.  Jonathan's neighbor Lev joined us and we proceeded to start a 4 player game of this war game set in Germany / Austro-Hungary in the 30 years war.

The simple comparison for this game is to say that it is Risk-like.  Colored cubes represent forces in provinces, and the basic goal is to expand to as many provinces as possible while accumulating economic strength by building palaces, churches, and trading houses.  We used the basic canned setup and I was yellow, meaning the bulk of my forces started the game in the south-central portion of the board.

There are some very interesting mechanics in this game that I'll discuss individually:

• The Turn Sequence involves the play of 4 seasons in two consecutive years.  Actions are taken in spring, summer, and fall, while winter is where the wheat harvest is consumed, peasants go hungry and (possibly) revolt, and points are scored.  So there are two scoring rounds in the game.  Very similar to Amun Re.
• Player Actions are programmed ahead of time.  In each season a random sequence of the same 10 actions will occur, including wheat production, gold production, force deployment, force transfer, combat, and building construction.  At the start of a season, the first 5 actions that will occur are revealed - the remaining 5 are revealed sequentially as play progresses so that there are always 5 actions in the queue (until the last 5 are reached of course).  Actions are programmed by players by linking them to specific provinces controlled by that player.  For example, if I plan to initiate combat from Bremen, I would lay the Bremen province card face-down on one of the two combat actions. There are also blank action cards that can be laid down if the player has no plans to take that action.  In some cases, an action might be nullified (e.g., if the player loses a province to another player or peasants before it shows up, or if the player doesn't have enough gold to perform the action).  Otherwise, when a province/action comes up the player must take that action.
• Random Global Events occur in each season that change the global context for the game.  At the start of each year, players know what 4 events might happen, but not in what order.  Only the first three events will be used, since the fourth card will be used to determine how harsh the winter is and how much wheat will be required to satisfy the peasants.  If a player under produces wheat that year, he may feel the brunt of a massive peasant revolt and lose one or more provinces.
• Player Turn Order is determined randomly each season.  Like most games, sometimes it is great to be first, sometimes it is best to be last.
• Victory Point Scoring is calculated using a number of factors.  Players score points for the number of provinces and buildings under their control at the end of the year and by having the majority of a particular building type in a region.
• Combat Resolution is clearly the coolest part about this game.  Rather than rolling hordes of dice, an amazing sieve-like contraption is used to randomly filter and pass through player force cubes.  Since some pieces get trapped in the device, they can come back later to help in successive combat rounds.  So if you get screwed in a particular combat (e.g., I once went into a combat with a 7 to 3 advantage but still lost), there's hope that it will balance out later in the game as your pieces are dislodged from the bowels of the tower.  I like this system so much more than dice rolling - resolution happens immediately and it balances out combat in the long run.

You may have guessed that I love this game, even though I finished last.  Mikael pulled out a strong victory, followed by Jonathan, Lev, and me.  I'll rate this an 8 after my first play.

I'll post some pictures of this session once I'm back to a broadband connection.  Right now I'm dealing with slow dialup from western NY.